Canon C-Log to Rec.709 Exposure Correction LUTs

Every videographer and filmmaker strives for perfectly exposed footage in camera. In reality however, footage often turns out over or underexposed. This can be accidental or intentional, for many videographers slightly overexpose their C-Log footage to create better looking skin tones and reduce noise.

Canon's official Rec.709 LUTs do a good job of converting C-Log to Rec.709, but their LUTs are designed for perfectly exposed footage. That's where these Exposure Correction LUTs come in!

These 84 custom LUTs convert Canon C-Log and C-Log 3 footage to the Rec.709 color space AND normalize exposure using the proper C-Log gamma curve. They are modeled on Canon's official Rec.709 LUTs for the EOS R, R3, R5, R5C, R6, R6 Mark II and R7.

Footage overexposed by 1 stop? Use the -1 Stop Rec.709 LUT. Footage underexposed by 2/3 a stop? Use the +0.66 Rec.709 LUT. Under and overexposed footage (within 2 stops) are instantly corrected, and appear as if you nailed their exposure in-camera.

These LUTs are a huge timesaver (I know, I use them all the time), especially when importing and editing lots of footage that needs to be converted to Rec.709.

Examples

Below are keyframes from three videos shot using C-Log 3 / Cinema Gamut on an EOS R5. The left is underexposed by 2/3 a stop, the middle is exposed correctly, and the right is overexposed by 2/3 a stop.

Underexposed 2/3 (Left), Correct Exposure (Middle), Overexposed 2/3 (Right)

Let's convert these to Rec.709 using Canon's official C-Log 3 Cinema Gamut LUT. 

Same Canon C-Log 3 Rec.709 LUT applied to all three videos

They look okay, but as you can see, the left video is darker while the right is brighter. I now need to spend time manually adjusting the exposure of the left and right footage to match the properly exposed footage in the middle. This not only slows down my editing, but there's a good chance my exposure adjustments may not be accurate or consistent.

Now let's use the C-Log to Rec.709 Exposure Correction LUTs instead. The left video below is now using the +0.66_Stops Rec.709 LUT, the middle is using the Native LUT, and the right is using the -0.66_Stops Rec.709 LUT.

Exposure Correction LUTs applied / +0.66 (Left), Native (Middle), -0.66 (Right)

As you can see, the three videos now appear nearly identical! No additional color grading or adjustments have been made. All three videos were converted to Rec.709 and their underlying exposure issues have been resolved. This quickly and easily creates a baseline for any additional creative color grading.

Rec.709 LUTs included in this pack:

• 1D / Canon C-Log to Rec.709 (13 Luts)
• 1D / Canon C-Log 3 to Rec.709 (13 Luts)
• 3D / Canon C-Log BT.709 to Rec.709 (13 Luts)
• 3D / Canon C-Log BT.2020 to Rec.709 (13 Luts)
• 3D / Canon C-Log 3 BT.709 to Rec.709 (13 Luts)
• 3D / Canon C-Log 3 BT.2020 to Rec.709 (13 Luts)
• 3D / Canon C-Log 3 Cinema Gamut to Rec.709 (13 Luts)
• User Guide PDF

LUTs inside each folder are organized like so:

• [LUT]_-2.00_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_-1.67_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_-1.33_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_-1.00_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_-0.67_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_-0.33_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_Native.cube
• [LUT]_+0.33_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_+0.67_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_+1.00_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_+1.33_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_+1.67_Stops.cube
• [LUT]_+2.00_Stops.cube

Simply pick whichever C-Log to Rec.709 LUT collection is appropriate for your footage, then begin by applying the "Native" LUT. If footage is overexposed, replace "Native" with a negative LUT. If footage is underexposed, replace "Native" with a positive LUT. Keep trying out over or underexposed LUTs until your footage appears as expected.

Compatibility

These LUTs are compatible with the Canon EOS R (C-Log only), R3, R5, R5C, R6, R6 Mark II and R7. If you don't see C-Log 3 as an option with the EOS R5 or R6, the camera firmware is out of date. Download the latest firmware through the following links:

Canon EOS R5 Firmware

Canon EOS R6 Firmware

Videos

Here are two videos explaining how the LUTs work and how to use them. First video is a general introduction, second more hands-on using the LUTs with my own footage.