Color Correct LOG Like a Pro in Premiere (No Conversion LUTs or PLUGINS)

[@johnmatchett3548]

I make a point of watching 'basic skills' tutorials once in a while, despite having worked in the industry for 35 years +. Remarkably, you often learn stuff. Far too many people insist on jumping to advanced level stuff when they could really just do with learning about basic skills which will have a much bigger effect on their real work projects. I have to say you've completely nailed this mate. So many people - and were talking about professionals here too - start pushing colour wheels around, slapping in damned LUTs and generally acting like teenagers having-a-go with their software. Your system is pretty well the same as mine. We generally use Blackmagic cameras and the Raw footage off those is just fantastic. Starts off looking ghastly: ends up looking gorgeous. Just don't be afraid to allow your blacks and whites to clip a bit on your final grade, depending on your output. However good your grading is, be prepared for some idiot client with uncalibrated, cheap laptop to tell you that it's looking a bit dark/green etc. It pays to use decent, calibrated kit and be confident that you've followed a logical process. Good video, nice job. I salute you. JM

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks John for the kind words! I try to do that with all my tutorials (I don't always succeed) but distilling the info into the basics is the goal. After that you can go in so many directions. Thanks for watching and the nice comment John!

[@SouthpawAutoworks]

Really enjoyed reading your comment, John. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I'm reminded of a quote, that you might like. Paraphrasing..."The master thinks like a beginner. They're always learning..." (Robin Sharma)

[@BrandonHartOfficial]

Hands down, one of the most understandable, precise, and BEST grading videos on the web. Incredible. Thanks for sharing!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Wow! Thank you for the compliment and for watching!

[@DaveBurns88]

Hands down the best tutorial for color grading c log footage for EOS R. Thanks!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Wow, thanks David!

[@VincenzoBarbato]

I agree 💯

[@KGTropicals]

This channel should have WAY more subscribers and WAY more views!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Slow and steady! Earning every sub! Thanks for watching and the compliment John!

[@OrionMediaGroup]

Best video I have seen on colour correction and grading. Great job!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Wow, thanks! Thanks for the compliment and the comment!

[@thomasoppong8019]

By far, the best tutorial I have found on KZbin as a creator. I just got a Canon C100 Mark II, and I was surprised how hard it was to find a really simple but comprehensive video on grading log footage. Thanks a billion times Rafael.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Great to hear! Thanks for watching and the nice comment Thomas!

[@riwazgamenix6542]

i watched 50+ videos in 1 years nobody explained me this much clearly. But you explaned well, Thankss sir after 1 year i learned perfectly to color correct & color grade LOG footages❤.

[@RafaelLudwig]

So glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@profilepictures5436]

So you sand me Please Log lute

[@Basz112]

Great tutorial, thanks! I like it that you have multiple shots and repeating the process. Feels like practicing already.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for that! Thanks for watching and the nice comment!

[@lloydandlauraweddings3117]

This is the best tutorial I've seen on KZbin color correction. Awesome job.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Wow, thank you! Thanks for watching and the comment Lloyd and Laura!

[@calebdane2114]

Best one ive watched so far!!! He downplays the beginning, but he knows his chit very well....

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thank you for the kind words!

[@samdelcua588]

This is by far one of the best.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks Sam for watching and the compliment!

[@NickPayneHH]

This has seriously helped me out so much. Thanks for taking the time and effort to make this video as detailed as you did!

[@RafaelLudwig]

You're very welcome! Thank you for watching and commenting!

[@kelanmolloy]

Dude this was so informative thank you! Literally learned more about colour and scopes from this video than in two years of college!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the compliment and the watching Kelan!

[@danielbranam8503]

Hey Rafael. Just came across your video. I just bought a C200 and this was one of the best quick explanations of how to good a good look with Clog. Thanks for the video and please do more videos on color grading and correction. Cheers!

[@RafaelLudwig]

I love my C200, it's a great camera! I do have more CC videos planned for Premiere. Thanks compliment and the comment Daniel!

[@MukeshChouhan91]

the easiest and most scientific way of color grading.... thanks from India Rafael....keep the good work up

[@chrispysaid]

Okay I know this is completely off topic but MAN YOUR LOGO IS CLEAN

[@darrinlalla9008]

My new favorite channel. Thanks for the help!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Awesome, thank you for watching and the comment Darrin!

[@shazbk7616]

Amazing tutorial, you hit it out of the ball park!!!!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks so much for the compliment and the comment!!

