Why does LOG look flat? A Quick Look
The Short Answer: I think part of the confusion is because of the word Log. All Log refers to is the type of function applied to the input values before being stored. This function is a logarithm instead of the typical exponent used. And has the characteristic that even as the input value increases dramatically in size, the rate of increase for the output value grows slower. For example Log2 of a series of numbers counting from 0->1024 would result in numbers from 0->10 but Log2 of a number 0->256 would be 0->8. It grows slower as the numbers get larger which has the benefit of compressing bright parts of the image before clipping. And that's really all there is to the log part. But why is it flat? I think what most people actually wonder about is why does LOG look flat? The answer is basically made up of a couple pieces. We are going to start with an OOC version of a photo. (OOC means Out Of Camera, as it not edited by the user) It looks like a normal landscape photo.