How to make a LUT from your grade, app by app
Make a .cube LUT from your grade in DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom or Leumos: the steps, the size to pick, and what a LUT leaves out.
Read the field noteLeumos / Blog
Field notes from building Leumos.
How AI color grading actually works, what we're learning while shipping it, and the post-production workflows we're trying to obsolete.
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Find your way through the grade.
Guides written against manufacturer documentation, grouped by the problem you turned up with.
Log footage and color management
Why log looks wrong, how to expose it, and who should own the conversion.
- Why your S-Log3 footage looks washed out
- How to expose S-Log3 correctly
- S-Log3 to Rec.709: LUT vs color space transform
- Why CST, ACES and LUTs look different
- How log formats allocate 10-bit code values
- Why banding appears after grading and export
- Premiere is applying a LUT to my log footage
- How to grade N-Log footage
- How to grade C-Log3 footage from a Canon R5
- How to grade V-Log and V-Log L footage
- How to grade F-Log and F-Log2 footage
- Apple Log workflow on Windows
Matching shots and looks
Getting two cameras, a reference image, or a whole timeline to agree.
- Why your cameras don't match, and how to fix it in post
- How to match video to a still (an edited photo)
- How to recreate a movie look from a still
- Resolve Shot Match not working: what to check
- Matching log footage to baked-in LUT clips
- Matching Nikon Z footage with Sony and Canon
- How far apart two normalised cameras actually land
- Do you have to color grade every clip?
- How to batch grade and export many clips
Grading without a workstation
When the machine, the render, or the software is the bottleneck.
All field notes
How to make a LUT from your grade, app by app
Make a .cube LUT from your grade in DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom or Leumos: the steps, the size to pick, and what a LUT leaves out.
Read postWhat is color grading in video? A measured frame example
What color grading changes in video, how it differs from correction and photo editing, and what one measured before-and-after can—and cannot—show.
Read postHow to Color Grade Apple Log and Apple Log 2 iPhone Footage
Identify Apple Log or Apple Log 2, convert it once, balance the shot, build a look, and check the export. Includes how Leumos handles both inputs.
Read postPremiere Pro Color Grading: A Rec.709 Workflow
Grade in Premiere Pro from source setup through shot matching, scopes, selective corrections, and a Rec.709 export check.
Read postWhich log formats survive 8-bit recording
Nine camera log curves computed in 8-bit and 10-bit: where the code ladder runs out, which formats band first, and how much of the folklore holds up.
Read postColor grading in Final Cut Pro: a 2026 guide
Grade in Final Cut Pro 12.3: camera LUTs and library setup, Color Wheels and Curves, a balance-match-look order, and five mistakes that cost time.
Read postColor timing in film: how the lab graded movies
Color timing set red, green and blue printer lights scene by scene at the lab. How printer points worked, what the timer decided, and what survived.
Read postDaVinci Resolve color grading: a 2026 guide
Grade on the Resolve 21 color page: color management or CST nodes, a node order that holds up, primaries, Color Warper, Shot Match, five mistakes.
Read postFilm emulation in color grading: what it copies
Film emulation copies four measurable things: a density curve, a print response, halation and grain. What each one is, and what a film look cannot reach.
Read postCinematic color grading: how film looks are built
Cinematic color is a tonal curve, a held-back palette, protected skin and film texture, in that order. What each block does, and why LUTs alone miss.
Read postColor correction vs color grading: the difference
Color correction makes footage accurate and consistent. Color grading makes it mean something. Where each sits in a pipeline, and how each maps to tools.
Read postColor grading examples: before and after, explained
A measured before-and-after on real footage, ten grading styles described by what to look for, and how to read any grade on scopes.
Read postBest free color grading software in 2026: 10 tools compared
The best free color grading software is DaVinci Resolve's free version. Ten tools compared by what is truly free and what each one gives up.
Read postHow to color grade video: a 7-step workflow (2026)
A tool-agnostic color workflow: normalise, correct, pick a reference, match the scene, build the look, handle skin, then verify on scopes before export.
Read postTeal and orange color grading: how to do it well
Teal and orange works because skin sits on the orange side of the wheel. How to build the split, protect faces, and the four places it falls apart.