[@StephenTilmon]

Just got the r6 and am new to all the c-log color grading. This video was so helpful and easy to understand! Thank you so much. You sir just got a new subscriber!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful, and you are welcome! Thanks so much for the compliment and the comment Stephen!!

[@Dan-ld8bm]

Dope vid! Usually, I know this and that about correction but here I learned a few new things! As they say, you never know, so when you don't, go ask Raff!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for the comment Dan! I learned so much just by prepping for this video!

[@Dan-ld8bm]

@@RafaelLudwig I know one thing for sure... This video made all of us better colorists :D

[@fisi-bellecarrasco-rex2335]

Really helpful! thanks heaps. One of the most comprehensible tutorials I've found.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thank you Fisi-Belle!

[@therealbradleywayne]

Thanks a lot for making this video! just got an Eos R a few days ago because I decided to take video more seriously, and this was a huge help climbing the learning curve

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and the comment Bradley!

[@realtorhuan]

The best tutorial! How do you get the circle graph thing next to the lumetri scopes?

[@JordanFord]

This video was definitely helpful. I am doing things a little backwards. I definitely see how important is to properly expose C-Log after watching this video and and trying to color correct and color grade my video. I will watch the video of properly exposing c-log next! subscribed! Thanks

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks Jordan! I was the same way, once I was comfortable capturing the footage correctly, grading it in post became fun and I looked forward to it. Let me know if the other video helps you out. Thanks for the compliment and the comment!

[@TRCass]

I've just moved over to my first canon with LOG and I was a little lost, thanks so much for making this a super easy process, Happy to say I've subbed! Great content man 10/10

[@RafaelLudwig]

Great to hear! Thanks for watching and the comment Tom!

[@theorncampbell4432]

Despite having white balanced my cameras and used only temperature matched studio lighting, I still found myself fighting a losing battle against orange skin tones. THIS VIDEO SAVED MY A$$! The technique of masking and adjusting the full shot based on that mask is by far the most effective and fool proof method that I've ever seen. Thanks so much for taking the time to create these videos. I'm sure that there are thousands of people that you've helped out, in similar situations.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks so much for the nice comment and for watching Theorn!

[@moviescenes7830]

Very organized and easy to understand in simple practical steps. Thank you for the effort.

[@broderickarmbrister7674]

Can you speak about how adjusting skin would be for those of darker skin? And also those of darker skin and lighter skin together in a clip?

[@RafaelLudwig]

I did a video just focusing on skin tones - kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZOsZHSVhLSFe9E The method is nearly the same for all skin tones as they fall very close on skin tone indicator line in terms of color. But the part (chapter) to check out in this video for dual skin tones in one scene is the Secondary Selections - that is the way I have tackled scenarios like that in the past. Thank for watching and the comment Broderick!

[@AdamBalawender_YennyGrajales]

Extremely helpful / good pace and clear explanation. The most definitely Refael - you have great talent to teach and/or pass your knowledge and experience on. thx

[@RafaelLudwig]

I appreciate that! Thank you for the compliment and watching Adam/Yenny!

[@jaccjassy2475]

This is actually so good, it has really helped me so much, thank you so much

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the nice comment Jacc!

[@BravoCharlie]

Thanks. Finally moved over to Premiere Pro from Edius after 10 years.

[@mikegentile13]

This was awesome!! Thanks so much the recap was the best. I'm going to screencap it.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad the recap was helpful! Thanks Mike!

[@Rogier1969]

Awesome. I'm just starting out as video-maker and this was very helpful!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and the comment Rogier!

[@michaelstorycoach]

Awesome tutorial! It's understandable. That's the way to nail it.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks so much Micheal! Thanks for watching and the compliment!

[@AhmedElnosany]

I'm appreciating what you offer here .. amazing content and valuable information.

[@RafaelLudwig]

So nice of you! Thank you for the compliment and the comment Ahmed!

[@aykatsing]

Many thanks for sharing really appreciate this! Just got the eos r and this is invaluable for a beginner like me exploring c-log. 💯❤️👌🏽🙏🏽

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@brucestirling8215]

Agree - best tutorial on this topic - this one's going on loop

[@ironian24]

A big thumbs up for your explanation on this subject, I did a video on this subject and how to put C-Log on to any Canon camera, I did it with my Canon M6 mkii and it looks great.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Access to c-log really opens up the door to better overall looking footage!

