Shooting FiLMiC Pro Log Format on a Smartphone – Basics Explained

Since the guys at FiLMiC Pro added their cinematographer kit as an extra feature to their core camera app, it’s now possible for anyone with the app on their smartphone (and who have paid for the extra features) to shoot in 4 formats. Those formats are:

Natural – records normally using the native settings of the phone (rec. 709).

Dynamic – higher contrast, higher saturation (rec. 709).

Flat – what you are used to if you shoot on a DSLR.

Log (V2) – short for “logarithmic”, preserves more of your image’s dynamic range and tonality.

It seems that when outside of FiLMiC Pro, “Flat” and “Log” are basically the same thing. In FiLMiC Pro, at least, they appear to be variants of the same function which result in flat and desaturated images.

As well as the FiLMiC Pro app, the Moment camera app and some native camera apps have the ability to shoot log too – such as the LG V30. However, there is a difference in how they go about it. Although I don’t personally have expertise in this area, so I couldn’t explain to you how or why which version is better.

In this post I’m just going to talk about Log, as it’s the setting everyone seems to get excited about. Especially since FiLMiC Pro introduced their LogV2.

What is Log?

Log format recording arrived with Kodak’s Cineon system for scanning film. The system scanned film into a format that corresponded to the density of the original film. This maximised the information from the film that could be transferred and stored in video format.

Professional camera makers such as Sony, Canon and ARRI have taken the idea of Log film scanning and applied it to their sensors. The idea behind it is to preserve more data from the image.

It’s actually very difficult to explain Log without getting very technical. There’s a lot of talk about extra stops, dynamic range, linear recording, adding curves, 8 bit, 10 bit, 12 bit, voltages, pixels, encoding, pretty pictures of curves and diagrams and shades representing stops…

If you wanted to spend the day being blinded by science (when you could be being creative instead) go and Google Log format recording.

Well, did you understand any of it at all so we don’t have to?

I did get the basic gist of it. OK, so…

Recording Log kind of re-shuffles the spectrum of light (from black to white) towards the white end.

This is why when you switch to Log you notice the image looks brighter and washed out. The contrast is removed – or rather, spread out more evenly.

You might also notice you can see more detail in the shadows. The left of this image is shot with FiLMiC pro on a Oneplus 6 using their Log settings. The right is with colouring applied.

So why should we do go through this process?

The idea is: the extra information you preserve will be useful in post, when you come to grade and colour your video. Put simply, you have more options and more to play with. So, theoretically, you can create even more incredible, cinematic, film-look videos with your smartphone.

“The bottom line is that you should get an extra stop of exposure without altering the blackpoint/whitepoint.” No Film School

Theoretically…

Here’s my experience

When I shot my first smartphone film, I’d heard so much about shooting Log I believed it was a no-brainer.

Because when I shot my sci-fi series with a Blackmagic Pocket camera, lenses and a professional DoP and his assistants, they shot it in Log (or was it flat?). Anyway, when it came to colouring and grading (which ended up doing myself from a knowledge point of essentially zero) I had a bit of a learning curve. It was a 1 hour 20 min film and I graded it about 3 or 4 times, taking months.

So, I didn’t really question shooting Log on my Samsung S8 – it’s what the pros do, right?

Well, when it came to grading and colouring that short (in Adobe Premiere) I really struggled. And so did the colourist who offered to help. It came out looking a bit… orange, no matter what I did. Plus there was noise everywhere.

That’s why when I came to shoot the next episodes I shot using the natural setting. To my eyes, both the following episodes look much better – hardly any noise, natural skin colours. Far quicker to grade – just a few tweaks here and there.

I had showed the first episode to my friend who works in the industry selling and producing films. “It looks a bit orange.” she said. When I showed her the 2nd episode, “It looks great – did you use a different camera?” I think she was expecting me to say, “yeah we decided not to use smartphones any more.”

Orange you say?

Lack of expertise?

Anyway, I decided I obviously didn’t have the skills to use Log effectively. And neither did I want to spend months or years learning how to use it. The whole appeal of using smartphones to me was the flexibility, the spontaneity – the fact they are simple to use. To me, using Log on your smartphone is like buying a small car to nip around town and then attaching a huge trailer on the back.

However, I wanted to educate myself some more so I started looking around to see what people are saying. And it turns out the problems I had are common, not only to smartphone filmmakers, but experienced filmmakers using other cameras too.

