Question Anyone Used LUTs?

[Magnus McGinty]

I wouldn’t mind pissing about with them. More for video than photography but assume they’re one and the same?
Have briefly researched but seems there’s millions of them out there, both free and paid for lol.
Anyone been there?

 

[cybershot]

I’ve been intending to play with some since I purchased a drone but I haven’t seen any that is a one fits all type thing. Like you I’ve found free and paid for. I’m not sure they are worth paying for to be honest. With a bit of time you can probably just create your own that’s to your liking.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I’ve been intending to play with some since I purchased a drone but I haven’t seen any that is a one fits all type thing. Like you I’ve found free and paid for. I’m not sure they are worth paying for to be honest. With a bit of time you can probably just create your own that’s to your liking.

Well yeah, they’re supposed to be a ‘starting point’ rather than an end point. I just think they’d aid learning colouring it all myself. Maybe I’ll just download some free stuff and see how it pans out (pun lol).

 

[cybershot]

Yup. YouTube is your friend I find for this sort of stuff.

 

[editor]

I had to look up what a LUT was

What are LUTs in photography?​

LUTs stands for Look Up Tables, and a LUT (pronounced loot) is basically a conversion profile that takes a colour value in your original file, looks it up in a table and returns a new colour value. So it’s actually not much different to a monitor-calibration profile designed to correct the colours a monitor displays, or a printer profile to produce accurate colours in a printed photo. Here, though, this conversation process is being used to shift tones and colours for a creative rather than corrective effect, and this is an important difference to get your head around. LUTs are very well established in the world of video editing and cinematography, but also appeal strongly to stills photographers owing to their instant effects and ease of use.

What are LUTs and how do you use them?

LUTs are a great tool for achieving cinematic colours. Find out the difference between LUTs, and presets, how to use them and six of the best

www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

 

[Cid]

Gerald Undone is good for this...

 

[Cid]

I think the thing with video is that you want consistency... And that can be pretty hard/expensive to achieve. Getting a good LUT will take a major step out of that. Free LUTs tend to just be er... a skin I suppose. Something that may/may not work for your scene/camera etc. Buying something like the Leeming LUT will, assuming you have the right camera and set it up correctly, take you to a reference colour space that you can then work from. It also comes with 'quickies', second set of LUTs that will give you various creative effects.

Making your own LUTs looks like a proper rabbit hole. I think Gerald there has some guides on it. I mean amateurs obviously do do it, and do it well... But I think when you're just starting out, and assuming you're doing the full edit yourself, having a decent LUT to work with is going to let you spend more time filming, getting the cut right, working on effects etc.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Gerald Undone is good for this...

He was on my radar (well I follow him from stuff he’s done previously on the GH5) but didn’t he does stuff on colour. Cheers.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I think the thing with video is that you want consistency... And that can be pretty hard/expensive to achieve. Getting a good LUT will take a major step out of that. Free LUTs tend to just be er... a skin I suppose. Something that may/may not work for your scene/camera etc. Buying something like the Leeming LUT will, assuming you have the right camera and set it up correctly, take you to a reference colour space that you can then work from. It also comes with 'quickies', second set of LUTs that will give you various creative effects.

Making your own LUTs looks like a proper rabbit hole. I think Gerald there has some guides on it. I mean amateurs obviously do do it, and do it well... But I think when you're just starting out, and assuming you're doing the full edit yourself, having a decent LUT to work with is going to let you spend more time filming, getting the cut right, working on effects etc.

I know what LUTs do and they can work well as a guide to get a particular look if filming in log or RAW. The problem is knowing where to look given the sheer volume of them available. It would probably take less time becoming an able colourist but I’m sure there’s inspiring ones out there.