How can I stop MacOS Photos from automatically brightening videos?

Question

Level 1

35 points

How can I stop MacOS Photos from automatically brightening videos?

When I open a video (I notice this seems to happen only with videos shot with my iPhone 12 mini), there is a momentary adjustment which blows out the image. The thumbnails appear normal and correct, and the adjustment happens within a second or two of opening the video.

How can I stop Photos from doing this?

I've attached a side by side comparison of two screen shots, one made the instant I opened the video in MacOS Photos, and one after a second had passed.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Mac Pro

Posted on Jan 12, 2023 7:19 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,123 points

Jan 13, 2023 12:00 AM in response to KevinGarnett

Your video might be a HDR Video. And there might be a mismatch between your video and the HDR capabilities of the display you are using. Are you viewing the video on an external display or the internal display?

Try to change the HRD settings for the Display you are using and see, if it will prevent the burnt out high-lights.:

Choose Apple menu  > System Settings (or System Preferences) > Display for High Dynamic Range. If it is enabled, turn it off, if it is not enabled , turn it on.

See this support document for more details: Play HDR video on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Or have you a filter enabled for the camera on your iPhone? You can check this on your Mac, when you open the edit pane for your video and check the filter tab.

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Answer 2

Jan 12, 2023 7:52 PM in response to KevinGarnett

Check to see if the settings for Photos in system prefs has a check next to “compatibility”, if so try disabling by unchecking it.

if that doesn’t help try looking to see what file format the file is saved as

mpeg, heif, or ?.

Then try changing to another file output with the iPhone photo settings, does it still occur?

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Answer 3

KevinGarnett Author

Level 1

35 points

Jan 12, 2023 8:44 PM in response to supercondr

Sorry, I'm not finding a Photos in System Prefs. Did you mean settings on the phone? I'm in MacOS Ventura 13.1.

The video files are saved as .mov.

I'll do a test to see what other file formats output from the iPhone.

Is this normal behavior? Have you seen it before? Just curious.

Thanks for your help!

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Answer 4

KevinGarnett Author

Level 1

35 points

Jan 12, 2023 8:58 PM in response to KevinGarnett

I have another piece of information. I scoured through the Photos Library package in the Finder to retrieve the original .mov file and copied it to the desktop. Opening the .mov file in Quicklook or the QuickTime Player only plays the extreme-bright version, but opening the file in the third-party VLC Player reveals the original, well-balanced colors from the camera.

What this suggests is that the MacOS is making these horrible adjustments, and non-Apple software fixes the issue. There has to be a way to turn it off, I would think?

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