ProRes with Log profile for iPhone 15 Pro models is a major upgrade for video content creators
Starting with the iPhone 13 Pro series and continuing through the 14 Pro line and the 15 Pro models, users can record and edit video using Apple's ProRes codec. While ProRes does compress video resulting in the loss of some detail, the detail that is lost is usually not something that will be noticed. ProRes does deliver great detail and colors and allows users to create professional-quality videos.
Apple has added ProRes with Log encoding for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Log recording takes the dynamic range, including the shadows and highlights of a video, and maps it across a logarithmic curve. A Log recording usually looks washed out, flat, and missing contrast. But in post-production, the user can add the shadows and highlights by using a LUT (Look Up Table) preset file. With a LUT, the user can apply a specific color grading to a video to give it a certain feel, mood, style, or look.
To shoot in ProRes with Log on the iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, you must first enable the feature by going to Settings > Camera > Formats and toggling on Apple ProRes. Underneath that setting is one that says ProRes Encoding. Tap on it and tap on Log. Open the camera app, and click on video. Before you start recording, you'll see a ProRes LOG icon in the upper left corner of the screen with a line through it. Tap on the icon to remove the line and then start recording.
Right away you'll notice how flat the images are with colors that are muted. This is normal because you will use LUTs to color grade the video during post-production to make the video look the way you want it to. This is a feature that serious amateur and professional cinematographers and videographers would use. You can install LUT presets from apps available in the App Store although the most serious users will use professional quality video editing software designed for their Mac or PC.
With the normal HDR video recording on the iPhone, an amateur or professional recording a video is stuck with how the recording turns out, warts and all. By warts, we mean over-processed colors, over-sharpened details, and unrealistic contrasts and colors. If you're filming a movie on the iPhone, you are going to want to have creative control over the look and feel of the video.
The video above was shot using ProRes with Log on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The original image was flat (as you can see by viewing the first video embedded in this article), and the colors were muted. Using a LUT, we color-graded the video which was shot in 4K@30 frames per second. Thanks to the overcast skies, there is a lack of shadows which would normally help us show you the improved Dynamic Range which is one of the features of this profile.
The colors were accurate and not overly saturated as you can see from the flowers on the beach. We can also see details such as the foam from the waves lapping up on the beach. Switching to the Tetraprism 5x zoom available only on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the building across the water on the other side of the shore, which looks so far away using the Main camera, becomes visible showing off the advantage of having a higher power optical zoom.
Adding the ProRes with Log profile to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro is a big upgrade for video content creators since it gives them the ability to take the vision they have in their head and turn it into a video that can be shared with everyone.
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