To LUT or not LUT that is the question.

[dieselmac13123]

Im fairly new self taught thanks to YouTube in Adobe Premiere Pro, and have been doing different tuts with color grading and use of LUTs, after an extensive set of lessons on curves, scopes, and color wheels, I felt pretty confident on my afterwork for clients with my video color correction, but the problem is like art is subjective, my eye seems to go for vibrant, and I always need to pull back.
Question is finding all the free LUTs is a pain especially installing them as presets in 2019..... Are LUTs used for just a starting point, quick fix, or non manual way to do things? Should I always be trying do this manually? What are your experiences and are there any free LUTs, realistic feel that you use? I think I see them and once I click think that looks great, and move on.. but I feel its cheating or is it a way to get a different view than what I normally would use?

And is the LUT viewer in Resolve better to use than manually doing each one in Adobe?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Deleted member 94047]

I tried learning colour grading in Resolve, I was getting descent results. But I discovered my grading lacked consistency - I needed a baseline to start from and just do minor adjustments depending on lighting and scene. So I started looking at available LUTs. I read good things about the FilmPoet's Mavic Air LUT. I bought it. While I am not wowed by it, I am satisfied. I find that it gives me a good starting point without destroying my footage. And like I said, my edited works now have better consistency. The price I paid is nothing compared to the amount of time it saves me.

 

[LenSavage]

Just the way the tempo and flow of the footage and the tempo and flow of the music sets or enhances the mood and emotion of footage, the color grade is just as important.
When all three are in harmony, the presentation is compelling and makes its point.
Start with a LUT that's close and make adjustments as necessary to your specific footage. Once you narrow it down, save the adjusted LUT as your own to achieve consistency.
When you watch a film, some scenes are bright, saturated and happy. That LUT may get used several times within the film.
There will be other moods; dark, nearly monochrome that also deserves its own LUT as the story bounces back and forth to that mood or feel.
As you advance, you can build your own set of LUTs that match the camera settings and the styles or moods that you regularly produce.
Start with LUTs - adjust them - save them and make them your own.
Eventually, you'll have no need to buy a LUT - and maybe even sell some of your own.

 

[Mossiback]

You also need to ensure your monitor is color calibrated.

 

[Dave Maine]

LUTS are not an answer to the problem generally. There are a number of uses for them, but general color correction isn’t one. They are very useful for taking a well corrected image and giving it a specific “look” like day for night, or the particular look of a particular feature film. The are used to translate various log footages to look good on a normal viewing device.

There are no LUTS for fixing under or over exposure, color casts, and saturation problems. These conditions are highly variable and can only fixed by eye.

The best way to get good results is practice with a well calibrated monitor. A monitor that is calibrated is mandatory if you expect your results to look right on other displays.

With a monitor calibrated, examine the image with some signal analysis tool - histogram, waveform monitor, chroma analyses, etc. understand what they are telling you about your image. Run the correction tools across their full range and understand what the adjustment is doing in terms of your perceptions.

 

[RickinWaST]

Having purchased my first drone (M2P) I quickly realized the need to learn how to edit video. Thankfully, I have an extensive landscape photography background and using PS CC. That experience made color correcting in video editing easier. As most will know the first step is to get a baseline established and then apply any LUTs. They can speed up your workflow.