Adobe Premiere Pro Gets Serious About Color Management and Editing

A bold purple "Pr" logo is centered on a dark blue square against a vibrant, colorful explosion background, featuring hues of green, yellow, blue, red, and orange blending together.

Timeline-based non-linear video editor Adobe Premiere Pro’s lineage goes back to the original Premiere editor launched in 1991. Over that time, a lot has changed, not only about video capture and editing but also about what a “video editor” does. Premiere Pro is changing with the times in some significant ways.

One of the biggest ways the responsibilities of video editors have changed is that they are now, much more than in years past, responsible for color grading and color management. It was once the case that an editor handed video off to a colorist for all that, and that’s still sometimes true. In response to shifting needs, Adobe is getting serious about color in the new version of Premiere Pro.

Color is made more complicated by the diverse range of cameras out there, each with RAW and log video formats, some of which are bespoke. In Premiere Pro, color management will be done automatically whenever possible, including automatic tone-mapping of log and RAW video formats from “nearly any camera” without requiring any LUTs. In a pre-release demo, this looked extremely impressive, reflecting a “set-it-and-forget” design that will surely resonate with many users.

A video editing interface featuring a timeline with various clips and transitions. The main preview window displays a person with pink hair and sunglasses outdoors, identified as "Lauren YS, Artist." Color scopes and adjustment panels are visible on the left and right.

RAW video support is available for RED, Arri, Sony, and Canon cameras, plus ProRes RAW, but there is still no Nikon N-RAW support here. Log format is supported for RED, Arri, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Fujifilm, Nikon, Leica, DJI, and GoPro cameras.

A color chromaticity diagram with a horseshoe-shaped spectrum boundary. Within it, three color spaces are outlined: ACEScct (largest, black dashed line), HDR Rec. 2020 (middle, white line), and HD Rec. 709 (smallest, black solid line). Each color space is labeled.
The new version of Premiere Pro offers an ACEScct wide gamut color working space and seamlessly swaps between Rec.709 SDR and PR or HLG HDR video content without the need for LUTs.

Effects and color corrections are all color space aware, and Premiere Pro promises improved wide-gamut image processing, ensuring wider dynamic range and latitude for high-end video workflows.

Although these color management improvements are enough to make many video editors happy, Premiere Pro will also get an improved properties panel that shows users frequently needed tools for video, audio, graphics, or captions based on contextual selections.

A video editing interface displaying a woman with red hair and braids, seated outdoors. A caption reads "Michelle Ruby, Artist." Various video and audio tracks are visible in the timeline at the bottom of the screen.

The app also promises improved performance, including hardware-accelerated AVC and HEVC encoding. Further, ProRes renders three times faster, ensuring much faster exports.

The entire app also received a facelift. The redesigned user interface features cleaner fonts, improved visual continuity with other Creative Cloud apps, faster responsiveness when making selections, and various new view modes (two dark modes, a light mode, and a high-contrast mode).

Available Now in Beta

All the new Premiere Pro features are available now in public beta and will arrive in a standard public release this fall.


Image credits: Adobe. Featured image created using an asset licensed via Depositphotos.

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