Premiere Pro · Color and look
How to fix washed-out iPhone HDR footage in Premiere Pro
Short answer
iPhone video is often HDR (HLG). In a Rec.709 sequence, turn on tone mapping in the sequence's color settings so Premiere converts it, or override the clip's color space in Modify > Interpret Footage.
In Premiere Pro
01
Confirm it's HDR
Select the clip in the Project panel and check its color space in the metadata or Properties. Rec.2100 HLG means HDR.
02
Set the sequence to SDR
Open Sequence > Sequence Settings and check the working color space is Rec.709 for normal SDR delivery.
03
Turn on tone mapping
In the sequence or Lumetri color settings, turn on Auto Tone Map Media so Premiere converts HDR clips into the SDR range.
04
Or override the clip
Right-click the clip, choose Modify > Interpret Footage, and under Color Management override the color space, then correct exposure in Lumetri.
05
Shoot SDR next time
On the iPhone, turn off Settings > Camera > Record Video > HDR Video if you don't need HDR.
- The names of these settings changed in Premiere Pro 24 and 25 with the new color management. Look for Tone Mapping in the sequence or clip color settings.
Eddie AI
Do it in Eddie
Eddie works on proxies for analysis, and a desktop import exports pointing at your originals.
Eddie builds the cut from its own proxies. When the footage came in through the desktop app, the Premiere project points at your original iPhone files, so you set tone mapping once in Premiere and every clip follows. Eddie's grade doesn't carry into the Premiere project, so color is Premiere's job here.
Back to Premiere
Open the edit, click Export and choose Premiere. You get a Premiere project (.prproj) or the older Premiere XML. In the desktop app, Send to Premiere Pro builds the edit inside Premiere through Eddie's panel, which the app installs for you.
If you imported the footage through the desktop app, the timeline points at your original camera files, so Premiere relinks to them. If you uploaded on the web or pulled from cloud storage, it points at Eddie's proxy media; relink to those, not to the camera originals.
From the help center
Questions
- Why does iPhone footage look so bright in Premiere?
- It's HDR (HLG) in an SDR sequence without tone mapping.
- Should I edit in HDR?
- Only if you deliver HDR and have an HDR monitor. Most web video is SDR.