Color management FAQs

Last updated on 2 April 2025

Color management describes all of the automated, under-the-hood functions that work together to enable Adobe Premiere Pro to use metadata associated with each source clip to automatically manage the differing color spaces of all clips in a sequence. Here are some frequently asked questions.

Color management concepts

Color management describes all of the automated, under-the-hood functions that work together to enable Premiere Pro to use metadata associated with each source clip to automatically manage the differing color spaces of all clips in a sequence, to make it easier to produce a single deliverable in the color space and format of your choice. In the process, raw and log-encoded clips from different cameras and sources are automatically converted to normalize or de-log them into the output color space you chose for your sequence. This means you can use a wide variety of media, and raw and log clips that might ordinarily look flat and desaturated will be automatically normalized to appear the way these clips looked “in the camera.”

For this to work, your source media must have appropriate metadata to facilitate these conversions. Camera raw clips always have the right metadata and are the easiest to manage automatically. QuickTime, MXF, and MP4 media have more variable support for color space metadata, so some of these formats may be automatically managed. In contrast, others may require you to choose their color space manually.

Color management is configured at the sequence level via settings in the Sequence Settings or the Settings tab of the Lumetri panel. Furthermore, different sequences in the same project can be color-managed differently, making it easy to create different color deliverables from within the same project.

When editing using media in compatible color spaces, you can avoid chasing down LUTs to facilitate these conversions by relying on built-in math to perform these conversions at high quality. However, users following specialty workflows still have the ability to use LUTs to facilitate conversions for any media they want, and these conversions will occur alongside Premiere Pro color management’s many other automated capabilities.

Learn more about how color management works in Premiere Pro.

When you create an empty new sequence, you only need to turn on the Color Manage Auto Detected Log and Raw Media checkbox in the Project group of the Settings tab of the Lumetri panel for the clips you edit into that sequence to be automatically color-managed. By default, new sequences are set to the Direct Rec. 709 (SDR) color setup preset, and the Output color space defaults to Rec.709. This is good for most SDR projects.

When you create a new sequence using one or more selected clips (by dragging to an empty timeline, when making a new project and selecting media to import, or by selecting clips in the Browser and using New Sequence From Clip), if the selected media is in a supported delivery color space (709, HLG, or PQ) with valid metadata, the Direct color management preset corresponding to the media’s color space will be assigned, providing a default pass-through processing workflow. The Direct Rec. 709 (SDR) preset will be assigned if the color space isn't recognized.

Note:

You can change presets any time you like if your output isn’t what you want.

The three sequence color management presets labeled Direct all provide a “direct” pass-through path for media in the three primary delivery color spaces (Rec.709, HLG, and PQ). For each of these three presets, the working and output color space are identical so that no tone mapping or color space conversion occurs when clips with a matching input color space are edited into that sequence. These presets are intended to strike a balance between a familiar color management workflow that’s similar to previous versions of Premiere Pro while also taking advantage of new capabilities such as color management of raw camera formats, support for additional color spaces, new Input Tone Mapping, and Gamut Compression options, and an Output Color Space that you can change should you need to deliver to another format. These formats work best when the majority of media you’re using is in the color space of the selected preset.

The three color spaces labeled Wide Gamut use a wide gamut working color space, and Output Tone Mapping and Gamut Compression to optimize the retrieval of highlight and shadow detail in wide gamut source media. These are intended for workflows where the majority of your source media is either camera raw or log-encoded, and you’re delivering to a smaller color space using tone mapping and gamut compression to speed up your workflow. The difference between the three wide-gamut presets is how the tone mapping is handled. Because the effects of Output Tone Mapping may or may not be desirable on Rec.709 source media, you have options for fully tone mapping, minimally tone mapping, or not tone mapping at all, depending on how you like to work.

Troubleshooting

Media shot on iPhone can be recorded in the HLG color space, which enables HDR display and output. If you create a new sequence from a selected iPhone clip, that new sequence will be created using the Direct HLG (HDR) color management preset, which defaults to outputting HLG HDR video. If you have the Display Color Management preference turned on in the Preferences group of the Lumetri Color panel’s Settings tab, HLG output may appear to have extremely bright and saturated highlights. In this case, turning Display Color Management off will show the image as it will be exported.

