Apple Log to Rec.709 in Final Cut Pro, step by step

Apple built Apple Log for Final Cut first, so this is the one app where the conversion mostly takes care of itself, as long as one library setting is right before you start.

The Camera LUT handles curve and gamut together

Apple Log is one of the profiles built into Final Cut Pro's Camera LUT system, and it covers both legs of the conversion the format actually needs: the log curve and the BT.2020-to-Rec.709 gamut mapping. On import, Final Cut reads the clip's log metadata and applies the LUT automatically. To confirm it, select the clip, open the Info inspector, switch the Metadata View pop-up to Settings, and check the Camera LUT pop-up reads Apple Log.

This is why Apple Log tends to intercut better in Final Cut than in other apps: the gamut step that most tutorials warn people not to skip is built into the LUT here, not a separate thing you have to remember.

Set the library to Wide Gamut HDR before you grade

The Camera LUT only preserves Apple Log's full dynamic range when the library's color processing is Wide Gamut HDR. Check File > Library Properties > Modify before you touch a single wheel. On Standard or the deprecated Wide Gamut setting, the clip gets tone-mapped to SDR first, and you lose exactly the highlight room that makes Apple Log worth shooting on a phone.

White balance and exposure, in that order

1. White balance with the eyedropper. In the Video inspector's Balance Color section, choose White Balance and click a neutral gray or white surface. The phone's in-camera white balance is aggressive but still leaves casts under mixed reception lighting.

2. Protect the highlights. Add the Color Board effect and roll bright areas off gently with Exposure rather than dragging the whole image down. Apple Log has real highlight headroom; crushing it to "look normal" throws that away.

3. Match to the main camera, then grade. Line the iPhone clip up against your A-cam's baseline on the scopes before any creative look, so the look lands the same on both.

Where it still goes wrong

Wrong library setting. The Camera LUT looks like it is doing its job, but a Standard-processing library silently tone-maps the clip first, and no amount of grading after that recovers the range you lost.

A second, redundant LUT. Applying a downloaded Apple Log conversion LUT on top of the built-in Camera LUT double-transforms the clip. If footage looks crunchy the moment it lands on the timeline, check for a stacked LUT first.

The part that is measurement, not taste

Curve and gamut conversion, white balance, exposure, and cross-camera match are all objective steps, which is why Basecut automates them for a whole card dump at once, locally on your machine. It culls the shoot, applies the full Apple Log conversion per clip, and hands a matched Rec.709 baseline to DaVinci Resolve, where the creative grade starts. It exports FCPXML so Final Cut can pick up the same bins and tags, but to be direct about the limit: its automated color correction is built for Resolve, not for a Final Cut library, so if Final Cut is where you finish, the steps above are what you are running (mostly automatically, thanks to Apple's own Camera LUT) by hand.

The 14-day trial (5 free exports, no card) is enough to see the correction on your own footage before deciding anything. See it on real footage.