How to convert log or HLG footage from your camera properly

Last updated 2026-09-04 · 7 min read

What is the short version?

Footage shot in a log or HLG profile looks washed out on purpose. It is carrying more range than a normal display can show, and the fix is a conversion — not a contrast slider, which is what "make it less flat" usually gets you.

1. Go to Vizard Agent and say what you shot on.
2. Say where it is going — 1080p for the web, usually.
3. Ask for a test clip with the conversion options compared.

What do you need before you start?

The camera and the profile, ideally by name. Vizard Agent will look up what that combination records rather than guessing from the file, which matters because two cameras writing the same container can be carrying completely different curves inside it.

• The camera. Make and model.
• The profile. HLG, S-Log, V-Log, C-Log, whichever.
• The delivery. Resolution and where it plays.
• A representative clip. Faces if there are faces.
• A reference, if you have one. A still you like.

What do you type into Vizard Agent?

Name the profile and ask to see the options rather than the answer. Colour conversion is a decision with more than one defensible outcome, and the useful version of this request ends with you looking at two frames rather than being handed one.

Prompt

Variants worth knowing:

• "Compare, do not choose." You look at both.
• "Check it on the face." Skin is the honest test.
• "Deliver 1080 from the 4K." Downscale after the conversion.

What does Vizard Agent actually do?

Here is the order Vizard Agent worked in on a real UHD HLG clip destined for a 1080p delivery. Step two is the one that separates this from grading: it finds out what the camera actually wrote before deciding what to do about it.

1. Checks the available colour tools and the storage it has.
2. Researches your camera's video formats.
3. Probes the test clip technically for what it is really carrying.
4. Compares tone-mapping variants and looks at them.
5. Extracts frames across the clip to see how it changes over time.
6. Generates grading variants and compares them.
7. Renders the test clip at the delivery resolution.
8. Checks the render for edge artefacts and uploads it.
9. Compares a true Rec.709 conversion against tone-mapping.
10. Looks at both conversion paths side by side.
11. Tests stronger variants with the black point moved.
12. Renders a full-resolution still and inspects it.
13. Applies the chosen treatment to a second, different clip.
14. Tunes the grade against the face specifically.
15. Calculates the white balance by measurement, not by eye.
16. Builds a comparison image of the old and new skin tone.

Step nine is the technically interesting one. Tone-mapping and a proper conversion both take a flat image and make it look normal, and they are not the same operation — one compresses a wide range into a narrow one, the other maps a known curve to a known standard. Which is right depends on your footage, which is why they get compared on it.

Steps fourteen to sixteen are the sanity check. A conversion can be correct and still leave faces looking wrong, so the last thing tuned is skin, measured rather than judged.

What does the result look like?

Footage that looks like it was shot on the camera you own rather than rescued in post. The contrast comes from the conversion, so the colours stay where the camera put them instead of being pushed until the picture stops looking pale.

Delivering 1080 from a 4K source is the easy part and it happens after the conversion, not before — which is also why the downscaled version stays sharp instead of inheriting a soft, already-processed image.

When does this not work well?

Conversion assumes the footage was exposed correctly for the profile it was shot in. Log and HLG are both unforgiving about exposure, and a faithful conversion by Vizard Agent reproduces exactly what was recorded on the day — including the mistake, which a vaguer grade would have partly hidden.

• Underexposed log. The noise comes up with the shadows.
• Blown highlights. Nothing to recover; they were clipped in camera.
• Mixed profiles in one project. Each needs its own conversion.
• Unknown or custom profiles. Say what it is, or supply a reference.
• Footage already converted once. Doing it twice makes it worse.

How do you fix a result that came back wrong?

Point at the frame and say what is off. Vizard Agent keeps the probe results, both conversion paths and the measured white balance, so a warmer or darker result is a re-render from the same analysis rather than another round of tests.

• "Too contrasty." The other conversion path, applied.
• "Skin looks orange." White balance re-measured on the face.
• "Shadows are crushed." Black point moved back.
• "The second clip does not match." Same treatment, retuned to it.

How does Vizard Agent compare to doing it yourself?

If you own a colour tool and know your camera, doing this by hand is the right answer and takes twenty minutes. The value here is for everyone else — people who shot in a log profile because a forum said to, and now have a folder of grey footage and no idea why.

Common questions

Does it know my camera? Vizard Agent looks up the formats rather than assuming.

What if I do not know my profile? Say the camera and Vizard Agent works out what the file carries.

Can it apply a LUT I already have? Yes. Send it and Vizard Agent uses yours instead.

Should I upload the full 4K file? Not necessarily. Ask Vizard Agent what it needs for a test clip first.

Does the delivery get downscaled after? Yes. Vizard Agent converts first, then resizes.

Will it fix underexposed footage? Partly. Vizard Agent will tell you what the noise cost is.

Can it match two cameras? Yes. Each is converted separately, then matched.

Is tone-mapping wrong? No, just different. That is why Vizard Agent shows you both.

What about HDR delivery? Possible. Tell Vizard Agent, because the whole chain changes.

Does it check the face? Yes. Skin tone is the last thing Vizard Agent tunes.

Can I see the comparison frames? Yes. They are the point of the test clip.

Will my whole project get the same treatment? Yes, once you have chosen. Vizard Agent applies it across the footage.

Does this cost a lot of rounds? No. Vizard Agent runs the comparisons on one test clip before the full render.

Why not just add contrast? Because contrast pushes the colours the camera recorded somewhere they were never meant to go, and faces are where you notice it first.