[Cin] Adobe Premiere (2021) and HDR

[Andrea paz]

The ICC/color space relationship is not clear to me (maybe ICC is just
the same color space but more precisely defined and adapted to the
device), however, again for the sheer pleasure of talking about color
without any other purpose, I think that good color management can be
simplified in 4 steps:
1) input with its own Color Space (or ICC). Typically it is the camera
that records in raw (pro), log and ProRes (prosumer) or h264/5
(consumer). All types are profiled; pro and prosumer have multiple
profiles to choose from and can be profiled manually or with LUT. This
is referred to as ICC in the manual case or support for the various
color spaces in the menu-driven case. Consumer cameras have only
encoded the working color space in hardware and you can read it in the
metadata of the produced files. This is because the sensor is always
and only linear (and raw), so in order to have an evaluable and
workable output it is internally transformed into the desired signal
(also via the transfer function or gamma). I think that CinGG users
(interested in color) just need to consider the mediafiles (sources)
we upload having their own color space; it doesn't matter where they
came from and how they were processed (if they don't have any visible
in the metadata it would be better to give them one ourselves before
processing). This is because CinGG has no color management and
therefore cannot customize the input in a specific way (i.e., do color
space transformations automatically). This way is inaccurate because
knowledge of the generic color space does not get to the detail of
profiling, but it is the norm in the consumer environment.
2) Program color space, the result of which is seen in the Compositor
window. It should be as wide as possible to ensure preservation of all
source color data (no clipping). A gamma should also be applied if the
input is log type. In CinGG you might consider transforming the color
space (better with the ffmpeg plugin than the native one, because it
offers more color spaces) to one from “intermediate,” that is, as
large as possible. Then apply all the correction filters we want and
finally we reapply in the effects queue the plugin to transform the
space to that of the display (usually Rec709 with gamma 2.4). It is
independent of the camera and display color spaces; so you have a true
CinGG color management. In Resolve this is done with the CST (Color
Space Transformation) plugin.
3) Display color space. Important because it is what we see in the
Compositor and often it is also what is delivered (but not
necessarily!). It is important that the display is calibrated. I think
there is the same problem as for cameras: is the monitor color data
taken from the EDID or is it better to use profiling? Is the former
case for consumer monitors and the latter for pro monitors?
4) Export the project with a codec and color space suitable for the
destination (delivery). For example, for FullHD TVs (Rec709; 2.4) or
4k (BT2020; 2.4); for monitors and the Internet, the classic Rec709,
2.4 is recommended (if it was the same as set as the program color
space, there will be no color space transformation during rendering);
for cinema, DCI-P3; etc.