Mastering the Match: Your Comprehensive 2025 Guide to Harmonizing Sony A7S III and A7 IV Footage

How to Color Match Sony A7S III and A7 IV Footage for a Seamless Look

If you’ve ever cut between the Sony A7S III and A7 IV in the same edit, you already know why Sony A7S III and A7 IV color matching matters. One second you’re looking at a beautifully clean low-light shot from the A7S III, and the next you cut to a super-detailed A7 IV angle that feels a bit cooler, punchier, or just “off.” That tiny mismatch can quietly break immersion. In this 2025-ready guide, we’ll walk through a complete, practical workflow to match Sony A7S III and A7 IV footage so your final grade feels like it came from a single camera with a cinematic, unified look.

Along the way, we’ll talk about in-camera setup, S-Log3 vs S-Cinetone, matching in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut, and how to use LUTs and presets to speed things up. I’ll also share a few real-world examples from shoots where I mixed both bodies on the same project and leaned on LUTs and scopes to keep everything consistent.

If you already know you want a fast starting point for your Sony A7S III and A7 IV color grading workflow, you can pair this guide with cinematic LUT packs designed for hybrid shooters. Try something like 700+ cinematic video LUTs for Sony and other cameras and browse the Video LUTs collection. With the Buy 3, Get 9 FREE offer, adding 12 LUT or preset packs to your cart gives you a huge toolset for future projects.

Why Consistent Color Between Your Sony A7S III and A7 IV Matters

Color harmony isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about trust. When your audience feels a jarring shift in skin tones or overall warmth between angles, their brain quietly tags the moment as “fake” or “cheap,” even if they can’t explain why. Consistent color grading across your Sony A7S III and A7 IV footage keeps the story front and center and the tech invisible.

Think about a wedding film where the A7S III handles the reception dance floor in low light and the A7 IV covers speeches and details in brighter environments. If every cut feels like a different camera brand—or worse, a different day—the emotion gets diluted. When the color style is unified, you can move freely between cameras, focal lengths, and angles while preserving the emotional tone of the scene.

I’ve had projects where I shot a ceremony on the A7 IV for resolution and detail, then switched to the A7S III for the candlelit reception. Once I locked in a consistent color palette, clients stopped noticing gear and started talking only about the story and mood. That’s the goal.

Understanding the Color DNA of the Sony A7S III vs A7 IV

Both cameras share Sony’s modern color science, which gives you a huge advantage. But they’re still tuned differently under the hood, which is why Sony A7S III and A7 IV color matching needs a bit of intention.

• Pixel size and sensitivity: The A7S III’s large pixels are optimized for clean high-ISO performance, which affects how noise, shadows, and subtle color in dark areas behave. The A7 IV’s denser sensor delivers more fine detail, but noise and color in deep shadows may react differently when you push the grade.
• Dynamic range behavior: Both bodies handle dynamic range well, but highlight roll-off and shadow compression can differ slightly, especially in S-Log3. How each camera rolls off bright windows or specular highlights can change the perceived contrast and color.
• Picture profiles: Using the same picture profile (for example, S-Cinetone or S-Log3) on both cameras is critical, but the sensor and internal processing can still render skin and subtle tones a bit differently.
• White balance interpretation: Even with the exact same Kelvin value set, the A7S III and A7 IV can interpret mixed lighting and tint slightly differently. That’s why matching white balance per scene becomes a core part of your workflow.

If you want to dive deeper into Sony’s log gamma design, Sony’s own resources on S-Log and S-Log3 explain how the curve preserves highlight and shadow detail for grading.

Prep Work: Getting Your Sony A7S III and A7 IV as Close as Possible In-Camera

The more intentional your settings on-set, the easier your Sony A7S III and A7 IV colour grading workflow becomes later. Think of this section as laying the base plate for everything that comes after.

Lock In Consistent White Balance

Auto white balance is convenient, but it’s your enemy when you’re trying to match multiple cameras. Instead:

1. Use a grey card or white balance target under your key light.
2. Set a custom white balance on the A7S III.
3. Repeat on the A7 IV using the same card and lighting.

If you’re working with mixed lighting (daylight windows plus warm tungsten practicals), decide which source you want to prioritise. You might warm both cameras slightly to keep skin tones flattering, knowing you’ll gently tame the highlights in post.

On one nightclub shoot, I set a custom white balance for both cameras under the DJ-booth lighting, even though the background had wild colour changes. It looked a bit odd in-camera, but it gave me a neutral baseline in post that made matching incredibly straightforward.

Use Matching Picture Profiles (S-Log3 or S-Cinetone)

For serious grading, S-Log3 is the go-to for many Sony shooters. It gives you a wide dynamic range and flexible tonal response, perfect for a controlled Sony-A7S III and A7 IV colour matching workflow. Sony’s S-Log overview explains how the log curve preserves highlight and shadow data for grading.

If you prefer quicker turnarounds with less grading, S-Cinetone is a great alternative, with pleasing skin tones and a “ready-to-use” look. For a deep technical background, Sony’s S-Cinetone whitepaper breaks down how the curve is tuned for cinematic colour and skin tones.

