Grading Log-Footage is easy, actually.

[@iamericlenz]

Hey everyone! This was a decent chunk of work and my longest video yet. I hope it helps you to focus on what actually matters. :) Oh and I really hope we can move past the misunderstanding of LUTs soon! Enjoy! 🖖

[@JenniferKlinger]

Brilliant video.

[@petebennett4263]

Brilliant Eric, you have explained very simply the reason that I do what I do. I understood that it ‘had’ to be done but you have pulled the reason apart and explained it thoroughly. Great job 👏🏻 LLAP

[@rodc271]

The best explanation I have seen on KZbin, absolutely brilliant.

[@digitaldevigner4080]

100% agree. A log curve is a very specific mapping of stops on a logarithmic curve. It's used to fit a large amount of stops within a smaller space. A lut or color transform is an exact reversing of that curve. It's not bad and is 100% exactly what we should have if the camera didn't need to shoot log to capture that much range. Log is basically a kind of image compression. With other forms of image encoding we have to use decoding to perfectly reverse the process. The same is true of log. More data is compressed into a smaller space. We then use a transform for that log format to reverse it perfectly. From that point we can manually make adjustments until we are blue in the face for the creative look. Grading should happen in layers or stages. Not trying to cram the entire process into a one and done step. I feel like many suggested manual grading because it was cool and impressive at one point. It's just wrong and incredibly inefficient to do so. It's not being creative to do it. Its just wasting time and using the completely wrong process to grade material. Creativity comes after the normalizing. A normalizing lut or transform may not look perfect but thats kind of the point. It just normalizes. Then one adds the creativity but they leave the precision pat of the converse not tools designed for that precision. After that point one can go nuts creatively.

[@mediataal]

Great, Great Tutorial and insights. Great teacher. This is information I needed years ago!. Thank you so much.

[@StefanRingelschwandtner]

Great video! Good explanation, really helpful. Thanks!

[@ProduktFilm]

Such a quality content and such an underrated channel. Many thanks Eric. I watched the whole thing, as always. It's amazing to see everything click and make sense, finally, with your explanations.

[@iamericlenz]

Much appreciated, thank you very much! :)

[@HNeatR]

Eric Bro, a lot of value in this video my man. Thanks bro

[@truthseeker6804]

good video. i learnt this recently through consistent practicing as i like to overexpose clog3. i was able to work on the image before the lut. big difference.

[@seecraig]

The challenge many of us face is that some conversion LUTs are better (more accurate) than others and even the camera manufacture conversion LUTs can be problematic. The problem we then face is determining which conversion LUTs are more accurate.

[@iamericlenz]

Good point! Luckily Cam2Rec is here, haha :D

[@12345maddyful]

Really wonderful breakdown Eric...Thank u so much man 🤗

[@juanfantasma8053]

Omg I learned and understood a lot of things, thanks man, thanks for sharing.

[@EugenBrinzoiu]

Always a pleasure seeing you. Thanks

[@iamericlenz]

So nice of you, thank you! :)

[@RicardoDawson]

I'm very glad KZbin suggested your channel and found your Cam2Rec CST LUTs. I've just tested them and they are working much better than the official Sony ones. Congrats and thanks so much for the free download! I have one question, if you'd be so kind to answer: I work with 10-bit, 4:2:2 S-log3 footage, should I apply sharpening and film grain BEFORE o AFTER your CST LUT. Thanks in advance!

[@hasyourgulaggotplanningper2459]

Fantastic as ever. I think you are one of the very best and most professional experts here on YT. Can I ask? If you wanted to add say a Teal and orange LUT to corrected Rec.709 footage, would you simply install that LUT down the signal chain, after the Rec.709 correction?

[@iamericlenz]

Thank you so much! Yes, if the LUT requires a Rec.709 input it goes after the CST LUT. :)

[@truthseeker6804]

most beginners dont know they have to correct their image first before the creative lut. the problem is they get some random dude fancy teal and orange lut and throw it on the log footage.

[@MightyFineAsWine]

Okay now after converting from LOG to Rec709, how would you go about applying a creative / stylistic LUT to your footage? Should the signal chain be something like: Color wheels, color transform, Creative LUT?

[@iamericlenz]

Exact,. If the creative LUT requires a Rec.709 input, then it would be correct. Just pay attention to the mixed LUTs out there. There are LUTs that carry a look and perform a CST. So, you wouldn’t need a CST LUT before a mixed LUT. :)

[@MarioDuch]

Hey Eric, you have some great videos! I just discovered your channel and it really helped me get more into colour grading, especially in Final Cut Pro. I have been using Resolve for a while now, but it's always nice to see what other software can do. Anyway, I would love to know what you do in FCP to get that crisp voice of yours in these videos? I think this is the last step for me to switch over to Final Cut for a bit since I really like how it functions together with Motion.