Read postHow to read a vectorscope (video color)
A vectorscope plots hue as angle and saturation as distance from centre. How to read the targets and skin-tone line, and use it to fix white balance.
Read postHow to read a waveform monitor for video exposure
A waveform monitor plots brightness against horizontal position. How to read IRE, luma vs RGB parade, and where black, skin and white should sit.
Read postLog footage explained: what it is and how to grade it
Log footage is video recorded on a logarithmic curve to hold dynamic range. Why it looks flat, how it differs from Rec.709 and RAW, and how to grade it.
Read postIntroducing Leumos: color grading in your browser
Match your footage to a reference, fine-tune the grade in your browser, and export a finished video that Leumos renders on its servers.
Read postWhy your 4K render is taking hours
Why is my 4K render taking 20 hours? The real causes in order, the local fixes that actually work, and the honest answer when the machine is the limit.
Read postApple Log workflow on Windows
Stuck with an iPhone Apple Log workflow on Windows, and overcomplicating it? What Apple Log is, what breaks off macOS, and the routes that work on a PC.
Read postWhy banding appears after grading and export
Why does my export have banding? It is quantisation becoming visible. Here is how many code values each log format actually has to spend down there.
Read postHow to batch grade and export many clips
Do you have to grade each clip separately? How adjustment layers, Resolve groups, shared nodes and render queues scale, and where each one stops working.
Read postBrowser color grading tools in 2026: video, LUT and photo output
Compare browser color grading tools by video input, finished-video or LUT output, footage privacy, grading controls and free delivery.
Read postColor.io shut down: what to use instead
Color.io announced its shutdown in Nov 2025 and went offline on 31 Dec 2025; Apple bought its developer in Jan 2026. Which live tools replace each part.
Read postDo you have to color grade every clip?
Do you have to color grade every clip? No. You normalize every clip and grade scenes. Here is how that split works and where it stops working.
Read postYour grading performance problem is not your Mac
Is the M3 Pro worse than the M1 Pro for color grading? Usually the chip is fine. The real causes are decode, media engine tier and heat.
Read postHow far apart two normalised cameras actually land
Same scene, two log formats, each normalised correctly. The tonal residual is zero, and what quantisation leaves is 0.04 stops. Here is the working.
Read postHow log formats allocate 10-bit code values
Nine log curves computed from the manufacturers' own published formulas and put on one scale: where middle grey lands, and how the code values split.
Read postHow to grade C-Log3 footage from a Canon R5
How do you grade C-Log3 footage? Plain language: what the curve is, the three routes to a normal picture, and which one to pick on a Canon R5.
Read postHow to grade F-Log and F-Log2 footage
How do you grade Fujifilm F-Log footage? Start from Fujifilm's published code values, work out which curve you shot, then normalize before you look.
Read postHow to grade N-Log footage
How do you grade N-Log footage? Nikon's reference point, the official N-Log LUT, the 10-bit rule and the Resolve node setup Nikon publishes.
Read postHow to grade V-Log and V-Log L footage
How do you grade V-Log footage? V-Log versus V-Log L, Panasonic's published reference values, the conversion LUTs, and the usual failure modes.
Read postMatching log footage to baked-in LUT clips
How do you match V-Log footage to clips that already have a LUT baked in? Choose a reference, choose a direction, and know what cannot be recovered.
Read postMatching Nikon Z footage with Sony and Canon
How do you match Nikon Z footage with Sony and Canon on one job? Normalize each source first, pick a reference, then balance exposure and white balance.
Read postHow to match video to a still (an edited photo)
How to match video to a still: normalize the video, read the still on scopes, match tone before color, then white balance and hue. Step by step.
Read postWhy log footage gets noisy when you grade it
Why is my S-Log3 footage grainy? Lifting log shadows amplifies chroma noise, and the cause is usually exposure rather than the grade you applied.
Read postPremiere is applying a LUT to my log footage
Premiere is applying a LUT to my log footage and I can't turn it off. Trace the Source Clip, color-management, and Lumetri stages in the right order.
