Search for iPhone LUTs and you get two completely different problems wearing the same words. One is "I shot Apple Log and it looks grey." The other is "I want my normal iPhone video to look cinematic." They need opposite advice, and mixing them up is why so much iPhone footage ends up looking worse after a LUT.
Did you actually shoot log?
Apple Log arrived with the iPhone 15 Pro and is off by default. You get it only if you turned it on and recorded ProRes.
| What you shot | How it looks off the phone | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Standard HEVC video | Already contrasty and saturated | A creative LUT at most, gently |
| ProRes, Apple Log off | Same, just a bigger file | The same |
| ProRes, Apple Log on | Flat, grey, desaturated | A conversion, then a look |
If your clips look normal on the phone, you did not shoot log, and a conversion LUT will crush them. That is not the LUT being bad — it is a transform built to expand a flat image being handed one that is already expanded.
Check in the Camera settings under video formats, or look at the clip: Apple Log is unmistakable on a phone screen.
What Apple Log needs
The same thing every log format needs. Log is not a look, it is a container: it stores a wide brightness range in a flat, low-contrast image so highlight and shadow detail survive to the grade. Viewed directly it is washed out, and that is the format working rather than a fault.
Apple publishes a LUT for the conversion, and every major editor now ships one too. In Final Cut Pro and Motion it appears as a camera LUT applied automatically when the clip is recognised. In Resolve it is a colour space transform. In Premiere it is a Lumetri input LUT.
The names differ; the job is identical. What is a LUT is the longer explanation, and colour correction vs colour grading covers why the conversion is not the grade.
Conversion first, look second
This is the whole thing, and it is the step people skip.
A conversion LUT takes Apple Log to Rec.709. A creative LUT puts a look on Rec.709 footage. They are different files doing different jobs, and stacking a creative LUT straight onto Apple Log gives the muddy, oddly-contrasted result that gets blamed on the phone.
Convert, then adjust exposure, then add the look. Colour grading basics is the longer version of that order, and how to make footage look cinematic covers what the look can and cannot do once the conversion is right.
Most free packs are the same story — free LUTs covers where the usable ones come from and how to tell a conversion from a look before you apply it.
Doing it in the editor you already have
The mechanics are per-editor and all short: Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, After Effects. CapCut is the awkward one, because what it supports is not quite what people expect.
The pattern is the same as every other camera. A GoPro is the same problem with a different flat profile; a drone is the same again.
Where a phone shoot gets tedious
Phones produce a lot of clips. That is rather the point of having the camera in your pocket — you shoot forty things in a day rather than eight considered setups.
Forty clips means forty times: import, apply the conversion, check, adjust, move on. The transform is identical every time. Editors handle this with adjustment layers, which works when every clip was exposed the same way, and needs unpicking when they were not — and on a phone, walking from inside to outside, they were not.
And plenty of iPhone log footage is never going to a timeline at all. It is going to a client, a folder, a review link, today.
How BatchTone handles it
Drop the folder in, pick the Apple Log conversion, and every clip takes it. A frame is pulled from each and previewed with it applied, so you judge the conversion on your own footage rather than on faith.
- Clips that need less take the strength slider down; the rest stay put.
- Audio is copied across untouched rather than re-encoded.
- Encoding uses the Mac's own hardware encoder, so a shoot is not an overnight job.
- Originals are never written to; exports land in a folder you choose.
- ProRes from the phone is read directly.
It is the whole-shoot version of the job. When a shot deserves a real grade it still deserves a grading application — this is for the other thirty-nine. There is a seven-day trial with everything unlocked.
Common questions
Does iPhone video need a LUT?
Only if you shot Apple Log. Standard iPhone video is already Rec.709 and a conversion LUT will overcook it. A creative LUT, applied gently, is a different matter.
How do I turn on Apple Log?
In the Camera settings, under the video format options, on iPhone 15 Pro and later. It records as ProRes, so check you have the storage before a long day.
Where do I get the Apple Log LUT?
Apple publishes one, and Final Cut Pro, Resolve and Premiere all ship a transform for it. In most editors it is applied for you once the clip is recognised.
Can I use Apple Log LUTs on Android footage?
No. Other phones record different log curves, if they record log at all. A conversion LUT is built for one curve and is not interchangeable.
Why does my Apple Log footage look grey even after a LUT?
Either the LUT is a creative look rather than a conversion, or it was applied after adjustments that moved the footage away from what the transform expects. Convert first, then adjust.