LUTs - What Are They and Why, When and How To Use Them
A discussion about LUTs - what they are, what they aren’t, what they can and can’t do and more
LUTs: Not Much More Than Another Tool In Your Toolbox
Why do I say that? Well, early on in my career I thought that LUTs were a magical thing you added to your footage to make it look “filmic.” Man, I was wrong. Well, only partly wrong.
The important thing to know about using LUTs is that they’re only going to be as good as the footage you use with them. What does that mean? In old computer slang (and maybe it’s still used - I don’t know), there’s something called GIGO. This stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out. And it says that if you give a computer good info it will return true results. If you give it bad info, or not enough info, it returns bad results.
It’s the same thing with LUTs. What a lot of people tell you is that all you have to do is put your footage into some editing software and apply their LUT. Well sometimes that’s true. But it’s a huge oversimplification of the process.
Why Does a LUT Look Good or Bad?
Going back to the GIGO concept, a LUT will look great if you shoot with that LUT in mind and if you use the right settings in your editing suite. If you shoot bad footage, or use the footage and LUT together incorrectly you’re going to be disappointed. There’s a long list of things that make footage look “cinematic,” and the LUT is just one of the things in the chain. Here’s a (very) incomplete list of things to consider when making a film that has that “cinematic” feel to it:
Wardrobe
Camera type
Location
Lighting
Production design
Haze
Lens filters (sometimes, if the project calls for it)
LUT
You see that the LUT is last on the list. There’s a reason for that. All the things before it need to be done well for the LUT to do well.
How Do I Make a LUT Look Good For Me?
Like I mention in the video, there are a couple starting points to keep in mind:
Shoot specifically for the LUT you plan to use in post-production
Make sure your exposures, colors and saturation in your scene are what you want them to be while you’re shooting - don’t expect the LUT to correct things for you
Use a reference monitor on-set so you know how the LUT will look in post-production
Use a color space transform effect so that the footage you’re bringing into the editing suite matches what the LUT needs
It’s a lot to think about, and some of these things are big concepts that could each be their own conversation. But for starters, understand the LUTs are not the be-all end-all of film making and color grading and that they’re simply an important tool you can use to bring out the colors, saturation and gamma curve that you’re expecting when you shoot.
