Started by ravenshoots, 22 Feb 2026. 7 replies, 274 views
Gear in this topic: Sony A7 IV
Sorry if this is a basic question. I film short clips at my daughter's netball and the odd event for friends on an A7 IV.
Everyone online says shoot S-Log3, but when I tried it everything looked grey and washed out and I couldn't get it back to looking normal. Would HLG be better for someone who really doesn't want to colour grade, or should I just use a normal picture profile? Thank you.
Don't shoot log if you don't want to grade. Simple as that. Log is for people who want the latitude and are willing to do the work, every clip, every time. It's designed to look grey, it's not broken.
For netball clips to share with other parents, a standard profile exposed properly will look better than badly graded log every day of the week.
On A7 IV I would use S-Cinetone. Looks good straight out of camera, skin tones are nice, nothing to grade. You find it in the picture profile menu, PP11 by default I think.
HLG is meant for HDR screens. On a normal laptop or phone screen it can look a bit flat unless you convert it, so it doesn't really solve your problem. And log is like raw for video, it only makes sense if you will edit every clip. For netball clips to send to other parents, S-Cinetone and correct white balance is all you need.
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dmitri_k said:On A7 IV I would use S-Cinetone
I didn't know that was on the A7 IV. Thank you, I'll try it this weekend.
s-cinetone, done. i shoot log at gigs because the lighting is insane but for netball? nah
Or slap the official LUT on and call it a day. Not exactly rocket science... the files will look normal again, more or less.
Though I'll admit I shoot about one video a year, usually by accident when I hit the wrong button. Just saying
tomthurlow said:slap the official LUT on and call it a day
Works if you exposed it right. Most beginners underexpose log because it looks bright and washed out on the screen, then the LUT pulls everything down and it looks muddy and noisy in the shadows. You need to expose S-Log3 a stop or two over what looks right, with zebras set properly. Which is probably exactly what happened here, and why S-Cinetone is the right answer for this use.
Came back to say S-Cinetone was exactly what I needed. The footage from Saturday looks lovely with no editing at all, and the other parents were asking what I'd done to it. I also exposed a bit brighter as Ben said. Thanks everyone.