Color Grading S-Log Footage from any Sony Cinema Camera

31 Dec 2020

5 Min Read

The reason we choose using log over natural picture profile is that it is a lot more capable when it comes to color correction. Log footage is a fully flat footage that is not usable on its own. So let’s see how it works.

Color Grade S-Log Footage in Premiere

Lumetri Color

To get started you can either keep your workspace and open up Lumetri, or change your workspace to Color.

Lumteri Color in Adobe Premiere Pro
Lumetri Color and Lumetri Scopes in Adobe Premiere Pro

Lumetri Scopes

Lumetri Scopes gives us Histograms for both colors and light. This will make the color correction easier and a lot more accurate. 100 is the highest level for luminance, which means that if the graph in any place goes up to 100 we will have overexposure, and the places that are 0 will be dark and pitch black.

The main reason for using the histogram is that it is an accurate mathematical representation of colors and luminance. So editing on any monitor with any level of color calibration will still give me an accurate production of light and color.

Lumetri Scopes in Adobe Premiere Pro
Lumetri Scopes in Adobe Premiere Pro

Lumetri Color Basic Correction Section

I’m gonna go to basic correction to increase the contrast a bit.  In layman’s term, Log footage is very low contrast but very capable of being manipulated in the field of dynamic range. So I’m gonna crank up the highlights and lower down the shadows. The reason I am lowering the whites is the overexposure caused by the sun. Lowering the whites will lower the effect of that on my footage.

“Blacks” is the only option in Lumetri that you can leave alone when working on S-Log. What I mean is that changing this one will not help in any way, especially when working on Sony Log files. But still, if you feel like tweaking the blacks, feel free to do so.

Increase the color saturation based on your taste and the composition of the footage. You may shoot the video over or underexposed, so here change the exposure directly only when you really need to.

Lumetri Color s-log LUT
Lumetri Color changing s-log Footage
Lumetri Color Creative Section
Lumetri Color changing s-log Footage
Lumetri Color s-log LUT
Lumetri Color changing s-log Footage

Lumetri Color HSL Secondary Section

This part may not always be needed but in this instance, I feel like I can brighten up the face of our subject a bit here. Red and Orange range is the range of skin tones. I’m gonna choose this range and crank it up a little bit. You can see how much better it looks now.

You may have noticed until this point we only have changed the light and apart from a bit of saturation setting, we haven’t changed the colors at all. So now I wanna add a bit of green tint to the footage and also move the shadow tint toward yellow and orange to make the footage a bit warmer.

OK, I consider the work done here. My goal in this video was to do a simple color grade. Maybe you want to change this same footage to the style of Blade Runner, or turn it into a night shot, or any other coloring that fits the style and concept behind your video.

Lumetri Color HSL Secondary Section
Lumetri Color HSL Secondary Section

Lumetri Color Creative Section

In the creative section, never increase the sharpen to the point that it is total overkill! Maybe the video doesn’t even need any sharpening, but I will still use it a bit. And I will also add a bit of Vibrance.

Lumetri Color Curves Section

In the curves section, I’m gonna change the highlights and shadows in order to reach my ideal lighting. As you may know, the top and bottom parts are for highlights and shadows and the middle section of the curve is the contrast of them.
Lumetri Color Curves Section
Lumetri Color Curves Section
Lumetri Color Creative Section
Lumetri Color Creative Section

Lumetri Color Color Wheel

In the color wheel section, you will be greeted by 3 wheels. These wheels control the colors and luminance of the footage, but my focus here is on the luminance part. I’m gonna lower the mid-tone and shadows and increase the highlights.

Lumetri Color Color Wheels Section
Lumetri Color Color Wheels Section

Inside Motion LUT Packs

Here at Inside Motion, we have plans for a lot more color grading tutorials. You can also get all of our color correction files that we have developed through the years from the link in the description. You can color grade your video in a blink of an eye with these presets. The package covers all cameras and formats, LOG, RAW, REC.709 and a lot more! 550 presets for any type of project. So check This Link for more information and the link to the package.

S-LOG LUT
S-LOG LUT
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S-LOG LUT
S-LOG LUT
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S-LOG LUT
S-LOG LUT
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