[@DaveMajor]

This is absolute gold. Thanks for all the info. Feel a lot more informed on how to go about correcting my footage! Thanks

[@drmaddi0959]

Lovely tut, mate! I really appreciate content of this caliber. Legend!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thank you for watching and the compliment Matt!

[@jmich5123]

Good stuff!!! New to videography, background in photography and camera design. I have found the EOS R frustrating for video but getting better. Your comment is spot on regarding LUTs, I don’t understand what purchasing them accomplishes. Except for one, that is one which precisely maps Canons encode/compand process in reverse back to linear space. Haven’t found it... My own testing suggests at least one stop overexposing. In bright sunshine with shaded areas I believe 2 stops is better. Playing with gain, lift, and gamma produces accurate results. Question: I can’t find video metering modes and it seems that the entire frame is considered for exposure metering. This is terrible in some situations, as it would be in photo mode. If I’m not blind and this is true I’d Ask, are metering modes available on C200?

[@RafaelLudwig]

This is why I made this video, got frustrated that the provided conversion luts where not straightforward and were the same for every camera that canon has. I had lengthy discussion with my Colorist friends and they revealed that they rarely use conversion luts, they'll convert the color space to match the capture format. But in PR and FCPx that is not as easy to do consistently. So a base Rec709 timeline makes the most sense. The EOS R has it's own particulars for the best exposure settings that I just learned from a day of testing it. Overexposing worked the best. And wanted to share. Metering is very much a photography methodology. The Waveform is best for exposing and does give you a representation of the luma levels across the whole image. Check out my How to expose EOS R Log footage, I go over the waveform monitor and how to best use it on the camera. (if you haven't already learned to use it of course) kzbin.info/www/bejne/pn7ComlsgLuBl7c Thanks for the thoughtful comment!

[@jmich5123]

Rafael Ludwig thanks man. I found this video very useful and waveforms the trick I needed to make sense of this. You’re correct, I’m photo centric but I have designed numerous cameras where precise exposure control was critical, I would prefer they utilize the same methodology as they do with camera. No camera has enough dynamic range to fully capture an outdoor scene. That said, my clips look better now and Resolve is quite good IMHO.

[@scottievee330]

That was simple and smart. Easy to follow. Home Run! Thank you.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the compliment!

[@ManuOutdoor]

Thanks for the super Video! Cheers from Switzerland!

[@HillCountryDemo]

Oh WOW!. Rafael thank you so much for an incredible video. I learned so much about color correction and grading.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Great to hear! Thanks for watching and the compliment!

[@just_kyashi]

Incredible tutorial! Just upgraded from a 70d to an EOS R and very looking forward to getting into grading C-LOG footage!

[@duranchula858]

Awesome tutorial. By any chance do you have a tutorial understanding foundation of lumetry colors. This is one of my weakness. I color correct based on the eye not using correctly the lumetry

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the comment Christopher! Color is such a subjective thing and I'm still learning. I will eventually do more color focused tutorials.

[@duranchula858]

@@RafaelLudwig thanks

[@qbfilmss]

very amazing hats off the way of delivering the is more accurate and professional.

[@LukeMichaelJames]

Loved this video! I have been shooting in cine4 on my Sony for months because I really struggled with grading LOG. I'm colourblind so I could never get the balance right by looking at my footage. Now I understand how to use the scopes instead thanks to this video. I might go back to s log and give it a try. I imagine it'll work just the same right?

[@Dan-ld8bm]

I'm a sony shooter, what sony are you shooting with?

[@RafaelLudwig]

Hey Luke, you are correct, this method works with any LOG footage, when you try it out, circle back and let me know how it works for you.

[@PhontaineJudd]

Very well done. Thanks for the multiple examples.

[@RafaelLudwig]

You're very welcome! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@78films]

Wow this is such a good video!! Good job man! Got a new subscriber here :)

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for the sub and the compliment Nils!

[@JohanFitFoodie]

Fantastic guide, just got my R6 and will try immediately 😊🌆

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thank you for the compliment and the comment! Enjoy the R6, it's a great camera!

[@juliemartelly4660]

SO helpful thank you so much for this information!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and the comment Julie!

[@ausdoug974]

very, very helpful. I really enjoyed watching this. Thank you for creating it

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and the compliment!

[@TheFilmCouple_]

Great work! You've convinced me to get a colour chart too :)

[@RafaelLudwig]

It's a great little tool! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@davidlong7128]

Great tutorial thanks. Clear and concise, and delivered at the right pace.

