Workflows

Log footage

Grade flat log footage from Sony, Canon, Nikon, Apple and DJI cameras, convert it with a Color Space Transform, and build LUTs that expect log input.

Log footage looks flat and grey on purpose: the camera records more dynamic range than a normal video file can show, and it has to be converted before it looks right. Luttie has three ways to do that.

Only log footage needs this. Photos from a phone or camera, and RAW files, are already in normal colour; see Photos and RAW files below.

Option 1: the film engine's Source

Open the Film panel, pick a negative, and set Source to your camera's format: Sony S-Log3 or S-Log2, Canon C-Log3, C-Log2 or C-Log, Nikon N-Log, Panasonic V-Log / V-Log L, Fujifilm F-Log or F-Log2, ARRI LogC3 (EI 800) or LogC4, Blackmagic Film Gen 5, Apple Log, Apple Log 2 (iPhone 17 Pro), DJI D-Log · Pocket 4, Mavic, DJI D-Log · D-Gamut (DJI's cinema cameras) or DJI D-Log M · Pocket 3, Mini 4 Pro. DJI hasn't published D-Log M, so its source is fitted to DJI's own D-Log M LUT. The engine decodes the log curve and the camera's colour gamut, then develops the image as film. There's no separate conversion step. Grading this way is free.

Option 2: a camera LUT preset

The Camera panel holds camera LUTs Pro for DJI D-Log M and D-Log, Canon C-Log, C-Log 2 and C-Log 3, Sony S-Log2 and S-Log3, Nikon N-Log, Panasonic V-Log, Fujifilm F-Log and F-Log2, ARRI LogC3 and LogC4, Blackmagic Film Gen 5 and Apple Log. On a computer it's under Prepare; on a phone, under Looks, then Camera log. Pick your camera and format, then start with its Rec.709 Conversion (the conversion and nothing else) or one of its looks, which include the conversion. Grade on top in the other panels.

Option 3: a Color Space Transform

A Color Space Transform (CST) converts footage from one colour space to another without a LUT, the way DaVinci Resolve's CST does. It's in the Camera panel, under the camera LUTs: click Add a CST, then:

Convert from: your camera's log format. It covers the same cameras as the film Source.
Convert to: Rec.709 (normal colour), Rec.709 · Gamma 2.4, DaVinci Wide Gamut / Intermediate, P3-D65 · Gamma 2.4 or Linear · Rec.709.

Advanced sets the input gamut, input gamma, output gamut and output gamma separately, for footage converted somewhere else first or a LUT that expects another camera's log. Its Highlights choice rolls bright highlights off into white (the default) or clips them.

The CST is the first node in the chain, so everything else grades the converted picture; you can move it in the node graph. Unlike a camera LUT it's a pure conversion, with no look, and it's built into exported .cube files. On and Off switch it without losing the settings, and Remove takes it out.

Converting to a log format leaves the picture flat. That's right when a LUT or another conversion after it expects that log.

HLG and HDR video

An iPhone's HDR video (Dolby Vision, which is HLG underneath) and the HLG modes on Sony, DJI, Panasonic and Canon cameras record a wider range in Rec.2020. If an HLG clip looks flat and grey in the editor, set the film Source to HLG (HDR video), or pick HDR, then HLG in the Camera panel Pro, and it's turned into normal Rec.709: HLG's 38% grey becomes 18% grey and its diffuse white becomes white, as ITU-R BT.2408 describes. If the clip already looks normal, your browser has converted it on the way in, so don't add another conversion.

Not covered yet: Fujifilm F-Log2 C (a wider gamut than F-Log2), Blackmagic Film Gen 4 and earlier, and RED Log3G10. ARRI LogC3 is decoded at EI 800, the most common; at other EIs it's close but not exact.

V-Log L (GH5, G9 and similar) uses V-Log's curve with a lower ceiling, so pick V-Log for it in either option.

The D-Log M looks fit the Osmo Pocket 3 and Mini 4 Pro generation. The Osmo Pocket 4 records D-Log, not D-Log M, so use the D-Log format for it.

The iPhone 17 Pro can record Apple Log 2, which uses a wider colour gamut. Every file in the Apple Log pack comes in an Apple Log 2 version, marked (Apple Log 2); use those on Apple Log 2 footage, or Option 1 with Source set to Apple Log 2.

AI Grade works with all three: it keeps the conversion that's on and grades on top of it, or adds a CST itself when you tell it which camera shot the footage.

Use one of the three, not two. A film Source set to log, a log conversion LUT or a CST from log, used together, convert the footage twice, and the result looks harsh and oversaturated. The CST section and the LUT export both warn you when that happens.

Photos and RAW files

A JPEG or HEIC from a phone or camera is already in normal colour, and Luttie decodes a RAW file to normal colour before anything else. Converting either one as if it were log makes it too contrasty and too saturated. So the Camera panel changes with what's open:

A photo: the camera LUTs are behind I grabbed this frame from log footage, for a still taken from log video.
A RAW file: there's nothing to convert. Set white balance in the RAW bar under the photo instead.
A clip: the panel asks whether it was recorded in log. Most phone video isn't.

If a log conversion ends up on a photo, from the Camera panel or the film Source, a bar under the photo offers to remove it. A clip that looks grey and flat gets a hint that it may be log, with a button to choose your camera; it's a guess from the picture, so it can be wrong in either direction.

Building a LUT for log footage

Open a log clip in Luttie and stop on a representative frame. If the clip won't open (many cameras record log in formats a browser can't play), save a still frame at full quality from your editing app or your camera and load that. A screenshot of a video player won't do.
Convert it with one of the options above, then grade.
Export the LUT Pro.

The LUT then expects log input: apply it to the log clips in your editor directly, with no other conversion LUT before it.

Camera LUTs to download

Ready-made conversion LUTs for each camera are on the camera LUTs pages, and the Log-to-Rec.709 reference explains which transform each log profile needs.