Video clip is darker than master once placed into Compressor ...

Question

Video clip is darker than master once placed into Compressor ...

I have a mastered Apple ProRes 4444 file. It was outputted from a Luster color corrector box. If viewed in Quicktime, looks perfectly fine ... looks like what we colored and mastered in the studio. Once I place into Compressor, it's WAY darker than it should be. I thought it was just a display issue inside of Compressor's preview window ... NOPE. The output file from Compressor is dark now too. It's probably a Gamma thing? Any solutions?

8-Core 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon MacPro, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Sep 8, 2012 8:43 PM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Sep 9, 2012 1:53 PM in response to Christopher Sims

I haven't seen this problem myself but then I don't use Luster. (Assume you mean this and not the Autodesk product.) I did recall someone posting asimilar complainta while back…no one came up with any good theories about why Compressor, which is based on QT, would create a gamma shift for a QT.

Do you see the same shift for exports that don't use the Luster grading?

Not an answer, but a possible work-around – Compressor's gamma filter.

Russ

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Answer 2

Sep 9, 2012 1:57 PM in response to Russ H

No, Autodesk's Luster. Thats the box we came out of. But I have found that it's ONLY a preview issue. Only in the preview window, the image is MUCH darker than the master. The gamma or brightness is almost identical between the final coimpressed file and the master file.

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Answer 3

Sep 9, 2012 2:08 PM in response to Christopher Sims

Lustre*

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Answer 4

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Sep 9, 2012 6:50 PM in response to Christopher Sims

Not sure what to say…except it's better than the alternative.

And if it's not Lustre-graded, is it accurate in Preview?

Russ

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Answer 5

Sep 9, 2012 6:53 PM in response to Russ H

ya ... thats the thing ... during the offline cut ... sending out web versions, compressor displayed perfectly accurate preview window gamma .... but since I got the master back from the online, color correction and beauty ... it shows as dark in the preview ... but fine in the final compressed.

It has been this way for months now ... not just this video ...

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