For maximum flexibility, color management is configured and applied at the Sequence level, so clips aren’t fully color-managed and tone-mapped until they’re edited into a sequence. This is why you can have multiple versions of a program, each with different color settings, all in the same project. This also means that the color management of clips in the Source Monitor must be handled separately, depending on what you need to evaluate while viewing source clips.
By default, the Source Monitor is set to Gang to Active Sequence Color Management in the Monitor Color Management submenu of the wrench menu. This enables the Source Monitor to match whatever color management is in use by whichever sequence is showing in the Program Monitor. If the color management of clips in the Source Monitor isn’t the same as in the Program Monitor, select the wrench menu of the Source Monitor, select the Monitor Color Management submenu, and choose Gang to Active Sequence Color Management.
If you specifically don’t want to see a color-managed result in the Source Monitor, and you instead want to see how your source media would look on a generic Rec. 709 display, you can select the wrench menu of the Source Monitor and set the Source Monitor Color Management submenu to Show Wide Gamut Media as Log. In this mode, all wide gamut media will be presented with a low-contrast log-like appearance that lets you see all of the code values of the media without clipping. In this mode, Display Color Management continues to show both the Source Monitor and Program Monitor correctly according to your computer monitor’s ICC profile. This can be a good mode to use when you’re troubleshooting your source media to evaluate how it looks prior to color management.
If your computer has an HDR computer display, and the Extended Dynamic Range Monitoring project setting is turned on, then wide gamut clips will appear with all the highlight detail your display is capable of shown as pleasingly bright highlights in an ungraded state using the Show Source in Extended Dynamic Range setting, regardless of the Output Peak Luminance setting of your program’s color management.

Whenever you configure a sequence to use output tone mapping to convert from a wide gamut working color space (as set up by the Wide Gamut presets), this can slightly darken the highlights of the SDR source media you’re editing into that sequence. The reason is that on input, both wide gamut and SDR source media are converted to the same single wide gamut working color space (which is ACEScct); at that point, all media is in the same format, and the same tone mapping that compresses the highlights of wide gamut media to fit within Rec.709 output ends up also compressing the highlights of SDR media.

This isn’t a problem for camera original SDR media that needs to have its color adjusted anyway, keeping in mind that all color adjustments happen before the output tone mapping is applied, so you’re always adjusting the source levels. Just grade these clips as you normally would, and you’ll find plenty of latitude and a smooth roll-off in the highlights as you work. However, this can be a problem for mastered SDR media that’s been previously graded and now looks different. This issue can be minimized using the Wide Gamut (Minimal Tone Mapping) preset, which limits tone mapping to only the highlights of SDR clips and has the added benefit of tone mapping out-of-gamut highlights.

The Lumetri Presets in Premiere Pro were originally designed to work within a Rec.709 working color space. This means they’ll continue to work just fine when applied to clips in sequences using the Direct Rec. 709 (SDR) preset or that are set to use Rec.709 as a working color space while the Color Space Aware Effects drop-down menu is set to Disabled, but they’ll look significantly different when applied to clips in sequences using other working color spaces and when Color Space Aware Effects is enabled.

Every LUT is created to transform images in a particular color space. For example, many “look LUTs” have been made to make images that are Rec.709 have a particular style, such as a film look. Other LUTs are intended to transform images that are in one color space into another color space. Now that Premiere Pro can use multiple color spaces, it’s necessary to choose the specific color space your LUTs were originally designed for when you import a Creative LUT, for that LUT to be applied properly. For example, the default LUTs that appear in the Look drop-down were all designed to work in Rec.709, so for these LUTs to appear correctly, you need to choose Rec.709 (scene) from the Color Space menu to identify how they should be processed.

Caution:

The preview thumbnail meant to show how the LUT works isn't color-managed, so it shows the incorrect result. Your output, however, will be correct.

The working color space you choose determines how certain effects and all color adjustments will look, and changing the working color space after you’ve applied these effects and color adjustments may very well change how these effects appear. This means that once you start adding effects and color adjustments, you should stick with the working color space you’ve chosen unless you’re fine with re-adjusting all of the color adjustments and some of the effects in that sequence look correct with the new color management settings.

A subset of all effects in Premiere Pro can sometimes produce a different result in one working color space versus another or be harder or easier to adjust based on your working color space. For some of these, the difference may be visible. For others, the difference may be so subtle as to be indistinguishable. An ongoing effort to make all such effect color space aware is underway, and this section lists the progress made. The current list of color space-aware effects includes:

Lumetri
Black and white
Tint
Extract
Color Pass
Color Replace
Track Matte Key
Cross Dissolve
Film Dissolve
Dip to Black

Note:

The Gradient effect has visible, known issues when used with sequences using a wide gamut (ACEScct) working color space.

