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FCP "Export -> QuickTime Movie" gamma shift

Above is an example of what happens when I do a direct export in Final Cut Pro, using the Export -> QuickTime Movie function. As you can see, the image is significantly brighter and the colors are a little more washed out (this image isn't particularly colorful, but trust me, it washes them out). I always thought the Export -> QuickTime Movie meant the image would not be compressed--that it was a straight export using the sequence settings.

The image you see above was shot natively in ProRes 422 (HQ) using an Arriflex Alexa. It has never been transcoded. The bottom image is what it looks like using Export -> QuickTime Movie. Totally unacceptable for a piece of professional software, if you ask me.

I can't express how infuriating this is, to have everything looking perfect in FCP and then exporting only to have it look like garbage. I've been able to play with gamma correction a bit and have gotten it PRETTY close to the original look, but this seems like a horrible workaround.

Anyone else know why this is happening? Is there a fix for this?

I'm working with FCP 6.0.6 and QuickTime 10.1.

Posted on Feb 23, 2013 4:14 PM

21 replies

Feb 27, 2013 1:21 PM in response to Jim Cookman

been down this road many many times before Jim. They just don't want to hear it. There was an endless thread about banding in fcp. When any one s(like I did) uggested that using a computer monitor to view the material wasn't the right way to do it...

Feb 27, 2013 1:49 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

Michael, Jim, settle down. I appreciate the concern, but not the air of intellectual superiority.

The Alexa was free. I'm just resourceful like that. I'm hired as a director and producer first ... editing just comes with the package because it's cheaper on a music video budget if I do it myself than pay someone else, so forgive me for not being a color calibration expert. I thought these forums were for people who need help, not people who already know everything.

I'm not working with a full HD reference monitor because they cost about the same as a decent BMW, and because 99% of the people who watch music videos watch them on a computer monitor anyway.

All I wanted to know was why an image looks one way in FCP on a monitor, and a different way in QuickTime on the same monitor, using a direct uncompressed export. Seemed like a pretty simple and fair question.

Jim Cookman

Level 7

23,435 points

Feb 27, 2013 2:26 PM in response to Chris Corrado

Chris, I'm settled down...

Even an HDTV and a cheap blackmagic capture card will be better than no monitor. You can hold up a piece of CTO and fake the bluegun only setting on a monitor to dial in phase on color bars.

+1 for the free Alexa!

I'm not necessarily intellectually superior, just old and grumpy.

Oct 13, 2013 8:48 AM in response to Chris Corrado

Hi Chris

Could you step me through how you applied the 1.4 gamma correction filter?

Thx in advance

Oct 14, 2013 9:53 AM in response to grunberd2

Sure grunberd--it's pretty easy.

You should know, however, that I don't consider this a true "fix." It's just a workaround that just gives you a better approximation of what you were seeing in FCP.

Go to File -> Export -> Using Compressor.

When the Compressor windows pop up, select whatever format you're encoding the video into. When you pull up the options for the settings, it'll have a tab called "Effects." Within that section you'll see an option for "Gamma Correction". That's the one you want. Play with the settings--export a clip with 1.2 correction, one with 1.4 correction, etc. ... then you can open up the newly created QuickTime file and look at it side-by-side with the FCP image.

When I'm doing this, I only export a small piece of my finished video, that way I'm not rendering an entire project just to test out a gamma setting. Once I like the level of gamma, I go ahead and export the entire video via Compressor and apply that setting.

Hope this helps!

grunberd

Level 1

0 points

Oct 14, 2013 6:44 PM in response to Chris Corrado

Many thanks Chris.

I'll try it. It's complicated when you don't have a high-faluttin' calibrated monitor and even then it's hard to make decisions since everyone's computer monitors register differently. When I change the preference settings in QT 7 to match FCP it looks just fine, but with QT 10 it is all washed out.

We'll see. Thanks for your suggestion. I didn't understand you were referring to settings in Compressor. I don't want to compress the footage, just change the gamma.

Best,

Dorit

FCP "Export -> QuickTime Movie" gamma shift