There are some people who are good enough at color grading that they can just take the raw log footage and turn it into a pleasing image without needing to even look at LUTs. Then there are people like me. I will admit it, I need LUTs to get to a decent place to start color grading my footage. With F-Log it can be pretty hard to get started because things like Color Space Transform(CST) in Davinci does not support the F-Log color space yet, just the gamma. The only other way is to use the utility LUTs Fujifilm provide on their site. Granted these are both free and really good quality, but they are limited in my opinion.
When I was in college, and in the infancy of my color grading journey, I discovered LutCalc. At the time I was using it, poorly, to make a rec.709 conversion LUT for a short film I had made for my senior thesis. I was not aware yet of its full potential.
Later after college when I started shooting with F-Log I rediscovered it as a solution to convert F-Log to more editable color and gamma spaces. I most often have converted to Arri Log-C.
Getting started, you need to get to this page(Pictured above) from the Home Screen(Direct link). Once here you will start in the top left of the page. Here you are going to fill in your input gamma and color space. By default it is designed to base the process off of the camera you shot with. So if you are shooting with a camera that is supported you can just put that in the top line. For us it is not applicable because no Fujifilm camera is supported yet.
You will need to set the camera to "All" and the color/gamma space to "Generic" for the next set of inputs to work correctly. Below at "Rec Gamma" and "Rec Gamut" you will need to just put "Fujifilm" for both. It will automatically put F-Log in since it is the only option for both.
Now it is time for the real magic. You can set the "Out Gamma" and "Out Gamut" to anything you want. In the screenshot above I have put in a conversion to Arri Log-C which allows you to use the default Arri rec.709 conversion LUT in your editor to get to a rec.709 space while emulating Arri's skin tones and highlight roll off.
I recommend experimenting with this and finding a combination you like. That could be mixing different manufacturers color and gamma spaces or choosing a different flavor of log over another. Or even using a flavor of rec.709 from a manufacture you like.
If you set "Out Gamma" to "Display" and "Out Gamut" to "Rec709" you can choose to go right from F-Log to a rec.709 color and gamma space.
Another amazing feature this site has is to preview what the final product will look like based on your settings.
If you press "Preview" and then "Load Preview" it will allow you to upload a screenshot into the site. The best option would be to grab a still in Davinci of a shot you like and then export it as something like a PNG. Above you can see an example of one I made using that process.
Once you choose your image, it will show these settings. It is looking for the input color and gamma spaces so that it will know how to interpret the image correctly. For the "Legal Range" or "Data Range" I usually just leave it at "Data Range." I am not sure if it does make much of a difference but for previewing purposes it is not consequential.
You can also check "WFM" to display a waveform of the preview image.
Once you are ready to export your LUT you can move to the top right of the page where the LUT generation settings are. Start by naming your LUT. I usually name it something like "F-Log > Arri" so that I know the input and output of the LUT.
You will want to select the "65x65x65" option. That is so that the LUT has the most color and gamma detail to pull from when you apply it to your footage. It also will avoid things like color banding in the image.
For the input and output ranges I am not sure what the best options are so I usually leave it at 109% for the input and 100% for the output since I am editing for SDR displays.
If you are just making the LUT for editing then you can leave it at "Grading LUT" and set "LUT Type" to "Davinci Resolve 12+ (.Cube)," if you are using an up to date version of Davinci, or an appropriate alternative based on the editor you are using.
If you are making a LUT for your monitor then you will want to do two things. One, set your "65x65x65" to "33x33x33." That is because monitors are generally only capable of displaying that amount of color change. And two, set the option from "Grading LUT" to "Camera/Monitor LUT (MLUT)." That will ensure that you will get a LUT that will display correctly on your monitor.
Once you are all done with the settings, all you have to do is click "Generate LUT" and in a few nanoseconds it will download your unique LUT. Congratulations on your first custom grading LUT.
With this tool it makes color grading with F-Log footage a joy. Get to editing, experiment, and play. I hope that this tutorial will help you make some amazing videos/films.
Next time I will be talking about making a LUT to utilize the film emulation LUTs built in Davinci like the Kodak 2383 emulation LUT which I have been using a lot to create an amazing look and like is used for professional films including "The Master."
Thank you so much for reading. Have a Blessed day.
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