This can sometimes happen as a result of tone mapping. Tone mapping is an automatic adjustment to compress the highlights of an image into a smaller color space. Different algorithms do this differently, and the one currently in use may exhibit results that aren’t ideal with clips that have exceptionally bright highlights or high saturation in the highlights. While the Hue Preservation algorithm is one of the best all-around algorithms (and is also the most flexible with an adjustable knee), the By Channel and Max RGB algorithms are provided for content that exhibits unwanted color shifts or other noticeable issues in the highlights for media in your sequence.

Depending on the Color Setup preset you’re using, you may need to change either the Input Tone Mapping or the Output Tone Mapping.

Tip:

To quickly preview how different tone mapping algorithms affect your image, open the Settings tab of the Lumetri panel, then open the Sequence controls, and open the Advanced controls. Changes you make to the Advanced color management controls here are instantly shown in the Program Monitor.

There are a few things you can check in this situation:

If all of the clips that should be color-managed are not, then check if the Color Manage Auto Detected Log and Raw Media project setting is turned on. This setting determines wheather the input to working color space conversion is enabled for all clips that can be automatically detected via metadata and is an easy way to disable the automatic input conversion that Premiere Pro does if you instead want to assign LUTs to do this. When turned off, this disables all automated normalization of clips, leaving the rest of the color management system enabled.
If only some clips appear either unmanaged or incorrect, check the source clip Color Management settings. Color management only works when the color space of each clip in your sequence is correctly identified. While Premiere Pro can read available metadata in formats such as QuickTime, MXF, MP4, and select camera raw formats to automatically assign the color space of various media formats, you may have clips that lack metadata, have the wrong metadata, or have metadata in a format that Premiere Pro cannot read. In these instances, select Modify Clip > Color or use the Source Clip parameters in the Settings tab of the Lumetri panel to verify whether or not your media is correctly tagged and change any clips that aren’t being correctly tagged.
Also, the color management system will not automatically transform any source media with Preserve RGB enabled. Preserve RGB allows you to disable the Input to Working color space conversion of specific source clips so that you can use an Input LUT instead. Ensure all clips you want to be automatically converted have this setting turned off.

Camera manufacturer’s LUTs for converting camera source to Rec.709 have tone mapping built in; it’s almost guaranteed that this tone mapping and gamut compression will use different algorithms than what Premiere Pro uses, hence the visual difference. Premiere Pro uses camera manufacturer provided math for the initial color space conversion, so if you download a manufacturer LUT that does not include tone mapping or gamut compression, the results should match ours when you disable tone mapping and gamut compression in Premiere Pro.

First, if you’re using a video output device requiring drivers, ensure those are installed properly up to date. Then, depending on which video output interface you have, you may need to:

Open the Settings tab of the Lumetri panel.
Open the Preferences controls, then open the Transmit Device Playback controls.
Turn on the checkbox that enables Transmitting output via your device, and click the gear icon to open device-specific settings. Here, you can choose the specific output color space (or gamut) for that device. This should match the Output Color Space selected for your sequence.

Input tone mapping and Input gamut compression are applied during the initial input to working color space conversion, meaning image conversion happens before imaging effects are applied. This is meant to facilitate workflows using the default smaller Rec.709 gamut at the expense of occasionally making it difficult to retrieve highlight detail that ends up overly compressed (although a highlight control in the Sequence Clip settings can help with this). Also, because they’re clip-specific, these operations can be customized on a clip-by-clip basis.
Output tone mapping and output gamut compression are applied after all effects are processed as part of the work to output color space conversion. For wide-gamut workflows, this guarantees that the color adjustments you make with Lumetri are of the highest quality and that all highlight and shadow detail available in your source media will be retrievable. Because these operations are applied on output to the summed result of all composites (including superimpositions, opacity effects, picture-in-picture and split-screen effects, and transitions), there can be only one setting for any sequence, which guarantees that all clips being composited together are tone mapped identically.

While Tone Mapping compresses the highlights of the luminance of an image to down-convert it to a smaller color space, Gamut Compression compresses out-of-range values (most noticeably very saturated color found in the highlights of an image) to down-convert the overall signal to a smaller color space.

To disable color management:

Select a sequence, then select Sequence > Sequence Settings.
Select Disable Color Management from the Color Setup menu in the Color tab.

You can also disable color management from the Lumetri Color panel (Disable Color Management from the Display Color menu).

