Apple Log in Premiere Pro: setup and grading

What Apple Log and Apple Log 2 are, which iPhones record them, how Premiere Pro 26.3 interprets them, and how to grade the result. Plus the part nobody covers: matching the iPhone to your other camera.

Apple Log is the flat, low-contrast recording format on recent iPhone Pro models. To use it in Adobe Premiere Pro: turn color management on, and Premiere detects the clip as Apple Log and tone maps it to your sequence automatically. No LUT hunt required.

That is the setup in one paragraph. The rest of this guide covers the details, the manual route when detection misses, and the question that starts after setup: why the iPhone still does not look like the camera next to it. Premiere behaviour below is checked against Premiere Pro 26.3.

What is Apple Log, and what is Apple Log 2?

Apple Log is a logarithmic gamma curve, the same idea as Sony S-Log3 or Canon Log: it spreads the sensor's dynamic range across the recorded signal instead of baking in contrast, so more of the highlights and shadows survive to the edit. Straight out of the phone it looks gray and flat, which is the point. It records to ProRes or HEVC.

Apple Log 2 arrived with the iPhone 17 Pro generation in late 2025. It is a wider curve for the newer sensors, holding more dynamic range and color than the original, and it pairs with the ProRes RAW and open gate options Apple added at the same time. Same idea, more room.

Which iPhones record Apple Log?

You can record it in the built-in Camera app once enabled in Settings, and third-party apps expose more control: Apple's own Final Cut Camera, Blackmagic Camera, and Kino all record Apple Log, with Final Cut Camera 2.0 and Kino supporting Apple Log 2 on the 17 Pro. High-bitrate ProRes at 4K generally wants an external SSD on the USB-C port; HEVC fits on the phone.

Model support above was checked in August 2026 against Apple's own documentation and app release notes. Newer phones will extend the table.

How do I get Apple Log into Premiere Pro correctly?

Import the files as normal, over cable or SSD, not through Photos compression or AirDrop conversion, and let Adobe Premiere Pro's color management do the interpretation. With log detection enabled, drop an Apple Log clip on a Rec.709 timeline and the Lumetri Color panel's Settings tab reports the media color space as Apple Log / Rec.2020, with tone mapping applied. On screen the flat gray clip simply appears as normal-contrast video.

If a clip comes in flat, detection missed, which happens with some third-party app recordings and stripped metadata. Fix it per clip: select the clip, Lumetri Color panel, Settings tab, and set the media color space override to Apple Log yourself.

For Apple Log 2 the format is young enough that we could not verify automatic detection in Premiere Pro 26.3 for every recording app. If your Log 2 clip is not recognised, the same override menu is the first stop, and Apple publishes an official conversion LUT you can apply in the Lumetri Color panel's Creative tab as a fallback. Check the result by eye: correct interpretation looks like clean, neutral video, not milky and not crushed.

Color management or a manual LUT conversion?

Use color management. The old workflow, applying a conversion LUT to every log clip by hand, still works, but it costs you the things the managed pipeline gives free: automatic handling when you change sequence color space, correct behaviour in wide gamut and HDR sequences, and tone mapping that adapts per clip. A fixed LUT is a fixed assumption, and it clips what does not fit.

The manual route earns its place in two cases: a facility pipeline that expects specific conversions, or a format newer than your Premiere version, like early Apple Log 2 clips. Our color management guide covers the settings behind all of this.

How do I grade Apple Log in Premiere Pro?

Grade after the conversion, on top of the normalised image, with the Lumetri Color panel as usual. Two things are specific to iPhone footage. First, the phone's own processing already made choices about noise and sharpening, so aggressive shadow lifts find mush faster than they would on a cinema camera. Second, exposure discipline at the shoot matters more than any grading move: Apple Log rewards a bright, protected exposure the same way every log format does.

Keep the Lumetri Scopes open and trust the waveform over the phone screen you shot on, which was showing you a tone-mapped preview all along.

Why doesn't my iPhone match my A-cam?

Here is the part the setup tutorials skip. An iPhone recording Apple Log, correctly interpreted and tone mapped, still does not look like the Sony or Canon sitting next to it. Log is a container, not a color science. Apple's sensor and processing render skin, sky, and saturation their own way, exactly as Sony and Canon render them theirs, and correct conversion of each preserves each camera's opinion perfectly.

That is a matching problem, not a conversion problem, and no color space setting fixes it. You can close the gap by hand with scopes, clip by clip, as covered in matching different cameras in Premiere. Or you can hand the gap to MOVON: select the iPhone clips and the A-cam clips in the panel, pick the A-cam look as reference, and it computes a grade per clip to bring them together. The iPhone is treated like any other camera, nothing to set up, and the interpretation work above is for your own monitoring only; MOVON takes the clips as recorded. Camera specifics live in camera support.

Common questions

Does Premiere Pro support Apple Log?

Yes. Adobe Premiere Pro detects Apple Log through color management and tone maps it to your sequence automatically. Checked in Premiere Pro 26.3.

Do I need a LUT for Apple Log in Premiere Pro?

Not for basic correctness. Color management replaces the conversion LUT step. Apple's official LUT remains useful as a fallback for unrecognised clips and for matching a facility pipeline.

Should I shoot Apple Log or standard on iPhone?

Shoot Apple Log when you will grade the footage or cut it against other cameras, and you can expose with care. Shoot standard when the clip goes straight out with no grade, because standard footage is already finished and log footage is a commitment to post.

What about Apple Log in HDR delivery?

Apple Log carries enough range for HDR. Set the sequence to a wide gamut preset and deliver Rec.2100, and the same clips serve both SDR and HDR masters. The sequence setting, not the clip, decides.