Washed out colours editing iphone videos

melliott1963 wrote on 5/30/2022, 9:19 AM

I'm currently running Vegas 19.0, build 550. My iPhone 12pro videos (and my wife's iPhone 13 pro videos) are recorded in 1920x1080 at 60fps, with HDR Video (which includes Dolby Vision) enabled on the iPhones.

Viewing unedited videos on my phone and PC gives brilliantly crisp and colourful pictures. However, when I try and edit them in Vegas Pro and then render them to MP4 files, both the display in Vegas and the finished MP4 file, display with the colours washed out. If I add the "saturation adjust" video effect fx this helps a lot, but I'd rather not have to do this with every clip. I've also tried turning on the HDR setting within the project properties but this doesn't really make much difference. The screenshot shows the rendered picture at the top, and the original picture underneath (not the best reproduction, but it shows the difference).

Is there a setting I need to adjust, or maybe I'm using the wrong render template?

Anyone else had this issue and know how can I correct this?

Thank you.

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Comments

melliott1963 wrote on 6/1/2022, 5:51 AM

Comparison of original HDR footage, and footage converted to SDR using iMovie. There really isn’t much difference at all.

CDBZ wrote on 10/6/2022, 7:34 AM

Wait, is there a legit fix for this though other than your work around? @melliott1963

Chanimal wrote on 1/13/2025, 8:39 PM

The FINAL options - How to bring an iPhone video into Vegas when it is recorded with HDR (turned on by default on most iPhones).

I tried several of the options. Using iMovie on the iPhone and saving with HDR is the easiest and looks almost exactly as the iPhone. However, I also tried the free Shutter Encoder. Below are my instructions (that I saved for the next time I have to deal with this (Vegas should just bring the files in--it is such a common project to use Iphone video).

iPhone Files – with HDR on (no problem if HDR is not on when recorded)

Using Shutter Encoder (free to download—make a donation if you like it)

- Open Shutter Encoder

- Drag and drop your files—or multiple files (which is why this option is quicker)

- Choose function (with the drop down)

- Select h.264. It will open a lot more options.

- Under the blue “Same as source” I typically select Change and select my desktop as the save location

- Keep the “add” _new as a suffix

- On the right side, select Coloimetry, then enter the following at Convert colorspace. Select Rev 2020 then choose Rev 709

- There might be other options, but this is what I used

- Then select “Start Function” to render

All your files will render with _new added to the file name. There are a few more steps (although easy to follow), but it is much faster to convert ALL your iPhone videos at once (I had about 20).

You can now add the files to Vegas. However, the colors are MUCH better, but still slightly too bright. So, click on the FX for the clip and select the Color Corrector plugin. Use the pick tool to select the high and pick a white from your video. Then use the pick tool to select a dark (pick a pure black). This matches the exact colors as the iMovie approach below.

I did not change the Vegas properties to 32 bit full range, and did not change the color space or ACES, etc. I just did a straight import of the files.

Using iMovie (iphone app – easy to download from the Apple app store for free)

- Open iMovie.

- Open the video you want to convert.

- Don’t do anything to it.

- Select Export and Share menu.

- Select the Save or Share option.

- When it asks where to save, click the Options> (small menu on top). Scroll down and turn off HDR.

- Save (I typically save back to the photos/videos, then transfer to your PC via cable or Photo Transfer (the wireless app I use)

This video looks very similar to the original video with HDR (about 5% washed out (vs about 40% washed out by just importing the original videos)—because the darks are not as dark, etc.—although you may color correct if you wish).

I put the rendered video from each process directly above each other on different tracks. After I did an elementary color correction (the basic Vegas color corrector plugin) to the Shutter Encoder video, I selected S to see only the solo of the bottom track. I could not tell any difference at all between the two. They looked identical.

There might be some differences in the quality when editing—but I didn’t test it.

I hope this helps.