Adobe Premiere Pro 23.6 announces improved color management for ARRIRAW

Adobe has announced its new release, Premiere Pro 23.6. This August release focuses on improving workflow with ARRIRAW, offering improved color management for this demanding shooting format. The company recommends the update to all users, but let’s take a look at the details of what you can do now with ARRIRAW in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Let’s face it: Premiere Pro is rarely the software of choice when it comes to color management and grading. Most often, users choose other options available on the market or get specialized plugins like Colourlab Freelab at no cost, which we described here.

However, Adobe knows it well and is constantly working on improving in this area. Since they included ARRIRAW support into their editing software last fall, a few other iterations have followed. Among them, for example, are GPU acceleration and enhanced workflow performance, which allowed ARRIRAW to be run in real time without transcoding or proxies (and exported up to 15 times faster). Now, the company is also promising new features that will make every sequence in your ARRI footage look amazing.

Color management for ARRIRAW in Adobe Premiere Pro 23.6

New color management features for your workflow with ARRIRAW, added in update 23.6, are optional. To access it, go to “Interpret shots” – “Color”. Now, in Color Settings, you can either use the auto-detected Log C media color space, change it, or apply an input LUT. No matter what color space you may select for your sequence, Premiere Pro will convert your footage to match.

Additionally, you can go to the Effect Controls panel, select “Source,” and adjust the RAW controls for exposure, white balance, and tint directly in the settings.

What is ARRIRAW and how does it differ from other formats?

ARRIRAW is the ARRI format for uncompressed, unencoded and unprocessed sensor data. As the company claims, you can consider it a digital version of a negative camera. It’s also the only format that fully retains the camera’s natural color response and exposure latitude, which is of course an amazing starting point for color grading.

If you want to better understand this codec, the features of ARRIRAW, and how it works, take a look at our comprehensive guide here. Even if you don’t shoot with ARRI cameras, this will give you an in-depth understanding of camera sensors, image locations, bit depth, data compression, and color.

Other improvements to color management in Premiere Pro

In case you missed it, over the past year, Adobe has also introduced other color improvements to its editing software. For example, Premiere Pro 23.3 features the newly added Auto Tone Mapping feature, which allows for mixing and matching footage from different cameras in the same SDR timeline, as well as editing and color grading those clips without additional steps. The tool supports HDR video, such as iPhone HLG, as well as log codecs, including Sony S-Log, Canon C-Log, and Panasonic V-Log.

Since version 23.3, Auto Tone Mapping is turned on by default. Therefore, turn off this feature in the serialization settings if you want to work with lookup tables.

Premiere Pro is available for update

Adobe Premiere Pro 23.6 is now available for download from the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Do you often work with ARRIRAW in Adobe Premiere Pro? Have you noticed a difference in your workflow since eliminating GPU processing? How do you feel about the improved color management of raw shots in the latest software update? Please, let us know in the comments below.

Featured image source: Adobe.