Read postHow to recreate a movie look from a still
To recreate a movie look from a still, copy the grade: tone and color relationships. Stock, lens and lighting cannot be copied. Here is the split.
Read postResolve Shot Match not working: what to check
Resolve Shot Match not working? Here are the causes in the order they usually bite, and the preparation sequence that fixes most of them.
Read postWhy your cameras don't match, and how to fix it in post
Your cameras don't match and you cannot reshoot. Why cameras render color differently, and the post-only workflow that gets them back together.
Read postWhy CST, ACES and LUTs look different
Why do a color space transform, an ACES setup and a conversion LUT look different on the same log clip? Because only one of them is neutral.
Read postWhy does my grade look off?
Why does my grade look off? Six causes share that symptom. Isolate them in order, starting with the file and ending with your own eyes.
Read postHow to expose S-Log3 correctly
How do you expose S-Log3 correctly? Put 18% gray at 41% and 90% white at 61%, shoot at base ISO, and read the log signal instead of your monitoring LUT.
Read postHow to grade log footage without DaVinci Resolve
Can you grade log footage without DaVinci Resolve? Yes. Here is the workflow in Premiere, Final Cut, mobile apps and the browser, with the real limits.
Read postWhy your S-Log3 footage looks washed out
Why does S-Log3 footage look washed out? Four different problems share that symptom. Diagnose which one you have, then apply the fix that matches it.
Read postS-Log3 to Rec.709: LUT vs color space transform
Should you convert S-Log3 to Rec.709 with a LUT or a color space transform? Here is what each one actually does, what it breaks, and the order to work in.
Read postBest Color Grading Tools for Music Videos (2026)
Compare Leumos, DaVinci Resolve, Dehancer and FilmConvert for music videos: reference matching, creative control, film texture and finished-video export.
Read postAI Color Grading for Wedding Videos: 6 Tools
Six AI color grading tools for wedding videos in 2026, compared on multi-camera matching, skin tone, turnaround and what each one refuses to do.
Read postAI Color Grading for Indie Filmmaking: From Reference to Final
Color grade your indie film from start to finish in Leumos: match a reference, refine the look and skin tones, then export the finished video.
Read postCinema Grade Alternative: Leumos AI Head-to-Head
Cinema Grade vs Leumos AI, compared honestly: an on-clip grading plugin against browser-based AI scene detection and reference matching.
Read postAdobe Premiere Lumetri Alternative: Honest Comparison
Adobe Premiere Lumetri alternative for solo videographers: browser-based grading, no Creative Cloud lock-in, reference-image matching.
Read postFilmConvert Nitrate vs Leumos: Film Looks and Shot Matching
Compare FilmConvert Nitrate film emulation, CineMatch camera matching, and Leumos’s browser grading workflow, from reference matching to finished video.
Read postBest AI Color Grading Tools 2026: Honest Ranking
Honest 2026 ranking of AI color grading tools: DaVinci Resolve, Colourlab Ai, fylm.ai and FilmConvert, reviewed by a DaVinci-certified colorist.
Read postColourlab AI Alternative: Leumos vs Colourlab AI 4 (2026)
Colourlab AI 4 launched on 21 October 2026 for Apple Silicon Macs, from $49 a month after a 14-day trial. Leumos grades and exports in a desktop browser.
Read postfylm.ai Review for Video: Timeline, Pricing, and Fit
A source-backed fylm.ai review for video editors: Premiere Pro timeline sync, Color Match, current pricing, and limits the public pages do not document.
Read postDaVinci Resolve color grading and shot match alternative
Is there a DaVinci Resolve alternative for color grading and shot matching? Resolve goes deeper. Leumos is a browser route that matches shots to a still.
Read postAI scene detection: how it works and where it still fails
Scene cut detection is the unglamorous foundation under every AI editing tool, and the part most explainers skip. Here's what runs, and where it fails.
Read postAI shot matching for video: a practical workflow
Match color between video shots without losing the scene's intent. Set up the footage, choose a reference, check the result, and know when to adjust it.
Read postAI color grading for filmmakers: how it works (2026)
AI color grading covers three jobs: automatic correction, reference color transfer, and shot-to-shot matching. What each does, and what it cannot do yet.
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