Pro Moviemaker Autumn 2018

LUTS GUIDE

LOG C

REC.709

TEAL & ORANGE

SKIN TONE

CINE LOOKS

ABOVE A LUT isn’t a one-size-fits-all magic wand that works on all shots in all situations. Experiment and you could find a look that works for you.

white-balanced images – if you’re using supplemental lighting you need tomake sure the white balance settings in-camera arematched to the lights. Now comes the fun bit – using creative or colour grading LUTs. For example, if you want to recreate a certain 35mmfilm stock look, apply the corresponding 3D LUT and your image will have the desired grade. These can then be further adjusted, like toning down the overall tint or making secondary corrections limited to certain areas of the image only. Don’t be afraid to edit on top of a LUT if you don’t like the way it has altered your footage. There are hundreds of creative LUTs you can load into your NLE. When it comes to choosing, and the question of whether to use free versions or buy some, you have to take a step back and question what it is you’re actually looking for; you should try free LUTs first, to test that they work on your systembut also in case you happen to stumble on the perfect one. Consider the genre or mood of your film, if there are specific tones you want to highlight or a particular look you desire. Knowing how your film should look gives you amuch better understanding of what LUTs you need to use, or if you ought tomake one yourself. Once you’ve figured out what it is you’re after and what you want to create, it’s just about finding a LUT that matches your requirements and can transform your grade to rival that of the biggest blockbuster.

quality, so the image you see on the screen or monitor is very different to what your final filmwill look like, and therefore it’s pretty difficult to expose correctly. But load a LUT intomonitors or your camera and the viewfinder gives you a preview that is a lot closer to what the final image will look like after colour grading. As this doesn’t bake in the LUT to your recording (it’s just reflected on what you see on themonitor) you get the added flexibility of being able to change the look entirely in post. After shooting, the first step is to apply a normalisation LUT that can transform your footage into its intended basic look. They work best when theymatch with what it was shot on – say you shot using Sony’s S-Log2; applying a normalisation LUT like S-Log2 to Rec.709 is a good idea. This should work and give you a standard look, but often the colour, saturation and exposure can be way out – youmight need to tweak the settings, or just ignore the LUT and do a basic grade yourself. The best thing to do is experiment with colour correcting both before and after applying a LUT. There are arguments for both sides and it really depends on whether or not you like the overall look the LUT has on your image. If you want to use the LUT by itself, colour correct before. If you want tomake further adjustments to the LUT, colour correct after. Either way, colour correction is crucial as LUTs are designed for properly exposed and

WHERE TO GET THE HOT LUTS YOU LUST AFTER There are so many LUTs available, for little or no cost. Websites like lutify.me/free-luts are often good starting points. They offer some free LUTs but have a ‘basic’ package for those starting to explore grading, a ‘standard’ package and a ‘professional’ package for full control, the latter being around £50/$67. Their LUTs also fully support Raw and non-Raw still images for both Lightroom and Capture One. If you want to recreate a particular look from an iconic film, check out Motion Picture Film LUTs; if you’re after an unprocessed, 35mm-film stock look, ImpulZ has a wide range on offer. Lots of software supports LUTs but most tend to need some kind of utility or plug-in to do so. For example, DaVinci Resolve can add a downloaded LUT to its colour management profile, allowing you to access it through the ‘3D Luts’ tab in nodes; for Premiere Pro you can access them in the Lumetri colour tab. The latest version of Apple’s Final Cut Pro X has now added native LUT support for the first time, so you don’t need any other plug-ins.

AUTUMN 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER