What is ProRes and Log video on the iPhone and should you use it? Here’s what you should know.
The new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max have already impressed us with their new titanium designs and powerful performance, but the cameras got a serious upgrade, especially for video producers. The Pro models can now shoot high quality 4K Apple ProRes video in Log color profile for amazing-looking footage.
But what do Log and ProRes refer to, how is it better, and crucially, is it something you should use? Here’s what you need to know.
ProRes is a video codec created by Apple in 2007 that has been widely adopted by video and cinema professionals. Typically found on high-end video cameras, ProRes files capture more data when shooting, resulting in better quality footage than you’d typically get from a phone or even some dedicated cameras.
Log (short for “logarithmic”) is a color profile found on some professional video cameras and which is now also available on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Log footage preserves image information in the highlights and shadows, allowing for more flexibility in editing colors and contrast in post production.
On the left is ungraded Log footage. On the right is how that same footage looks after some basic color grading in Davinci Resolve.
Log files straight out of the camera look flat and have low contrast and low saturation. The files are designed to be edited in programs like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, where colorists will bring back contrast and color tone according to the look they’re trying to achieve, a process called color grading.
The low-contrast look of ungraded footage gives colorists the best starting point to tweak the video image however they want.