Whichever route you choose—S-Log3 or S-Cinetone—keep it consistent between cameras for each project. Don’t mix profiles unless you absolutely have to.

Standardise Exposure and Monitoring

Matching exposure is just as important as matching colour. If one camera consistently sits a stop brighter or darker than the other, your grade will always feel like a compromise.

• Use zebras, false colour, or histograms similarly on both cameras.
• Choose a standard exposure strategy (for example, exposing S-Log3 about 1 stop over to reduce noise in the shadows) and stick to it.
• Check skin exposure regularly—faces should sit in a consistent range across both cameras.

On a low-light wedding reception, I shot speeches on the A7 IV and the dance-floor on the A7 S III. By exposing both cameras so skin tones landed in a similar IRE range, I dramatically reduced the work needed later. I could apply one base LUT across both and then just fine-tune.

Keep Lighting Intentional and Repeatable

No amount of colour grading wizardry can overcome completely different lighting scenarios. If you know two angles will be intercut constantly, try to keep them under similar colour temperature and intensity. Use flags, diffusion, and small practical tweaks to make both angles feel like they live in the same world.

Your Step-by-Step Sony A7S III and A7 IV Colour Matching Workflow in Post

Once your footage is in the NLE—whether that’s Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut Pro—the real matching work begins. Here’s a practical, repeatable workflow you can apply to almost any project.

1. Organise Your Timeline and Create Reference Groups

Group your clips logically:

• By scene (ceremony, reception, interview, B-roll, etc.).
• By camera (A7S III bin, A7 IV bin).
• By lighting setup (studio key, daylight exterior, tungsten interior).

Then choose a “hero” camera and a “hero” shot for each major lighting setup—maybe the A7 IV for controlled interviews and the A7 S III for low-light live moments. Everything else will be matched to that reference.

2. Do a Clean Primary Correction First

Before adding any stylised look or LUT, bring each shot into a neutral, balanced place. In Premiere Pro, the Lumetri Colour panel and scopes are your best friends—Adobe’s own guide on colour correction and Lumetri presets walks through the basics of exposure and white balance adjustments.

• Match exposure: Use the waveform to align overall brightness between cameras. Don’t chase perfection; just aim for similar highlight and shadow levels.
• Neutralise white balance: Use temperature and tint sliders to remove obvious colour casts. The vectorscope is especially helpful for dialing in neutral greys and realistic skin tones.
• Align contrast: Use a combination of curves and contrast controls so both cameras feel equally punchy or equally flat at this stage.

3. Convert Log Footage with a Consistent LUT

If you shot in S-Log3, apply the same log-to-Rec.709 LUT to both cameras as a starting point. This keeps your Sony A7S III and A7 IV colour grading workflow predictable and consistent.

• Apply your S-Log3 to Rec.709 LUT on an adjustment layer or node group that affects both cameras.
• Tweak exposure and white balance before the LUT for big, foundational corrections.
• Fine-tune contrast and saturation after the LUT for your creative intent.

If you want to skip hunting for random LUTs online, you can grab a curated set of cinematic looks built for log footage. Packs like cinematic LUTs for Sony and mirrorless cameras inside the Cinematic Video LUTs collection give you consistent, tested looks that behave predictably when matching multiple cameras.

4. Match Cameras with Scopes and Side-by-Side Views

Now the real Sony A7S III and A7 IV colour matching begins:

• Use a split-screen or comparison view: Most NLEs let you compare two shots side-by-side. Put your hero clip from the A7 IV on one side and the A7 S III clip on the other.
• Match skin tones first: Human faces are what viewers notice most. Use curves and colour wheels to get skin hue, saturation, and brightness aligned between cameras.
• Check greens and blues: Look at foliage, skies, and neutral backgrounds. If greens look more yellow on one camera, gently nudge hue and saturation until they feel the same.
• Refine shadows and highlights: Make sure deep shadows don’t drift too magenta or green on one camera, and that bright highlights share a similar colour temperature.

In DaVinci Resolve, the colour page is especially powerful for this stage—Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve colour overview and training resources show how to use primary wheels, curves, and scopes in detail.

5. Apply a Unified Creative Grade

Once your cameras match neutrally, add your creative look on top—either by using a carefully designed LUT or building a custom grade with curves, colour wheels, and selective adjustments.

I’ve tested cinematic LUTs on projects where the A7S III was shooting handheld dance-floor coverage at ISO 12,800 while the A7 IV stayed at lower ISO on a gimbal. With a solid neutral match and the same creative LUT applied, the final film felt like one camera with multiple personalities, not two competing systems.

For a deeper dive into building a consistent style across projects, you might also explore articles like How to build a consistent colour style for your channel or Using LUTs to speed up your colour grading workflow.

6. Review the Whole Timeline and Fix Outliers

Finally, watch your edit through at least once with “client eyes.” Don’t zoom into scopes; just feel the cut. Anywhere a transition feels like a jolt in colour, brightness, or contrast, drop in a small correction on that clip alone.

At this stage, a few one-off tweaks to white balance or contrast can clean up outliers without touching the underlying grade structure. This is also where you might discover shots that need a slightly different LUT or a softened grade because of extreme lighting conditions.

