Mystery LOG: A Survival Guide Part 1

May 6, 2025

In his first Insight, Billy Causey tackles the challenge of color grading 'mystery log' footage, which lacks metadata about its origin.


Series

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to welcome Billy Causey to our roster of Contributors, here on MixingLight.com. You can find out more about Billy on his Author Page. He’s starting with a 3-Part series on color grading LOG footage of unknown origins. Please join us in welcoming him to Mixing Light, in the Comments below!

– Pat


Contrast, pivot, offset, and the ResolveFX Gamut Mapper

This Insight walks through the first of three workflows I use for grading ‘Mystery Log’ footage.

What is Mystery LOG? It’s log video that arrives without metadata, LUT, or a known source. The recording gamma and gamut settings are completely unknown to us.

Our end goal is to build a clean, stable grade using only our eyes (and scopes) to achieve a pleasing neutral starting point.

In Part 1 of this Survival Guide, we are focusing on using the following tools:

  • Contrast
  • Pivot
  • Offset
  • The ResolveFX Gamut Mapper, updated in DaVinci Resolve 19.

This workflow is fast, flexible, reliable, and built for speed under pressure.

About this ‘Mystery Log’ workflow

This workflow started during a documentary project that I graded a few years ago. The footage came from a mix of RED and Panasonic cameras, which is fine on paper. But everything had been transcoded to ProRes, and no one logged which clip came from which camera. There were no gamma or gamut tags, and no notes—just a pile of flat, gray images and a tight deadline.

There wasn’t time to chase down the cam ops, DIT, or DOP, or to guess which transform to use. I had to rely on what I could see and what the scopes were telling me. That experience led me to build this first workflow, which I now call the survivalist method. It uses simple tools to create a clean, stable image from mystery footage.

If you get handed random log footage and need to make it look right fast without color management or LUTs, then this visual-first approach is one you can trust when the technical info is missing.

Key takeaways from this Insight

By the end of this Insight, you should understand how to:

  • Use Contrast, Pivot, and Offset to normalize footage manually.
  • Use the ResolveFX Gamut Mapper to compress highlights or re-expand the tonal range, allowing for precise tonal adjustments.
  • Build trust in your eyes and scopes when data has failed you.
  • Pick a hero shot, which is crucial for normalization.

External Links

Related Mixing Light Insights

  • Printer Points – An Introduction To The Offset Control – This Insight was recorded by Mixing Light co-founder Dan Moran in 2014. Besides being a great primer on using Offset, it should also give you a sense that professional colorists have used the foundational techniques in this Insight for decades.

Questions or comments? Leave a comment!

I hope you enjoyed this, my first Insight for Mixing Light! Let me know if this is useful to you? I will be recording additional Insights on this topic, so if you have questions, use the comments. I’ll try to answer them in upcoming parts of this series.

– Billy


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