The first time you shoot in a log profile, the footage looks broken. Grey, low in contrast, colours washed out. It isn’t broken. It’s holding on to more than a normal image can.
What “log” means
A normal picture profile makes decisions for you in camera: it adds contrast, boosts colour and clips the brightest highlights and darkest shadows so the image looks finished straight away. Those decisions are baked in. If the sky blows out to white, that detail is gone.
A log profile, like Canon Log 3, records brightness on a logarithmic curve instead. It squeezes a wider range of light into the file, so detail in the sky and in the shadows survives. The cost is that it looks flat until it’s graded.
From log to Rec.709
Screens, TVs and phones expect an image in Rec.709, the standard for high-definition video. Grading is the job of taking the log footage there:
- Get the exposure right in camera. Log gives room to recover highlights and shadows, but it doesn’t rescue badly exposed footage.
- Convert. A LUT (a lookup table) maps log to Rec.709 and gives a neutral starting point.
- Shape it. Adjust contrast, balance the colour and match shots so a scene looks like one place at one time.
- Check it on the screens people will use. Most people will watch on a phone.
When not to bother
Log isn’t free. The files need grading, and in a hurry a standard profile that looks right out of the camera can be the better call. For anything with bright windows, skies or stage lighting, where the range of light is huge, log earns its keep.
There’s a drag-to-compare example on the video page. It uses a simulated log look on a trackside frame, so you can see the difference in a second.
Written by Joseph Carey · 29 Sep 2026