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iPhone 12 Pro movie imported into iMovie is very washed out

I have a video I shot on an iPhone 12 Pro, copied to my computer as a Quicktime .MOV file. It plays fine on my Mac Mini, but when I import it into iMovie, the clip appears very washed out. Color seems to be missing, and the color-correction tools in iMovie won't let me get it right. It seems as if the brightness is just turned way up, but using the color correction tools to turn the brightness down doesn't fix the problem.


Is this something wrong with iMovie? Any workaround?

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 25, 2020 1:27 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 25, 2020 1:39 PM

It’s the new HDR video on the iPhone 12. Apple saw fit to update only the iOS iMovie app and not the macOS version to support HDR. The only work around for footage you already have is to use the iOS app. Going forward, you can go into the camera settings and turn off HDR under the Record Video sub menu. Once the HDR setting is off any future recordings should be fine in the macOS iMovie app.

9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 25, 2020 1:39 PM in response to britomart

It’s the new HDR video on the iPhone 12. Apple saw fit to update only the iOS iMovie app and not the macOS version to support HDR. The only work around for footage you already have is to use the iOS app. Going forward, you can go into the camera settings and turn off HDR under the Record Video sub menu. Once the HDR setting is off any future recordings should be fine in the macOS iMovie app.

Oct 30, 2020 8:46 AM in response to britomart

If you are stuck with an HDR video file that you can't afford to lose, then try using the imovie editor. Create a project with you r file. When you're done editing and ready to export, press the share icon. Under your project you will see "Option." Select it. Go to the bottom. Unselect HDR. It will export a non HDR version to your Photos.

iPhone 12 Pro movie imported into iMovie is very washed out

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