S-Log3 to Rec.709 in Premiere Pro, step by step

Premiere Pro can detect S-Log3 and tone-map it for you, but only if the right setting is on and your white balance happens in the right order. Here is where each control actually lives, and why the sequence you do them in matters more than any one slider.

Turn on log detection, or set the Input LUT by hand

Since version 23.2, Premiere Pro auto-detects Sony S-Log footage and tone-maps it into your sequence's working color space. The setting is called Color Manage Auto Detected Log and Raw Media (it was previously labeled Auto Detect Log Video Color Space), and you will find it in the Lumetri Color panel's Settings tab, or in the Color Management options when you set up the sequence. With it on, S-Log3 clips stop looking flat the moment they hit the timeline.

If a clip is not picked up, either because of an older project, a non-standard file, or incomplete metadata, open the Lumetri Color panel's Settings tab and set the Input LUT dropdown, the first control under the Input section, to an S-Log3 (S-Gamut3.Cine) profile directly. You can also right-click the clip and use the footage interpretation option to override the color space Premiere thinks it is reading, useful when a mixed-camera project has clips your Auto Detect list does not recognize.

Confirm the sequence is actually landing on Rec.709

Auto color management tone-maps log footage into whatever working color space the sequence is set to. Before you grade anything, check the sequence's Color Management settings and confirm that working space is Rec.709 (the standard SDR delivery space for a wedding film or highlight reel), not a wide-gamut or HDR space you did not mean to pick. Grading against the wrong working space produces a result that looks right in Premiere and wrong everywhere else.

White balance and exposure, in that order

1. White balance with the eyedropper. In the Lumetri Color panel's Basic Correction section, use the WB Selector (the eyedropper next to White Balance) on a neutral gray or white reference in the shot. This sets Temperature and Tint for you more reliably than dragging either slider by eye, especially on S-Log3, where mixed light casts read stronger before the transform than after.

2. Set exposure against the scopes. Open the Lumetri Scopes panel and bring exposure and contrast in until skin sits in a believable range on the waveform, roughly 60 to 70 IRE, rather than trusting a laptop screen at a reception venue with the lights half down.

3. Match a second camera last. If a second body is cutting into the same sequence, use Premiere's Compare view or a reference frame to line up the two cameras on the scopes before any creative look goes on top. A look applied over two mismatched cameras just gives you two different-looking clips wearing the same LUT.

Where this order breaks

Grading before the transform lands. If Auto Detect Log has not actually tone-mapped a clip yet, you're pushing Temperature and Exposure against raw S-Log3 values, which behave nothing like Rec.709 values. Check the image before you trust the sliders.

Double color management. An Input LUT set manually on a clip that Auto Detect has also picked up stacks two transforms. The symptom is footage that looks crushed and over-saturated the moment you drop it on the timeline, before you have touched a single control.

The part that is measurement, not taste

White balance, transform, 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, corrects S-Log3 (and 15 other log formats) per clip, and hands a matched Rec.709 baseline to DaVinci Resolve, where the creative grade starts. It exports ALE and FCPXML so Premiere 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 Premiere project, so if Premiere is where you finish, the steps above are what you are running 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.