EXR 32 bit alphaover white gives me grey in compositing

Question

I am using the compositor to finalize an animation I did in OpenEXR multilayer at 32 bits. I am pretty new with these types of things regarding color management... etc.

I am sure this has to do with some type of limitation or lack of understanding...but when I use the alpha over node to combine my animation on a white background...I can see that the white picker is white, and the actual outcome is grey.

If someone could explain to me the reason behind this, I would highly appreciate it.

Here a small screenshot:

You can see the background color next to the node...looks grey and the image color to mix is White .

Thank you

Answer 1

You need to set up your output color management to whatever is your final target.

When you rendered as EXR, your target was editing, so you needed high bit depth data, hence using Filmic or Linar color spaces.

But now that you are working to get your final image, you want something that is aimed to be displayed on regular screens as is. And you will most likely output this in a common exchange format, like an AVC MP4 video or a JPG/PNG image. These are sRGB, or "Standard" color management in Blender.

So in Properties Editor > Render tab > Color Management panel, set the View Transform to Standard.
But in the compositor, make sure your EXR image node uses Linear Color management (it should be set correctly by default, but check it if you have any issue).