Log to Rec.709, explained: S-Log3, Apple Log, Blackmagic Film and DaVinci Wide Gamut

Log footage is not broken and it is not a "style". It is a storage trick: the camera squeezes a very bright scene into a normal video signal so nothing clips. Turning it back into a picture is a two-part job, and most grading problems come from mixing the two parts up.

Why log looks flat

A normal video curve spends almost all of its signal on the tones around a face and runs out of room a couple of stops above that. A log curve gives every stop of light a similar share of the signal. Highlights that would have clipped are still there, and so are the shadows. The price is that nothing sits where a screen expects it: black is lifted, white is pulled down and colour is weak.

Look at where 18% grey lands. On S-Log3 it sits near 41%. On Blackmagic Film Gen 5 it is near 38%, on Apple Log close to 49%, and in DaVinci Intermediate near 34%. Those differences are the whole reason one LUT cannot serve every camera: the same grey card arrives at a different level from each one.

Two jobs: convert, then style

The conversion is technical. It undoes the camera's curve and maps its wide colour gamut into Rec.709, the standard that phones, laptops and most TVs display. Done alone, it gives you a correct, plain picture.

The look is creative: the shape of the contrast, how saturated colours behave, what happens to skin, how shadows are tinted.

A camera-specific look LUT does both in one step. That is what "the S-Log3 version" means: the file expects S-Log3 going in, and gives you a finished Rec.709 image coming out.

The profiles

Sony S-Log3

Pair it with S-Gamut3.Cine. It holds a lot of highlight range and gets noisy if it is underexposed, so many Sony shooters expose it brighter than the meter suggests and bring it back down before the look. If you do that, lower the exposure before the LUT, never after it.

Apple Log and Apple Log 2

Apple Log arrived with iPhone 15 Pro and records in a Rec.2020 gamut. Apple Log 2 keeps the idea and widens the gamut. They need different files: feed Apple Log 2 into an Apple Log LUT and colours shift. Phone sensors are small, so protect your highlights and keep ISO low.

Blackmagic Film Gen 5

This is what Blackmagic RAW decodes to when the clip is set to Blackmagic Design Film with Gen 5 colour science. Because it is RAW, you can still change white balance and ISO in the Camera Raw panel before any LUT sees the image.

DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate

This one is not a camera profile. It is a working space inside Resolve: you transform every camera into it, grade, and transform out. A camera LUT placed straight on a DWG timeline gets the wrong input. Either convert DWG back to the profile the LUT expects with a Color Space Transform node in front of it, or use a PowerGrade whose first transform node you can point at your camera.

Order of operations

1. Fix exposure and white balance in log, before the conversion.
2. Convert and apply the look.
3. Adjust skin and local areas after the look.
4. Add texture (grain, glow) last.

Fixing exposure after a LUT is the most common mistake. By then the highlights have already been rolled off and you are stretching a compressed signal.

See it on real footage

The interactive demo wipes between real log frames and the finished grade with a live waveform, so you can watch grey, black and white move to where a display wants them.

Common questions