How to Convert S-Log3 to Rec.709 in Any Editor (Fastest Premiere Pro Method)

Your footage probably does not look bad because of your camera.

It looks bad because S-Log3 is not supposed to look finished when you drop it into your editing software—whether that is Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, or CapCut.

S-Log3 records a flat image because it is built to be processed after you shoot. Before you add a cinematic look, you need to convert that flat S-Log3 footage into the color space you are delivering in. For normal YouTube videos, Instagram Reels, and SDR client work, that is usually Rec.709.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Apply the correct S-Log3-to-Rec.709 conversion LUT.
2. Let your editing software manage the conversion automatically.

The first method works in almost any editor. The second is faster when you are editing a project with dozens or hundreds of clips.

If you use Premiere Pro, I will show you how to make the conversion happen across the project without dragging a LUT onto every clip. But first, you need to understand the universal method because it works in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, CapCut, and almost every serious video editor.

Quick answer: how to convert S-Log3 to Rec.709

Download a technical conversion LUT made for the exact gamma and color gamut you recorded, then apply it before your creative color grade.

For example, if you shot Sony S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine, use an S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine-to-Rec.709 conversion—not a random S-Log3 LUT and not one designed for S-Gamut3.

That gets you from the flat log image to a normal Rec.709 starting point. After that, correct the exposure and white balance, then add your creative look.

The order is:

Convert → correct → match → grade

Do not use a creative LUT as the conversion. They have different jobs:

• A technical conversion LUT moves footage from one known color space into another.
• A creative LUT adds a style after the footage is normalized.

Mix those up and you end up fighting strange skin tones, crushed shadows, and oversaturated colors.

Why Sony S-Log3 looks flat and washed out

Sony designed S-Log3 for post-production. It protects more tonal information than a finished Rec.709 image, which gives you more flexibility when grading highlights, shadows, and midtones.

That gray image is not broken. It just has not been converted yet.

This applies whether your footage came from a Sony A7 IV, A7S III, FX3, FX30, ZV-E1, or another Sony camera that records S-Log3. The camera model matters, but the more important question is the exact gamma and gamut combination you used.

On the Sony A7 IV, for example:

• PP8 defaults to S-Log3 with S-Gamut3.Cine.
• PP9 defaults to S-Log3 with S-Gamut3.

Those profiles both use S-Log3, but they do not use the same color gamut. Your conversion must match both parts.

Before doing anything, check:

• Which picture profile did you record?
• Was it S-Gamut3.Cine or S-Gamut3?
• Did you customize the profile?
• Are you delivering in standard Rec.709, HDR, or something else?

If you are creating normal social content, YouTube videos, or SDR client work, Rec.709 is the straightforward destination.

Method 1: use an S-Log3-to-Rec.709 conversion LUT in any editor

This is the basic method and it works almost anywhere.

1. Import your S-Log3 footage.
2. Add a color effect or LUT tool.
3. Load the correct technical conversion LUT.
4. Confirm the image now has normal contrast and color.
5. Correct exposure and white balance.
6. Add your creative grade after the conversion.

You can do this in Premiere Pro with Lumetri Color, in DaVinci Resolve with a LUT or Color Space Transform, in Final Cut Pro with a Camera LUT, and in CapCut Desktop by importing a custom LUT.

The problem starts when your workflow looks like this:

Drag a clip onto the timeline. Add the conversion LUT. Drag in another clip. Add the same conversion LUT again. Repeat 50 times.

That works, but it is painfully repetitive. It also makes projects easier to break because one clip gets missed, another gets the wrong LUT, and another gets converted twice.

You can reduce the repetition with adjustment layers, shared nodes, groups, presets, or media-level camera LUTs depending on the editor. But the cleaner solution is proper color management: tell the software what the source footage is once, tell it what the output should be once, and let it handle the conversion across the project.

The faster Premiere Pro method: automatically convert S-Log3

Premiere Pro can color-manage supported log footage across the project. Instead of manually applying an S-Log3-to-Rec.709 LUT to every timeline clip, you tell Premiere what the source color space is and what output you want.

Premiere handles the transform. You keep grading.

Step 1: turn on automatic log color management

Open the Lumetri Color panel and go to its Settings tab.

Under the project color settings, enable Color Manage Auto Detected Log and Raw Media.

This tells Premiere to automatically color-manage supported log and raw footage when it can identify the format.

Step 2: set the sequence to Direct Rec.709 (SDR)

In the sequence color settings, select Direct Rec.709 (SDR) if you are making a normal SDR video for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or a standard client delivery.

Now Premiere knows the destination of the conversion.

Your footage has an input color space. Your sequence has an output color space. Premiere handles the transform between them.

Step 3: check whether Premiere identified the S-Log3 footage correctly

Premiere can automatically detect many formats, but camera files do not always contain enough reliable metadata. That metadata can also disappear after footage is transcoded.

If a clip still looks flat or wrong, manually tag the source footage:

1. Select the S-Log3 clips in the Project panel.
2. Open the source clip color settings.
3. Set Override Media Color Space to the format you actually recorded.
4. Choose Sony S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine or Sony S-Log3/S-Gamut3.

You can select and tag all matching source clips together. You do not need to drag every clip onto the timeline and fix them one at a time.

Once tagged correctly, the footage should appear normalized anywhere it is used in the project.

Step 4: do not add another conversion LUT

This is where people ruin the workflow.

Premiere converts the S-Log3 footage through color management, then they add an S-Log3-to-Rec.709 LUT on top. The footage gets converted twice.

The result usually looks too contrasty, oversaturated, or crushed.