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the comment David!

[@edadan]

I just got the Canon EOS R6 and am anxious to learn how to do color grading...so, this was a great tutorial for me. I have a question: should I be shooting in manual exposure or automatic? I have the camera set for Canon Log "ON", Color Matrix "Neutral" and Color space "BT.709". Thanks and I am subscribed!

[@RafaelLudwig]

The more you can control, the better your image will turn out as you want them. Auto ISO is as far Auto as I go but only when it's extreme run and gun. Thanks for watching and the comment Dan!

[@regnismada4936]

amazing video. are these steps pretty much the same for CLOG-3?

[@RafaelLudwig]

Yup! Pretty much for all log footage, trust the scopes. Thanks for watching and the comment Regnis!

[@AndrewTanielian]

This is great! You explained this very well. Thank you!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching and the comment Andrew!

[@kristianhalldearn1476]

Amazing tutorial... super helpful!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad you think so! thanks Kristian!

[@extramile.photography]

Great video Rafael, thank You!

[@mastering3602]

Amazing info bud!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@v_r_]

This helped a lot. Thanks!

[@usmanmajid7837]

Amazing tutorial, thanks! I have a couple of questions though. 1) When you isolate the skin with a mask and then change the basic lumetri settings, doesn't this apply that change to the entire image though? I've seen other tutorials where they used the HSL tab to isolate the skin and adjust it like that, so it affects the skin only. What's the difference? 2) What's the difference between highlights, whites, and exposure? Thanks!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Yes, in this method it would affect the rest of the image, it takes the skin as the priority. I didn't want to do secondary color selections in this video as that gets pretty advanced for most viewers who are just looking for proper skin tones. I do have it in the pipeline to go more advanced with color correction and color grading. Didn't want to make this Tutorial 40 mins 😬 Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@usmanmajid7837]

@@RafaelLudwig I see, that makes sense. Looking forward to seeing more videos, keep up the excellent content!

[@sparksk9]

Fantastic video and explaination....thank you for this!

[@RafaelLudwig]

You're very welcome! Thank you for watching and commenting!

[@JulieSchiro]

Another awesome tutorial Rafael! I'm getting there. What "looks right" to my eyes somehow ends up in disaster at export 😂 but I'm now having some luck applying these techniques if I use one of Canon's LUTS (BT709_CanonLog-to-BT709_WideDR_33_FF_Ver.2.0) as a starting point lol.

[@RafaelLudwig]

I have never had good success with the technical LUT provided by canon 🤷🏻‍♂️ That’s why I made this tutorial.

[@JulieSchiro]

@@RafaelLudwig Oh it needs some help for sure. Me and that LUT are helping each other. Lol. Great channel Rafael!

[@creativeguyty]

Thanks mate. A good refresher.

[@Sinclair28]

Great Video! Thank you!

[@RafaelLudwig]

thanks for watching and the comment!

[@SouthpawAutoworks]

Awesome video! Thank you, so much, for sharing your knowledge. Liked & subbed. I'm really looking forward to giving this method a go, in Premiere.

[@psmodak3000]

Super communicative tutorial. Thank you very much.

[@lnuponom2678]

Why don't you use Panasonic lut at the beginning? After applying the conversion video lut to rec.709, you can also do color correction?

[@moonscaper61]

GREAT tutorial

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad you think so! Thanks for watching and the compliment Benedict!

[@TimDurkan]

outstanding - thank you!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@gdenfilms]

Great work brother

[@gdenfilms]

If you will make more short it could be more better 🌻🌸

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@madsoconnor7475]

Thanks for the video man, great explanation!🤙

[@marcolanave9429]

great video . thanks for sharing

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the comment Marco!

[@nickminderman7380]

Great video. Earned a sub. I have the R5 and learning log

[@RafaelLudwig]

Awesome! Thank you Nick! Enjoy the camera! It's a great one!

[@dirkvalentinolethulur3960]

Thx man, this helps me a lot..

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@RDmediaTV]

Great video

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and for the comment!😀

[@hansomemedia6855]

This video is lovely.

[@sombersoulmedia]

Hey Rafael, great video! I have a question though, don't know if it'll make a difference but at 7:10 where you are going over white gray and black the line representing black is kinda fat compared to the line representing white that is a lot flatter. Does it make a difference? Should the black in the video be more or less black? Is there a way to make the black values more black without messing up all the progress already made?