Disabling color management is useful for pass-through workflows when you don’t want the color space of media being processed or when engaging in traditional display-referred color management and grading workflows using LUTs and manual adjustments.

Premiere Pro does not use ACES color management, nor does it use OCIO. However, the color management in Premiere Pro is a standards-based automated system created specifically for Premiere Pro. It uses standard IDT and ODT math from camera manufacturers to perform all color space conversions. We’ve taken this approach with ease of use in mind. The ACEScct color space is available as a working color space for wide gamut workflows and was chosen as a widely understood color space, that would be compatible with multiple workflows. However, while much of Premier Pro’s color management system is similar to ACES in approach, but this is not specifically an ACES based color management system in the current version.

Motion Graphics Templates (MOGRTs) are not currently color managed when you use any of the Wide Gamut presets, which use the ACEScct working color space. However, they look correct using the Direct Rec. 709 (SDR) preset. We’re aware of this issue and are working to improve this behavior in a future version.

If you intend to export Rec.709, but your rendered output looks clipped even though it looks great on your computer monitor, you may have accidentally chosen an HDR format as your Output Color Space, and your computer’s display is capable of displaying that image while the output is being clamped to SDR levels. If you intend to export Rec.709, you must set the Output Color Space of your sequence to Rec.709 to correctly see what will be exported.
If your exported output ends up being Rec.709 even though you intended to output HDR, it’s possible that either the export mode Preset you’ve chosen doesn’t support HDR, the Format you’ve chosen (filtered based on the current Preset) doesn’t support HDR, or the Render at Maximum Depth checkbox has been disabled (it must be turned on). Rec.709 will be rendered in these cases, even if your Output Color Space is set to HLG or PQ. The easiest solution is to choose a compatible preset by clicking the three-dot menu to the right of the Preset drop-down and choosing More Presets to open the Preset Manager to find a preset capable of HDR output. Type HLG or PQ into the search field to find all presets capable of rendering to one or the other HDR format, as you require, then choose the preset you want to use and select OK.

The wide variety of computer display options and standards makes accurate representation of color-managed video reliant on three settings:
- Display Color Management,
- Extended Dynamic Range Monitoring and
- Viewer Gamma.
If the Output Color Space of your sequence is correctly set to what you intend to output, then the difference between the Program Monitor and the exported file is likely due to incorrect settings. Remember that what you see in the Program Monitor is only as accurate as what your computer display is capable of showing.
- Display Color Management aligns the Premiere Pro monitors with the ICC profile used to set the color space and calibration of your computer display, but may show incorrect output on sRGB monitors.
- Extended Dynamic Range Monitoring enables HDR to be shown on specific computer displays that are capable of it, but can be disabled for incompatible displays.
- Viewer Gamma lets you choose the gamma representation that makes the Premiere Pro monitors best match the other displays or application viewers you’re comparing to in your workflow.

While we strive to support all popular and professional camera formats in use by our customers, this is a moving target as new formats, color spaces, and workflows emerge every year. If your format or color space isn’t supported, reach out on the Premiere Pro community forums to let us know.

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Color management FAQs

Color management concepts

Troubleshooting

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Color management FAQs

Color management concepts

What is color management?

What’s the easiest way to set up color management?

What’s the difference between the Direct and Wide Gamut color management presets?

Troubleshooting

Why does my imported iPhone media appear to have clipped highlights?

Why do clips in the Source Monitor look different than clips in the Program Monitor?

Why do my Rec.709/SDR clips look darker while my raw and log clips look fine?

Why don’t my Lumetri presets look right?

Why doesn’t my Creative LUT look right?

Why does my grade look wrong when I change the working color space?

Why does the effect I applied look wrong?

Why do I see a color or luminance shift in my highlights?

Color Management Is On, why do some or all of my clips appear unmanaged?

Why does the camera manufacturer’s LUT conversion to Rec. 709 look different than the color management conversion in Premiere Pro?

Why doesn’t my Transmit video output match my sequence’s Output Color Space?

What’s the difference between Input and Output Tone Mapping and Gamut Compression?

What does Gamut Compression do?

Why does my Dynamic Link media look flat and desaturated in After Effects?

How do I turn color management off?

Does Premiere Pro use ACES or OCIO?

Why don’t my MOGRTs look right?

Why don’t my OpenEXR clips look right?

My sequence looks right in the Program Monitor, why is my rendered output clipped or in the wrong color space?

My rendered export looks correct, why does the sequence in the Program Monitor on my computer's display look different?

Why isn’t my camera’s color space supported in the Override Media Color Space menu?

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