Use one conversion method:

• Premiere Pro color management, or
• A manual technical conversion LUT.

Not both.

Step 5: correct and grade after the conversion

Once the footage is normalized, use Lumetri Color in this order:

1. Fix white balance.
2. Set exposure with the waveform.
3. Adjust contrast without destroying shadow detail.
4. Match the clips.
5. Add the creative look last.

The conversion gets the image into the right world. It does not finish the grade for you.

Here is my simple Premiere Pro color-grading workflow after the footage has been converted:

Watch: The Simplest Cinematic Color Grading in Premiere Pro

What about DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, and CapCut?

The same rule applies in every editor: identify the source color space, convert it once, then grade it.

DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve can handle S-Log3 through Resolve Color Management. Set the project to DaVinci YRGB Color Managed, assign the matching Sony S-Log3 input color space to the source clips, and use a Rec.709 output for standard SDR delivery.

You can select multiple matching clips in the Media Pool and assign their input color space together. Resolve then performs the conversion automatically instead of making you add the same LUT clip by clip.

Resolve is powerful, but this is not a Resolve tutorial. The point is that it solves the same repetitive problem through project color management.

Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro can automatically apply a built-in Camera LUT when the media contains the correct log metadata. If it does not detect the footage correctly, select the clips and assign the matching Sony S-Log3 camera LUT in the Info inspector.

Because the Camera LUT is applied at the media level, it affects every use of that clip in the current library.

CapCut Desktop

CapCut Desktop supports custom LUT files. Import the correct S-Log3 conversion LUT through Adjustment → LUT, apply it, then make the rest of your color corrections.

CapCut gives you the universal LUT route. Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Final Cut Pro give you deeper media- or project-level color-management options when you are working with larger projects.

Why your converted S-Log3 footage can still look bad

Conversion is not repair.

If the footage was underexposed, incorrectly white-balanced, clipped, or recorded with the wrong camera settings, converting it to Rec.709 will not magically fix it.

It can make the existing problem easier to see.

Sony warns that S-Log3 can show more noise in dark areas than other gamma settings. If your shadows are underexposed and you lift them hard after conversion, the noise comes with them.

Use your exposure tools when shooting. On Sony cameras such as the A7 IV, Gamma Display Assist can show an S-Log3-to-709 preview while the camera continues recording the flat log image. That makes the footage easier to judge without baking the display look into the recording.

Then remember the order in post:

Convert → correct → match → grade

S-Log3 versus S-Cinetone: log is not always better

S-Log3 gives you more grading flexibility, but it also adds another step to every edit.

Use S-Log3 when the scene needs the extra dynamic range and you plan to grade the footage properly.

Use S-Cinetone when speed matters more and you want a stronger image straight out of the camera. On the Sony A7 IV, PP11 defaults to S-Cinetone.

The real choice is simple:

• S-Log3: more flexibility and more post-production.
• S-Cinetone: faster turnaround and less room to push the image.

Shooting log does not automatically make footage cinematic. A clean capture, the correct conversion, and a controlled grade do.

Build the conversion once, not on every clip

The biggest lesson here is not a color trick.

It is to stop rebuilding repeatable work.

Yes, you can convert S-Log3 with a LUT in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, or CapCut. But if you edit in Premiere Pro, proper color management means you can tag the footage once and let Premiere handle the conversion everywhere it appears.

That same idea applies to the rest of editing. You should not rebuild every hook, caption style, zoom, sound effect, text animation, and color look from zero either.

That is why I built the All Pack + Course.

It gives you my Premiere Pro system for creating better-looking short-form videos without repeating the same slow setup on every edit. You get the packs, cinematic color tools, and the course that shows you how everything fits together.

You still control the final video. You just stop wasting your time on work that should already be built.

Get the All Pack + Course here.

Frequently asked questions

What LUT converts Sony S-Log3 to Rec.709?

Use a technical conversion LUT that matches both the gamma and gamut you recorded. S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine footage needs an S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine-to-Rec.709 conversion. S-Log3/S-Gamut3 footage needs the matching S-Gamut3 version.

Can Premiere Pro automatically convert S-Log3 to Rec.709?

Yes. Enable Color Manage Auto Detected Log and Raw Media, use a Direct Rec.709 (SDR) sequence for standard SDR output, and confirm that Premiere tagged the source footage correctly. If it did not, batch-select the clips and set Override Media Color Space manually.

Can DaVinci Resolve automatically convert S-Log3?

Yes. Use DaVinci YRGB Color Managed, assign the correct Sony S-Log3 input color space to the clips, and choose the output color space for the delivery. Resolve then manages the transform.

Can Final Cut Pro convert Sony S-Log3 footage?

Yes. Final Cut Pro can automatically apply supported Camera LUTs from media metadata, or you can assign the correct Sony S-Log3 Camera LUT manually in the Info inspector.

Can CapCut convert S-Log3 to Rec.709?

CapCut Desktop can import a custom technical LUT. Load the correct S-Log3-to-Rec.709 LUT, apply it before the creative grade, and adjust the image from there.

Should I put the conversion LUT on an adjustment layer?

An adjustment layer can save time when every clip underneath uses the same source profile, but it is easy to convert graphics, Rec.709 footage, or footage from another camera by accident. Source-level color management is cleaner for mixed projects because the conversion follows the matching media.

Why does my S-Log3 footage look oversaturated after conversion?

The most common causes are double conversion, the wrong input gamut, or a creative LUT being mistaken for a technical conversion LUT. Remove every transform, confirm the recorded profile, then convert the footage once.