Almost every event I shoot involves at least two camera bodies from different generations, plus whatever a second shooter brought, plus drone footage from an entirely different sensor. Getting all of that to sit believably in one timeline used to eat half my post-production day. It doesn't anymore, mostly because I stopped trying to build a perfect custom LUT for every single source.
Match to the worst source, not the best
My instinct used to be grading everything to match my favorite camera's color science, usually the most expensive body in the kit. That approach means constantly fighting the weakest source to catch up, and it usually can't, because dynamic range and color depth differences are baked into the sensor and codec, not something a grade can fully erase. Now I identify the weakest source first and grade everything, including the good camera, toward a look that source can actually achieve. Less impressive on its own. Far more consistent across a full cut.
Skin tone as the actual anchor point
I stopped chasing perfect color match across an entire frame and instead anchor everything to matching skin tone specifically, since that's what a viewer's eye calibrates against without consciously noticing. Background color, sky color, and general saturation can drift somewhat between sources without anyone flagging it, as long as the people in frame look consistent from shot to shot. That single shift in priority cut my grading time on multi-cam events by a real margin.
- Grade toward your weakest source's ceiling, not your best source's
- Anchor matching to skin tone first, everything else second
- Accept minor background drift if faces stay consistent cut to cut
Where a proper LUT still earns its keep
For paid work with a genuine brand color palette to hit, I still build a proper starting LUT per camera source rather than relying purely on manual matching, because consistency across an entire campaign matters more than it does for a single event edit. The skin-tone-first approach is what gets me there faster once that LUT exists, not a replacement for having one in the first place.