How to edit HDR video on a Mac — without washed-out colors
Ever trimmed an iPhone clip and got back a grey, washed-out version with blown highlights? That's the HDR problem: iPhones record Dolby Vision / HLG by default, and most free editors mangle it. Here's how to edit HDR video on a Mac with correct colors, entirely offline.
Why HDR video comes out grey
HDR video stores brightness and color in a wider range (bt2020, PQ/HLG transfer) than standard video. When an editor squeezes those pixels into a normal file without tone mapping — and then mislabels the color metadata — every player interprets them wrong. The result is the classic washed-out look: flat contrast, grey blacks, blown-out skies. It's not your footage; it's the tool.
The fix: an editor that tone-maps automatically
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Open Crisp
Grab the free Crisp app for Mac. Everything runs on-device — nothing is uploaded.
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Drop in your HDR clip
Drag the iPhone (or any HLG / HDR10 / bt2020) video in. Crisp reads the color metadata and detects HDR automatically — there's no setting to configure or get wrong.
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Edit like any other clip
Trim it, reframe it to 9:16 for Reels, change its speed, apply a color look, or auto-cut a montage — Crisp tone-maps the HDR to standard colors correctly inside the same pass.
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Export
The output is properly converted and properly tagged, so it looks right in QuickTime, on the web, and on every phone: no grey cast, no blown highlights.
Measured, not promised
We test this with color statistics: running an HDR clip through a naive (no-tonemap) pipeline collapses its color saturation to roughly a quarter of the original — visibly grey. Crisp's color-managed pipeline retains the large majority of it and tags the file correctly. The same conversion runs in every editing lane, including mixed HDR + SDR montages.
What works with HDR today
| Lane | HDR source support |
|---|---|
| Trim · Reframe · Speed · Rotate | Yes — auto tone-mapped |
| Color looks (cinematic, warm…) | Yes — converted before grading |
| Montage (incl. mixed HDR + SDR clips) | Yes — per-clip tone map |
| AI upscale (Enhance) | Yes — tone-mapped to SDR, labelled bt709 (from 1.0.1353) |
| Generative restore (Max) | Not checked with HDR yet — convert first, then run Max |
Why on-device matters here
- No re-upload roulette. Cloud tools often transcode HDR badly on their servers; Crisp converts locally where you can verify the result.
- Private & free to try. Your footage never leaves your Mac; HDR handling is in the free tier.
- Correct metadata. The export is tagged for what the pixels actually are — the half of the problem most tools forget.
Fix your washed-out HDR clips
Free to try on your Mac. Automatic HDR handling — no settings, no subscription, nothing leaves your device.
Download Crisp for MacApple Silicon · macOS 26+ · Notarized
HDR questions
Why does my iPhone video look grey after editing?
It's HDR (Dolby Vision/HLG) being squeezed into a standard file without tone mapping. Use an editor that converts properly — Crisp does it automatically.
Do I need to change any iPhone settings?
No. Keep recording HDR; Crisp detects and handles it. (If you prefer, you can disable HDR video in iPhone Settings → Camera, but you lose the extra dynamic range.)
Does Crisp keep the video in HDR, or convert it?
It converts. Crisp tone-maps HDR down to standard SDR (bt709) during the edit, so the export looks correct in every app and on every screen rather than only on an HDR display. End-to-end HDR output is on the roadmap, but correct SDR beats broken pseudo-HDR for anything you're actually sharing today, which is why it's the default.
Which HDR formats does it handle?
The common camera ones: HLG (what iPhones record by default), HDR10/PQ (smpte2084), and bt2020 10-bit sources. Detection is automatic from the file's own colour metadata, so there's nothing to set — if the clip says it's HDR, Crisp treats it as HDR.
Can I upscale an HDR clip?
Yes, with Enhance. It tone-maps an HDR clip down to standard SDR (bt709) as it upscales, the same way the editing lanes do, and from Crisp 1.0.1353 (23 September 2026) it labels the upscaled file as bt709 so players know how to show it. Max, the generative restore, has not been checked with HDR sources yet, so for Max convert the clip first — trim, reframe or colour it in Crisp, export, then run Max on that file. The editing lanes above all take HDR directly.
Related guides
Make a video vertical · Remove noise from video · CapCut alternative for Mac
Background: what HDR actually stores.
Background: what a colour space actually is.