ok so i finally switched to shooting in d-log m because everyone said the footage would be way more flexible in post. and it is, kind of, but now my editing workflow has turned into this horrible time sink and i feel like i spend more time grading than actually editing the actual video together.

what ive been doing is bringing the clips into premiere, applying the official dji lut to get a baseline, then trying to tweak from there but the results are really inconsistent clip to clip even when the lighting conditions were basically the same. some clips look great and some just look kinda flat and weird even after adjusting. not sure if its my monitor calibration or if im doing something wrong in the grade or what. ive also heard people say resolve is better for this kind of stuff but im comfortable in premiere and dont really want to learn a whole new program right now

anyone else gone through this and figured out a good system? does the official lut actually suck or am i missing something

the official DJI lut is honestly just a starting point and a pretty mediocre one at that, i stopped using it pretty quickly. what helped me way more was learning to set a proper exposure baseline first before slapping any lut on. in d-log m you really want to make sure your highlights arent blown and your shadows have detail, and if your exposure was inconsistent while flying that's going to show up no matter what lut you use.

for premiere specifically i do primary corrections first (exposure, white balance) on every clip before i apply anything else, then i apply the lut, then secondary stuff. its more steps but the consistency is so much better. also are you shooting at the right ISO range? high ISO in log looks genuinely terrible, like the noise just eats all your shadow detail and no amount of grading saves it

resolve is better for color work but premiere is totally fine if you know what you're doing, dont let people bully you into switching if the workflow isnt broken

had the exact same frustration for months. what actually fixed it for me was getting a proper calibrated monitor, i was grading on a laptop screen that was way too warm and everything i exported looked cold and blue on other screens. might not be your issue but worth checking if you havent already. also seconding what the other person said about exposure in camera, fixing bad log exposure in post is kind of a nightmare compared to getting it closer to right when you're flying