How to colour grade Apple Log on iPhone
You can grade Apple Log footage directly on your iPhone: save the original clips to Photos, select them in Looks, apply a compatible LUT, and export new copies. No desktop editor is needed for this workflow.
Why does Apple Log look flat?
Log footage is intended for colour grading. Its muted contrast and colour are expected, rather than a sign that the recording failed. Apple describes how log differs from ready-to-view SDR and HDR in its guide to standard, log, and RAW video.
A LUT maps colours to a new set of colours. A LUT made for log footage may combine the conversion to a display-ready image with a creative treatment. A creative LUT designed for ordinary video expects a different starting point.
Choose a look that matches your recording
The bundled Summer Grading look is designed for Apple Log 1 footage. Start with a well-exposed daylight clip and check faces, skies, and highlights before applying it to a whole batch. A LUT cannot recover detail that was not captured.
- Apple Log 1: use Summer Grading, or an imported LUT explicitly made for that input.
- Apple Log 2: use a LUT designed for Apple Log 2. Summer Grading is not a matching conversion.
- SDR or HDR video: choose a look made for that format. Summer Grading is not a universal filter for every iPhone recording.
Apple Log and Apple Log 2 are distinct recording options. Check what you recorded rather than inferring the format from the phone model. See Apple’s colour space settings.
Grade a clip, then your batch
- Make the original recording available in Photos. If it is in Final Cut Camera, follow the transfer guide.
- Choose a representative clip in Looks and select Summer Grading for Apple Log 1, or import a matching .cube LUT.
- Preview the result. Adjust the look and grain to suit the clip, checking skin and bright areas.
- Process the clip and inspect the saved result in Photos before committing a large batch.
- Apply the same treatment to clips recorded with the same colour settings. Keep differently recorded footage in separate batches.
Common questions
Is Summer Grading a neutral conversion?
No. It is a creative look for Apple Log 1. If you want a neutral image, choose an appropriate conversion LUT instead of expecting every creative look to reproduce the scene literally.
Does reducing intensity fix the wrong LUT?
No. It can make the mismatch less obvious, but it does not change the input the LUT was designed for. Start with the correct LUT. For a LUT that also converts log, reducing its intensity can leave some of the original flat appearance.
Will this preserve an HDR master?
The Looks Apple Log grading path produces Rec. 709 output. Treat this as a workflow for graded SDR copies, rather than an HDR mastering workflow, and keep your original log recording for future edits.