Stop guessingguessingguessing at log exposure.

Read the whole frame at a glance.

Load the LUT, assign it to a custom button, and every part of your image is colour coded by exposure in real time.

Everything between the diagnostic ranges stays a clean monochrome picture, so you can still see your frame, your focus and your composition. You are not hunting for your subject in a psychedelic mess.

Grey card at correct exposure reads solid green. Skin reads pink. That is the whole learning curve.

The part most false colour LUTs get wrong.

There are two ways to build one of these and they do not behave the same. The lazy method reads the raw log signal directly. It is easy to build, but it does not reflect what your footage looks like once graded, so the warnings fire in places that match no decision you are going to make.

This LUT normalises S-Log3 to Rec.709 first, then assigns bands from the luminance of that corrected image. That is more work to construct and it is the reason the readings mean something: the colours tell you how the shot behaves in a real grade, not how the log container happens to be packing data.

In practice, when this LUT shows red you are at the edge of what survives a standard Rec.709 delivery, with roughly a stop of log headroom still held above it. A delivery referred warning, which is the one that matters when you are deciding whether to stop down.

Grid size

Full 33 point cube, double the resolution of the 17 point LUTs commonly sold for this

Scale

The Blackmagic false colour convention, the one we have exposed against for years

Referred to

Rec.709, not raw log

Independently developed. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Blackmagic Design. We are describing the scale convention, not redistributing their software.

Will it work on your camera?

The LUT does not know what body it is loaded into. It only cares about the gamma and colour space going in. If your camera shoots S-Log3 and imports a .cube file, this works.

Loads in camera

Cinema Line: FX2, FX3, FX6, FX9, FX30. Alpha: a7 V, a7S III (firmware 4.00 or later), a7C II, a7CR, a6700, a9 III, a1 II. ZV: ZV-E1, ZV-E10 II

No LUT import

a7 IV, a7R V, a1 (original), a9 II and most Alpha bodies from 2017 on. Load it into an external monitor or recorder instead, or use it on a node in Resolve

Also in post

Drop it above S-Log3 footage in Resolve, Premiere or Final Cut to audit exposure on clips you have already shot

Requires

S-Log3 with S-Gamut3.Cine, and base ISO or above. S-Gamut3 non-Cine will load but read inaccurately

Not sure? Look for Manage User LUTs or Select LUT in your menu. If it is there, you are set. Sony has added LUT support to older bodies by firmware before, so check your latest firmware notes if your camera is not listed.

What you get.

The LUT

SLog3_FalseColor_Rec709.cube, 33 point, Rec.709 referred

Install guide

The exact card path and menu steps, about two minutes start to finish

Reference card

Band reference with IRE values, for checking against a grey card

Delivery

Instant download

Honest notes.

We would rather you bought this understanding exactly what it does.

Can I use it in DaVinci Resolve?

Yes. Drop it on a node above your footage to check exposure, then disable it and grade normally.

Will it affect my recorded footage?

Only if you route it somewhere that records. On most Sony bodies you can send the display LUT to the monitor and EVF only, leaving the file clean. If you record externally over HDMI, confirm the LUT is not going down that path.

Why not just use zebras?

Zebras check one threshold at a time. False colour shows every zone in the frame at once, which is what you need when balancing a subject against a background.

Does it work with S-Gamut3 instead of S-Gamut3.Cine?

It will load, but the colour transform will not match and the readings will be off. Shoot S-Gamut3.Cine.

Verify against a grey card on your own body before a paid job. Every sensor and firmware version behaves slightly differently, and one test shot tells you where you stand.