[@iamericlenz]

Hey Mario, thank you so much! I’m a bit into audio but to be honest, I don’t want to spend a ton of time. So I use Auphonic to mix my voice over. It has an AI EQ and adaptive Compressor. It does wonders. After that, I tweak the EQ because I like it a bit more crisp and then I master everything to -14 LUFS-I. I used to do this in Final Cut Pro but nowadays, I just render the audio and send it through iZotope RX to do the mastering. I know, it sounds a bit clunky but this allows me to get a fully mixed video in less than 10 minutes. So I don’t mind using different tools

[@MarioDuch]

Thank you! I really appreciate it! I might just stick to rendering my audio through Resolve like I used to, since I already have all my presets there. And it also takes just a few minutes to do

[@iamericlenz]

Yeah that makes sense. I used to do the same with Logic but a friend pointed me to Auphonic and I don’t mess around with EQ and compressor anymore which is a little sad on one hand but I can’t argue with an audio turnover in 10 minutes. :D

[@LorenzoHines.]

Hey Eric! Been following your stuff for awhile and your work and information shared is very good and needed. I wanted to ask, how can you tell exactly if a LUT (perhaps attained previously) is a mixed LUT?

[@iamericlenz]

Yes, if it requires a different input than it outputs. But this must be specified by the LUT creator. Otherwise, you don’t know what to feed into the LUT. But there is no way of looking at a LUT and determine what’s going on.

[@flanuerbyday]

Great info Eric, which camera are you using to record this video

[@iamericlenz]

Thank you! A7III but I‘ll switch to the A7s III later this year. :)

[@infiveg]

Это круто! С иерархией я разобрался ещё в прошлом видео. Спасибо большое за объяснение. 2 вопроса. А как на счёт HLG? Почему в твоём видео кожа у тебя коричневая?

[@iamericlenz]

HLG is coming up. :) And I just came back from my vacation in Italy haha. :D The orange and teal split toning does emphasise it, though. :D

[@Georgeinthejungle]

Hey Eric, a quick question on something that troubles me. When you add a Custom LUT (@12:48) you select SLog3/Cine to Rec.709, which implies that: Your input gamma: S-log3 Your input gamut: Sony Cine However, right below, in the Convert options, the Input selected is Rec.709!??? I noticed that FCP does NOT offer any other gamut options for input, besides 709 and a few flavours of bt.2020. Is this an error? If not, how does it work? Coming from Resolve, this leaves me head scratching, as I always had to set my input and output accurately in my nodes to get a correct conversion.

[@iamericlenz]

Video coming up on this one. In short: if it’s HLG Rec.2020 set the Color Conform to HLG to SDR and the LUT to Input: Rec.2020 and output Rec.709. Quite literally everything else is handled by the LUT so leaving input and output at Rec.709 will do nothing and for log-footage using any gamut other than Rec.2020 this is the way to go. :)

[@Georgeinthejungle]

@@iamericlenz thanks for the clarification. I sincerely hope you will make that video, because this will trip up many users surely. p.s. another video that I hope you will make, as I see you are editing on a Mac, is how to work around the dreaded QuickTime gamma shift bug! I know there is no ONE solution, but I would be REALLY interested to learn your approach and workflow on the matter!

[@73jayzee]

How does this apply with Phantom Luts? Is that considered to be a CST or a creative Lut?

[@iamericlenz]

The phantom LUTs do both. So, they are mixed LUTs. They give you a Rec.709 conversion with a look built in. :)

[@73jayzee]

@@iamericlenz aah okay vielen dank

[@Adventuroe]

What about putting the lut on an adjustment layer above the footage before you work on it? Isn’t this the same in FCPX? Also what about changing the settings in the clip to be rec 709?

[@iamericlenz]

Great question! Adjustment layers work, too. The signal in the timeline goes from bottom to top. So the uppermost adjustment layer will be processed last. Setting the Clip to Rec.709 doesn’t do anything. I suppose you’re talking about the colour space override? That’s just changing the metadata and has no effect on the colour whatsoever.

[@BRNDNSLVRA]

"Grading manually" is an elitist, bitter mindset for people who need validation for the hard work they put in. The goal is to work smarter not harder and people need to therapy so they can let go of their egos. A reminder to love your children so they don't end up like those people.