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Desaturated color in FCP output
I didn’t want to clog up the board with a repeated question, so today I asked one as part of an older thread (from back in August). I’d expected it would bump that thread up to where someone might see it, but that didn’t seem to happen. I apologize if I’ve done this wrong, but I’ll ask my question here afresh.
Post was about desaturated colors in H.264 output, and was never really answered….
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I’ve got much the same problem, but not just with h.264.
I edited the movie in FCP and graded in Color, using a Panasonic 1710 through a Blackmagic 3D Extreme card. My computer monitor is the basic Apple 27″. Final use of the project will be for projection, but I need to show it first on computer monitors. The colors I’m seeing in FCP on the Apple monitor are about the same as on the Panasonic, just darker overall because of the difference in gamma.
First I exported a version for Vimeo via Compressor, as an h.264 mp4 Quicktime. I noticed that the colors were more desaturated than what I was seeing on my computer monitor. I assumed this was because of the h.264 compression, so did a straight Quicktime output from FCP (File::Export::Quicktime Movie…) to compare. Both exports looked the same in terms of color and gamma, though the QT movie is 422HQ.
Here is a screen shot of the three outputs (can’t include the broadcast monitor, of course)
So I’m baffled as to the color/saturation difference, and can find nothing in the settings to help. Any ideas?
Red Camera Rental & Indy Features, Denver Colorado.
rockymountain4k.com * 303.506.2456 -
5 Replies
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The problem core is different gamma in Quicktime and FinalCut (you can switch gamma compensation in quicktime 7 preferences). Or you can use gamma correction filter inside compressor to make proper color in mov file. But it’s not good idea to judge color in fcp or quicktime ((
May be the best solution you can use special LUT while rendering in Apple Color to compensate gamma shift.Best wishes, Roman Belov
Creative Programming for Cinema
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Calibrated broadcast monitors use gamma of 2.22, Many computers and computer monitors are set to 1.8 but not all of them – depends on OS and how the user has setup the monitoring. On top of all that there is computer monitor calibration which like TVs can be all over the place.
So if you want to second guess and make some computer monitors to be more in line with your calibrated monitor, you can add extra gamma in Compressor when you make the H264.
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Thank you, Roman. Of course I was judging the correction on the broadcast monitor, since that will be the final display format, but was interested in how to get the best display for distribution via the internet, where the film will be judged (this is part of a competition). So using a correction in QT7 would do little good, as I can’t control the various users’ monitors or software.
I was concerned about the difference in color between FCP and Quicktime, but had forgotten about the different gammas. I spent a lot of time on color for a film last year, but the correction was to black and white, so there was no color shift, only a different contrast.
I’ll look into the LUT solution in Color – I have not tried that and will have to do some reading. It sounds like using the gamma correction in Compressor will be the way to go when having to deliver for two different end uses.
Red Camera Rental & Indy Features, Denver Colorado.
rockymountain4k.com * 303.506.2456 -
Thanks Michael. As near as I can judge (using the applet at https://perso.telecom-paristech.fr/~brettel/TESTS/Gamma/Gamma.html and one other online resource) the gamma on both my computer monitors is 2.2. Not certain about the broadcast monitor – I don’t have a test pattern to do a set up right now.
So my issue may be that my broadcast monitor is mis-adjusted. I’ll get a camera and set up to color bars.
Red Camera Rental & Indy Features, Denver Colorado.
rockymountain4k.com * 303.506.2456 -
I wouldn’t trust quicktime to be gamma accurate so your broadcast monitor may be just fine. Computer monitors and graphics cards are not usually color or contrast reliable either so even though your OS is 2,2 the combination of graphics card and monitor may be a further part of the problem.
What I was mostly alluding to was that many OS’s and computers are still set to 1.8 gamma. Snow Leopard onwards changed to 2.2 but the rest of the world will be mostly 1.8 and with all sorts of monitoring variables. Make sure your broadcast monitor is good and trust only it.
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