Apple Log 2: How to Color Grade iPhone Video

Part 1. What Is Apple Log 2?

Apple Log 2 is a Log color space designed for video recording and post-production on supported iPhone models. Unlike standard video, which applies color and contrast processing in-camera, Log recording uses a logarithmic curve to preserve more highlight and shadow information for later editing.

Apple Log 2 also uses Apple Gamut, a wider color gamut designed to provide greater flexibility for video production and color grading. Apple states that Apple Log 2 preserves highlight and shadow detail while providing a wider gamut than Apple Log.

The trade-off is that Apple Log 2 footage does not look finished straight out of the camera. It is intentionally flat and desaturated so that you can make more precise adjustments during post-production.

Apple Log 2 recording requires an iPhone 17 Pro or later according to Apple's current Final Cut Camera documentation.

Apple Log vs. Apple Log 2

Apple Log and Apple Log 2 are both designed for professional-oriented video workflows, but they are not identical.

Part 2. What Is iPhone Color Grading?

iPhone color grading is the process of adjusting the color, brightness, contrast, and overall visual style of footage recorded on an iPhone.

It is useful to separate the process into two stages: color correction and color grading.

Color Correction

Color correction focuses on making the footage look natural and balanced.

Typical adjustments include:

• Exposure: Correct footage that is too bright or too dark.
• White balance: Remove unwanted warm or cool color casts.
• Contrast: Define the difference between shadows, midtones, and highlights.
• Highlights and shadows: Recover or balance bright and dark areas.
• Saturation: Restore or control the intensity of colors.
• Skin tones: Make faces look more natural and consistent.

For Apple Log 2 footage, color correction is particularly important because the original image is intentionally flat and desaturated.

Color Grading

Color grading comes after basic correction and focuses on creating a particular visual style.

For example, you might make a video:

• Warmer and more inviting
• Cooler and more atmospheric
• Higher in contrast
• Softer and more cinematic
• More vibrant and colorful
• Darker and moodier

Part 3. How to Color Grade Apple Log 2 Footage

Color grading Apple Log 2 transforms raw visual data into a finished filmic master. Here is a step-by-step workflow for software like DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, or Adobe Premiere Pro:

Step 1: Normalize with a Color Space Transform or Technical LUT

The fastest way to restore accurate contrast and saturation is to apply an official Apple Log 2 to Rec. 709 LUT or use a Color Space Transform (CST) node set to Apple Log 2 / Rec. 2020 input.

Step 2: Adjust Primary Exposure and Contrast

Using your primary color wheels or curves:

• Lower the Lift/Shadows until shadow areas reach an accurate black point.
• Adjust Gain/Highlights to bring up light sources without blowing out bright details.
• Nudge Pivot/Gamma to balance midtone brightness, ensuring skin tones look natural.

Step 3: Balance White Balance and Tint

Correct any color cast caused by ambient lighting by adjusting color temperature and tint controls until white objects and skin tones look accurate.

Step 4: Apply Creative Look & Secondary Adjustments

Once your base image is balanced, add creative grading nodes or creative LUTs to tweak specific hue ranges, build split-tone contrast, or apply film grain.

Part 4. Why Does Apple Log 2 Footage Look Gray?

If your raw Apple Log 2 clips look desaturated, flat, and noticeably gray, don't worry-this is completely normal.

Log profiles map light logarithmically across the sensor rather than linearly. By stripping away baked-in contrast and saturation during recording, the iPhone sensor packs maximum light and highlight data into the file without burning details into permanent darks or whites. The "gray" image is simply unprocessed data waiting for you to transform it in editing.

Part 5. Pro-tip: How to Fix Apple Log 2 Videos That Look Flat or Washed Out

What if your iPhone footage still looks flat, soft, noisy, or washed out after basic color grading?

Color correction tools can fix light levels and color tones, but they cannot restore details lost to heavy compression, low-light ISO noise, digital motion blur, or sub-sampled Log recording. When color grading leaves your footage looking blurry, soft, or textured with grain in low light, you need specialized AI processing.

HitPaw VikPea is an AI video enhancement tool designed to improve video quality through AI-powered restoration and enhancement.

Rather than replacing your color grading software, it can be used after basic color correction and grading when the finished video still needs additional image-quality improvement.

What Can VikPea Help With?

Restore Soft or Blurry Details: If faces, objects, or textures still look soft after color grading, VikPea can use AI enhancement to recover and improve visible details.

AI Denoising for Low-Light Log: Shooting Log at high ISO settings often introduces heavy grain in shadow areas. VikPea intelligently removes noise while retaining natural skin and foliage texture.

4K/8K Upscaling & Clarity Restoration: Sharpen soft, blurry clips and recover micro-details in facial features, hair, and scenic backgrounds.

Color & Quality Enhancement: Re-energize washed-out footage by repairing color degradation caused by high-compression video profiles.

How to Fix Flat/Blurry Log Video in VikPea

• Step 1. Import Footage:Export your color-corrected Apple Log 2 video from your NLE and load it into HitPaw VikPea's Video Enhancer model. If you'd like to restore color, please use the AI Color module.

  

• Step 2. Choose Your AI Model:Select the General Restoration Model for general sharpness or the Denoise Model to clean up low-light shadow grain. Set your target output (e.g., 4K or 8K).

  

• Step 3. Preview & Export:Render a real-time preview to check restored details, then export your clean, crisp, broadcast-ready footage.

  

Part 6. FAQs

Conclusion

Apple Log 2 gives iPhone filmmakers more control over color and dynamic range, but its flat and desaturated appearance can be confusing if you're used to standard iPhone video. Once you understand the difference between color correction and color grading, the workflow becomes much clearer: transform the Log footage, correct exposure and white balance, refine contrast and color, and then create your desired look. If the graded footage still appears soft, noisy, or lacking detail, an AI video enhancement tool like VikPea can provide an additional step for improving overall video quality.