[@RafaelLudwig]

Yes the portion of the line should be as black as possible, but because I am just averaging the darkest portion of the video it doesn't have to be too perfect. As long as the RGB Parade line up, then I know it's black. I am planing on making a more advance CC'ing tutorial that goes into HSL and desaturing the Black and White to have no color casts. Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@VL20IG]

Thank you. Talk about less is more!

[@jiafanghan8582]

Hi I’m new to color correction, and I tried this tutorial on my log footage , however it turned out still looking kinda grey, I don’t really know what went wrong, do you have any suggestions? Btw I really appreciate this tutorial, exactly what I need right now. ❤

[@harddriverecordingandfilmsNY]

Subbed, thank you for all the info

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@Digitalxknife]

Question, when doing the process manual like this, What percentage of sharpening do you re add as well? The conversion luts I use now add their own sharpening so Im not sure how much to re add myself to say, V-LOG footage.

[@javierreygonzalez4779]

Superbe: thanks a lot!!

[@RafaelLudwig]

Thanks for watching and the comment! Javier!

[@andresmora3825]

Thanks man, jvery k7ch helpful

[@erikconn]

Excellent!

[@alloneword154]

Would you put rec 709 conversion LUT before or after? Or not at all?

[@RafaelLudwig]

I don't use conversion cuts for C-Log, I like the way it looks better with my own presets. Thanks for the question!

[@hoanghiep6529]

very helpful brooo

[@RafaelLudwig]

Glad you think so! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@DMPelli]

Do you have advice on exporting? I'm still having issues where my exports are washed out. Even when I use the gamma compensation .cube, I still need to add an adjustment layer and it's still not the same. It's a mess.

[@RafaelLudwig]

It's gotten better in the latest releases of PPro. You first need to make sure to toggle "Display Color Management" under Premiere > Settings. THEN follow this video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYDbcqCwaq2hpM0 Thanks for watching and the question!

[@fraPasquale]

Could you please help me choose between 2log and 3log LUTs? we shot LOG and RAW. Thanks!

[@OkieEkoWardoyo]

hi thanks for tutorial, you color grade log footage. but my footage are all rec.709, how to convert my footage to log footage thanks

[@TheMKTube]

I have a recording of a 2 day event shot with 2 different cameras (one of them is dimmer and has lower saturation). I only have the final merged recording of both cameras fading in and out of each other on two 6 hour long files. Is there a tool that can detect the shot automatically and apply color color correction to just the dim video but not the other shot?

[@shotbyarian]

great, thank you so much!

[@alloneword154]

Can you get same results with using the curves panel?

[@RafaelLudwig]

Yes you can, but it is much easier for me to do it with color wheels. It's more precise when adding or subtracting color. Again thanks for the question!

[@Studio44a]

Dam, Thank you!

[@RafaelLudwig]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@General111100]

do you have to change lumetri scope 8bit to float in editing log footages?

[@RafaelLudwig]

For the most part for web delivery I always have it set to 8bit - If that type of precision is needed I am sending it to a colourist! If you are working with SDR Broadcast standards 8bit is perfect, if you are heading into HDR delivery you may want to use float. Keep in mind that 95% of monitors out there are 8bit, only recently can they display 10bit. Thanks for watching and the comment John!

[@lebooshdiaries]

thank you for this, it is very helpful! may i ask you what bitrate did you film your log footage with? thank you so much.

[@JurisGavrilovs]

I usually slide contrast to the max first and then adjust everything else. Is it wrong? 🤔

[@photoeducationbydaniel]

My question is: Are we really losing out that much when not recording C-log? This all seems like a lot of extra work for footage that probably looks better when not using c-log

[@RafaelLudwig]

Absolutely not, and in many cases the workflow is much simpler as long as you are happy with the look of the footage coming straight out of the camera. My biggest reason I prefer LOG over any picture profile is that the look and sharpness is baked into the footage with a picture profile, and on many cameras the footage can look a bite crunchy with too much sharpness or colors that were determined by someone else's aesthetic. And modifying that after makes it harder, it only allows for minor tweaks, and you can't really remove the sharpness. LOG is a nice starting point and you have control over the look and sharpness, and once you dial in the look you like, it's an easily repeatable process. It all comes down to preference. It's like shooting JPEGs vs RAW photos. If you like it, then it's perfect! Thanks for watching and the comment Daniel!