The ‘One LUT’ for Apple Log Perfectly Matches the Arri Alexa’s Iconic Look
The One LUT is able to “seamlessly match” the iPhone 15 Pro’s ProRes log video to the cinematic quality of the Arri Alexa K1S1 rec709 look.
One LUT is not only the name of the product, but it’s also the name of the company that was founded by Australian filmmakers Paul Henri and James Ballard. The two were recently joined by former Filmic Pro founding member Eliot Fitzroy and together they have created what they are billing as the fastest route to achieve a genuinely cinematic look from an iPhone.
While Apple Log footage is very easy to hand grade, One LUT says it has created a simple way to get high-end, cinematic looking footage very quickly.
A LUT, or lookup table, is a predetermined array of settings that changes how footage looks. Typically applied to log footage, the One LUT is able to leverage the 12 stops of dynamic range that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max can shoot (thanks to support for ProRes log) and perfectly matches what the company calls the “gold-standard of digital cinema”: footage shot on the Arri Alexa.
“We’ve shot several projects on the iPhone and always felt the end result — even after grading – looked a little unnatural,” the One LUT team says.
“Apple’s standard Rec709 look is too saturated, the curve is aggressive, and the skin tones are artificial. iPhone footage has an ‘oil painting’ look to it. And not in a good way. Prior to the release of the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple’s imaging pipeline yielded unpredictable results due to the use of dynamic tone-mapping which would override manual exposure and opportunistically adjust locals areas of the scene algorithmically. This made it impossible to achieve a truly accurate Arri LUT for the iPhone (although we did the best match possible for Filmic LogV3+).”
But with the release of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, that changed.
“The iPhone 15 Pro series overcomes this limitation thanks to the implementation of Apple ProRes Log which bypasses the dynamic tone-mapping algorithm completely and gives us a consistent and known gamma curve, every time. Apple’s official LUTs for Apple Log however, simply turn your footage back into a pile of unnatural looking, oversaturated goo,” One LUT continues.
“Now that all variables have been removed, we can accurately profile the iPhone 15 Pro sensor and create a consistent match to the Arri Alexa.”
The team profiled the Arri Alexa Mini camera in a controlled studio setting against the iPhone 15 Pro Max in Apple log and was able to create a LUT that emulates the skin tones and color response Arri cameras are renowned for.
“Not only is the One LUT for Apple Log the fastest path to a filmic look on an iPhone, but it is also incredibly user-friendly. It can be effortlessly applied as a preview-only LUT or permanently burned into the final recording using the free Blackmagic Camera app for iOS,” One LUT says.
The best way to see how the One LUT applies to Apple Log footage is to take a look at the video above as well as the multiple examples the company has uploaded to its website, since the files are too large to upload to this story and the company hasn’t put them on YouTube yet.
The One Lut for Apple Log is available today from the company’s website for $25.
Image credits: One LUT
