I am a photography and video enthusiast. He is one of those passionate people who are not very happy with the current process where only maximum brightness and the most saturated color are sought. Something “easy” to solve in photography: just shoot in RAW format. Yes, having to edit the photo later is boring, but some of us even find this manual process fun.

Much of the same thing happens with video; Until recently, it was not possible to truly own what we recorded. Those of us looking for a more cinematic or realistic look had almost no choice. Apple opened the door: the iPhone 15 Pro was the first phone to record the ProRes LOG format, and Android manufacturers are starting to join the trend. Xiaomi is one of them and the results are… incredible.

What is LOG and why is it important?

Recording video is nothing more than capturing a sequence of multiple frames within one second. Like photography, mobile phones process (in this case in real time) to adjust values ​​for saturation, contrast, HDR, sharpness, and more.

The problem here is that if you record a video and want to do even the slightest post-editing, you’re actually applying color to an already (very) colorful video. To best accomplish this process, we need a flatter profile video and LOG on demand.

LOG comes from logarithmic. And this logarithmic gamma curve refers to a video format; a very flat image profileTo maximize dynamic range and post-editing.

Is it difficult to edit a video in LOG format? Although you might guess… answer is no. In most cases, just applying a transform LUT is enough and that’s it. If we want to color professionally, this is our job.

Xiaomi’s LOG is the example to follow

I edited LOG files saved from a phone for the first time on my iPhone 15 Pro. I was amazed at the amount of detail the phone could recover. This was no surprise: a ProRes recording at 4K 30 FPS 6 GB… per minute. It’s absolutely insane to work with projects that can easily go over 100GB on modest computers (I have 256GB on my Mac mini and 1TB on my external SSD), but Apple doesn’t offer the option to record to a codec that doesn’t do that. Become ProRes.

Xiaomi’s situation is different. The video takes up exactly the same space as the others: it is MP4 for life. The difference is that it is recorded in a very flat profile, which allows us to edit much more completely later. Obviously the file quality is lower, but we don’t need as high a bitrate or unhealthy quality as ProRes to upload the video to Instagram or YouTube. 4K 30/60 FPS logged with one-inch sensorEven though it doesn’t use professional codecs, it’s more than enough (and makes more sense) for a mobile phone.

As I mentioned, it is easy to work on LOG at an amateur level. In my case, I’m working with Final Cut Pro, but any free professional editing program like Davinci Resolve will work with you.

Video in LOG format.

By opening the program and entering the clip in the LOG, we will quickly understand: color… strange. This is normal: There is almost no color in this clip, with heavily raised shadows to save information. If we were professional colorists, the editing process would involve editing the color until we reached a point where we all knew the image was “normal” and from there we could make an artistic correction. This point generally corresponds to the rec.709 standard.

Video after applying LUT transform to Rec.709.

Just because we are not experts We will use LUT To transfer our LOG video to rec.709. A LUT is nothing but a preset setting that we will apply to a video. You can understand this as a “filter”.

You’ll notice that the colors of the video have completely changed and it now looks more like a “normal” video. There is no specific conversion profile for Xiaomi, but you will find numerous conversion LUTs on the internet that will be useful for this purpose.

The second is the video where the color LUT was applied and manual corrections were made.

Finally, we will add a second artistic LUT and have the file ready. In my case, I usually leave the editing a little flat in some mobile applications where I add decorations for social networks.

The process looks complicated but there’s nothing more to it than that:

• Save to LOG.
• Import the file into the editing program
• Apply conversion LUT to Rec.709
• Apply optional, artistic LUT or edit to your taste

In less than five minutes, you’ll have a different video with more professional colors (less saturation, less contrast, and artificial sharpness), and if you like editing, you’ll be able to work much better without being an expert.

“So what do you call me? If I don’t have Xiaomi 14 Ultra!” you will think. LOG is here to stay and I am convinced of it. Xiaomi also joined this trend and Manufacturers like Honor are also starting to implement this in some models. I believe that soon anyone looking for a phone with good video capabilities will enjoy such formats.

Image | Xataka

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