Working in Final Cut Pro X with iPhone Pro 12 HDR video

friesh wrote:

When I create the video project, do I select Wide Gamut HDR rec. 2020 PQ or HLG?

I'd use HLG, it has a wider compatibility for the end user.

If you use regular Mac use the Tone Mapped option in the View Menu:

Al

Good grief.

So you're telling me I need to create a whole different library to even use the output from the iPhone 12?

10-bit HDR, yay, cool... but what if I just want to use footage I just took on my 12 in an existing project, in an existing library, today, knowing that I have zero desire to ultimately have this project output to an HDR format.

So can I either:

• convert these blown-out videos, either from within FCPX or some other way, to a standard color gamut output, or
• export a non-HDR version out of my phone, or, preferably
• just change some setting, within the already-imported clip or my already-started project, that will allow me to uses these clips from the 12 in a standard-gamut project?

Or, adjust the IPhone to a camera setting that matches the Project you KNOW it will be used in.

As an overview, FCP X Clips and Projects should match in their specs, Video and Audio.

Otherwise FCP X is forced to do things (render) that it does does not need to.

Al

Meg, thank you so much for your reply.

That certainly seems to be the correct solution... however applying that HDR Tools effect only seemed to take my videos from absurdly overexposed to just very, very overexposed. Not sure what that is, but...

What seems to be working for me, here, now is simply waiting for the videos to upload from my phone to iCloud and then exporting them to the Finder out of Photos (and then bringing those into FCPX). Photos seems to make the conversion automatically, similar to when it exports an HEIC photo as a JPEG. (What I had done earlier, to minimize the hit on my data cap from the above uploading/downloading steps while traveling, was to pull the (obviously unconverted HDR) files straight off my phone using Image Capture.)

But thank you again for being so willing to help.

Al, well that would have been nice if I KNEW in advance of shooting my footage that the HDR video files coming out of the 12 would not work with in existing project library. Maybe every video professional knew this; but approximately 0% of non-professional would know this in advance. And yes, many non-professionals use FCPX, a terrific application that's infinitely better than iMovie.

If you’re outputting Rec 709 from your project then use the HDR Tools for HLG as Neg said. If it’s still too hot for the project, which it likely will be, use the color correction tools to adjust the levels and the saturation to match the rest of your material.

Thanks Tom.

Yes, still way too "hot" after the conversion, and I couldn't even remotely come close to resuscitating it in the color correction process, nothing like to what the original video looked like (and the Luma video scope seemed to indicate the converted video was correctly exposed, when it was nothing of the sort. I'm sure there is a reason for all this, but keep in mind, I'm an amateur, just winging it in a program that I otherwise really dig.)

I'm not sure why the FCPX HDR Tool couldn't use the same conversion of HDR video that Photos uses - Photos outputs a converted SDR video that is highly accurate to what I actually shot.

Use the built in HDR Tools effect to modify the HDR clip.

From the FCP-X help:

https://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.4/#/verbf72f3e96

MtD

You should create a NEW Library and make sure it is set to Wide Gamut:

Al

EastDog wrote:

... however applying that HDR Tools effect only seemed to take my videos from absurdly overexposed to just very, very overexposed.

Did you try adjusting the Peak Brightness?

MtD

What computer are you using? To see HDR properly you’ll need to connect an HDR display. There is a setting to display HDR on a standard computer display.

It wouldn't let me (grayed out) when converting to Rec 709, which is what I thought I wanted.

No?