Presets and LUTs vs Manual Grading: What’s Best for Sony A7S III and A7 IV?

There’s a constant debate between using LUTs and presets versus doing everything manually. In reality, the best Sony A7S III and A7 IV colour grading workflow usually uses both.

• Presets / LUTs: Excellent for speed, consistency, and building a recognisable style. Great when you’re working on recurring content—weddings, client promos, YouTube channels.
• Manual grading: Essential when lighting is inconsistent, skin tones are tricky, or the project demands a very specific look that off-the-shelf LUTs can’t provide.

A balanced approach is to use well-made LUTs or presets for your base look, then fine-tune manually. For example, you can start with a cinematic LUT from a large cinematic LUT bundle, then adjust temperature and tint slightly per scene to account for mixed lighting.

For more inspiration, once internal links are wired up, you can dive into related articles like Hollywood film emulation workflow in Premiere Pro or Using Lumetri scopes like a professional colourist to refine your overall grading strategy.

Common Problems When Matching Sony A7S III and A7 IV Footage

• Problem: One angle always looks more magenta or green.
  Solution: Use the tint control and vectorscope to neutralise skin tones first, then check neutrals like walls and shirts. Small tint offsets between bodies are normal.
• Problem: Noise in A7S III shadows responds differently to grading.
  Solution: Apply gentle noise reduction before your LUT or main grade, and avoid extreme contrast pushes in the deepest shadows.
• Problem: Mixed profiles (S-Log3 on one camera, S-Cinetone on the other).
  Solution: Convert both to a similar baseline (like Rec.709) using profile-specific LUTs, then grade from there. Avoid mixing log and baked-in looks without a proper conversion step.
• Problem: Live events with constantly changing light colours.
  Solution: Lock in white balance and exposure as consistently as possible, then group shots by “lighting moments” in the timeline (blue wash, magenta wash, warm spotlights) and grade them as mini-batches.

Leaning on AAAPresets for a Faster Sony Colour Workflow

Once you’ve got a solid manual workflow, LUTs and presets become a speed multiplier. Instead of rebuilding the same look from scratch for every project, you can:

• Choose one or two favourite LUTs for “daylight neutral” and “warm evening” looks.
• Apply them consistently across both Sony cameras after your primary match.
• Fine-tune per scene with small tweaks instead of full rebuilds.

I’ve pushed cinematic LUTs on drone sunset shots and on handheld low-light party footage from the A7S III, and the key was always the same: neutral match first, LUT second. When that order is right, you can move much faster without sacrificing quality.

If you’re ready to build a reusable toolkit, explore products like 700+ Cinematic Video LUTs and similar packs in the Video LUTs collection. With the Buy 3, Get 9 FREE offer, you can stack multiple cinematic styles—from soft pastel looks to punchy contrast grades—and have options for every type of Sony project.

If you ever need help installing or using your downloads, a support resource such as How to install video LUTs and presets will keep your workflow smooth.

Bringing It All Together

Sony A7S III and A7 IV colour matching doesn’t have to be overwhelming. When you:

• Lock in matching white balance and profiles on set,
• Use scopes to align exposure and colour accurately,
• Convert log profiles consistently with the same LUT,
• Match cameras to a hero shot before applying your creative look,
• And lean on well-designed LUTs and presets for speed and consistency,

your final film feels seamless, polished, and intentional—no matter how many cameras were rolling. Your viewers won’t notice which angle came from which body; they’ll remember how the story felt.

If you want to take the next step, combine this workflow with your favourite cinematic LUTs and revisit articles like Create custom LUTs in Premiere Pro to build your own signature look on top of a rock-solid Sony A7S III and A7 IV colour grading workflow.

FAQs: Sony A7S III and A7 IV Colour Matching

How do I quickly match Sony A7S III and A7 IV footage in Premiere Pro?

Start by balancing exposure and white balance using Lumetri scopes, then apply the same S-Log3 to Rec.709 LUT to both cameras. From there, fine-tune skin tones with the colour wheels and curves, using a hero shot as your reference.

Should I use S-Log3 or S-Cinetone when shooting with both cameras?

If you want maximum flexibility and dynamic range, S-Log3 is usually best. If your priority is a fast turnaround with minimal grading, S-Cinetone is more convenient. The key is to keep the profile consistent across both cameras for each project.

Can LUTs alone fix colour mismatches between my Sony cameras?

LUTs are powerful, but they work best on footage that’s already roughly matched. Do a basic primary correction first—exposure, contrast, and white balance—then apply LUTs for style and speed.

Why do skin tones look different between my A7S III and A7 IV?

Small differences in sensor design, white balance, and exposure can shift how each camera renders skin. Use scopes and targeted adjustments in your NLE to align hue, saturation, and brightness of faces across both cameras.

How can I keep a consistent look across multiple Sony projects?

Create a repeatable workflow: consistent in-camera settings, a base matching process in post, and a small set of favourite LUTs or presets you use as your signature style. Save grades or LUTs from successful projects so you can reuse and refine them over time.

Written by Asanka — creator of AAAPresets (10,000+ customers).