Look Up Tables (LUTs) are generally used to changes certain colors and their ranges in video using Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or any professional video editing software. We often edit our photos with actions and presets in Lightroom or Photoshop, but it is possible to edit these photos using LUTs too. This video by Peter McKinnon shows how to do just that. The next time you like a certain look of your videos because of a LUT you applied to it, know that you can use it on a still image too. Peter has developed his own LUTs for you to use, and here are a couple of free ones you can find online too. It's a great way to see what's possible using LUTs in your post-processing workflow, and to tweak your style in a new way if that's what you feel is best for your work's progression.
- Free Ascend LUTs: https://www.colorgradingcentral.com/free-ascend/
- Rocketstock's 35 free LUTs for Color Gading
- Lutify.me Free Cinematic color Grading LUT's
https://vimeo.com/120318153
If you've already installed LUTs in Premiere Pro and you want to try them out in Photoshop, you will need to copy them out. You do this by navigating:
Mac: Applications/Premiere Pro CC 2015/Show Package Contents/Lumetri (Show Package Contents is a right/ctrl click option on the application itself).
Windows: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015\Lumetri\
You can copy them out and paste them in the folder Peter navigates to in the start of the video.
Please note: The difference between a 1D-LUT and a 3D-LUT is that the 1D LUT doesn't give you that much control and it ties things together. So, an example would be that if you are busy editing with a 1D-LUT and you increase contrast, it will also increase Saturation because they are tied together. In a 3D-LUT, these are independent and can be changed independently.
Do you use LUTs to edit images?