Here’s some of the comments I found:

“If you don’t need it, it will noticeably reduce the image quality, since it’s cramming way more dynamic range into the same video codec… when you de-log it, everything becomes grainier… Log video actually throws out MORE of your most valuable data so it can store a bunch of highlights and shadows that you probably won’t ever use.” Tony Northrup, about shooting Log in general

“I must admit that I did struggle trying to get good results the first time I tried shooting Log on the iPhone. I found it very difficult to get the colours to look right when I shot in Log and then tried to grade the images. To my eye there is not a huge difference from shooting Log, as opposed to shooting normally using Filmic Pro and controlling the exposure manually and de-saturating the colours slightly.” Matthew Allard ACS, about an older version of FiLMiC Pro Log

“Everyone knows that when shooting with a LOG curve you map a greater range of input values to the image. In such cases skin tones are mapped into a tiny fracture of the color spectrum. **PERSONAL OPINION** The most grades that I see with A7s & GH4 log profiles end up with plastic skin colors. I wonder why… “ Don Kotlos

“Personally I do not recommend to shoot in LOG. The footage comes with additional noise and over contrast results (too dark shadows) even If set properly. Also when graded it doesn’t look natural.” Commenter here.

So it’s not just me

There does seem to be a misconception about the Log recording, and not just when using smartphones. One problem is that it has become “common knowledge” that to shoot cinematic looking footage you need to shoot Log or Flat because the pros do – not true. The other problem is that every time you see one of these “before and after” swipe overs it goes from the Log washed out version to the coloured version – of course it’s going to look dramatically better.

Let’s see some swipe overs from the (Natural + graded) to (Log + graded).

I mean, if shooting Log and going through the extra work colouring is something you really want to do, great. I just think you need to be aware that smartphones are designed for ease of use. Adding FiLMiC Pro to set ISO, frame rate, fix focus and many of the other features is one thing. They are so well done in the app they are a dream to use. To me, these features are a small couple of steps up from using the camera on auto mode.

But if you decide to shoot Log, you are taking a big step into a complex process of shooting and grading that can baffle filmmakers with years of experience.

“Should you choose to accept this mission… ” Mission Impossible

FiLMiC Pro LogV2

I’m not saying it’s not possible or you should never use Log with your smartphone. I just think you need to be careful you don’t trick yourself into thinking your video looks better than it does. When you shoot Log it looks washed out, so of course you will improve on that.

Make sure you are improving on what you can achieve without Log and that you want to spend the time working on it.

With the recent update of the Log setting, things have improved. So that’s also a positive. YouTuber iPhoneographers has been testing it out and enjoying it. He also points out the improvements from the old FiLMiC Pro Log to the new version – so check out his video and see what you think:

Now read this.

“Don’t be afraid to shoot flat, just be ready for the consequences.”

Log Format Recording on other camera apps

MAVIS is one of the best camera apps for iOS. As far as they’re concerned, they can’t do it. This in answer to a FAQ:

Does MAVIS support a LOG colour space or ‘flat colour’?

No. MAVIS doesn’t support Log colour space because it’s not really possible to have Log on the iPhone. iOS provides all third party apps with a video stream that has REC-709 or REC-2020 already applied – so the range has already been expanded out. Any Log mode we could implement would really just be a filter and could therefore result is lower quality footage. We would recommend keeping your footage as raw as possible and then making any colour corrections required using a colouring package. Log is, however, definitely something we would like to bring and we are always investigating the possibilities. So MAVIS are saying that it’s not actually possible to shoot Log on an iPhone. MoviePro hasn’t been too active in recent times. However, this old tweet says they find it impossible to shoot Log format on iOS. iOS12, no API updates for camera sensor. Hopes dashed for real LOG video recording! Not very inclined to provide fake LOG that many users keep requesting every day. — MoviePro (@MovieProApp) June 5, 2018 So I have to say it’s a pretty murky subject. And with so many smartphone (and DSLR) filmmakers rushing to shoot in Log, I would love to know exactly what’s going on. For more information, FiLMiC have published a white paper about how Filmic Log works. I recommend looking into this and certainly doing tests with and without Log, before using it on a project. Avoid using Log in low light conditions So, further investigation seems to suggest you must use a low ISO when shooting in Log. For example, about 100 ISO (or lower?). You will need to do tests for yourself to see what setting works best. If you use high ISO settings with Log format, it seems this is when the extra noise is created. This video below is a good example. Shot on an iPhone XS, see how much extra noise there is in the Log versions. Here’s another good example. Halfway through this video, a night scene is shot using FiLMiC Pro’s Log V2. He explains how at first the lack of light caused a lot of noise issues. After re-shooting the scene a few times, he worked out that by adding much more light, the noise issues were removed. So we can see that it can be used successfully. How much it improves your images and whether it is worth the extra time (and light) is up to you to decide. Certainly, if you are not shooting with enough light to keep your ISO at 100 or lower, then I would say don’t use it.

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