In video post-production, LUTs are an incredible tool to help you achieve a desired look. They are often used to simplify the color grading process, and can save time by bypassing the need for additional corrections on individual clips.
To create a custom LUT, simply apply it to your footage in the timeline. You can do this at the media, event, or track level in the Video FX window.
What is a LUT?
A LUT, or look-up table, is a mathematically precise way to alter the contrast and color of your image or video. A LUT can be used to transform your footage, giving it a more cinematic feel.
A filmic look can make your film feel more professional and create a cohesive look that unifies your shots. But when done incorrectly, it can undermine your intentions and cause jarring, disorienting differences between scenes. Using LUTs to apply pre-determined looks can help you achieve your desired aesthetic and ensure consistency across the entire film.
LUTs are most commonly used in post-production by film and video editors and colorists to add a desired look to their footage. They can be used to add a specific color palette, or they can be applied to achieve a particular effect, such as making a scene look dark and moody or bright and sunny.
There are different kinds of LUTs, but the most popular are 3D and 2D LUTs. 3D LUTs offer more control because they can read images on three axes, allowing them to be more versatile. They can also deal with more complex display calibration issues, like gamma and gamut errors. They are also more accurate than 2D LUTs, which only offer a simple linear visual guesstimation of what a film stock looks like.
You can find many different LUTs online, including presets for specific cameras and film stocks. However, it is important to note that most of these are not based on real film colorimetry and can be very inaccurate. They can also lead to clipping or crushing of pixels, which is not good for the image quality.
Another option is to use a professional color grading tool, such as DaVinci Resolve or Speedgrade. This will give you more control over the final look of your shot and will also allow you to create unique color grades that are specific to your project.
Another great benefit of using LUTs is that they are very easy to apply and work quickly. Once you have imported your LUTs into your NLE, they can be dragged and dropped onto footage or used in the effects menu. This makes the process of applying a look to your footage much simpler and faster than manually manipulating each shot by hand.
How do LUTs work?
Using LUTs is a fast and easy way to get a great looking color grade on your wedding video without spending hours tweaking sliders. You can even use LUTs to create a specific look that mimics your favorite movies and TV shows.
Basically, a LUT is a mathematical transform that takes your flat-looking log image and turns it into a rich and contrasty image. LUTs are grouped by their purpose; some are designed to be used for calibration (like Rec. 709 LUTs) while others are created to emulate the look of a particular film stock. By using wedding LUTs, you can easily maintain a consistent aesthetic across all wedding videos, ensuring that each project has a unified and professional look.
When choosing the best wedding LUTs for your footage, be sure to select ones that are suitable for your project. If your footage has a lot of greens or verdant tones, you can choose a bright LUT like Timbre 04 that will make those colors pop and emphasize the saturation. On the other hand, if your footage is more gray and blue, you can choose a dark LUT like Cinematic Wedding Film 01 that will give it a moody and dramatic look.
Another thing to consider when choosing LUTs is the effects that will be carried through after applying them. Some LUTs may only work with certain effects, such as blurs or vignettes. It is important to note that LUTs will only carry through changes to exposure, levels, and contrast. If you have a lot of other effects, they will likely be lost or change in appearance.
LUTs have a few drawbacks, however. For one, they can cause banding when applied to an image with high bit depth. This is because a LUT will change every pixel in an image the same way, which can lead to artifacts in gradients with fine detail.
In addition, LUTs can also be very complex and require a high level of skill to build. That is why most professional creators will only apply them to test footage or rough cuts. It is also important to understand that LUTs are not a replacement for the actual color-grading process. But they are an excellent tool for anyone who wants to achieve a polished finish quickly and easily.
What are the best LUTs for weddings?
There is a wide variety of wedding LUTs available on the internet. The best LUTs for wedding videos will enhance the colors of your footage, improve contrast, make skin tones look healthy and natural, and add a sense of warmth and depth to the image. They are also compatible with a variety of editing software, including Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Luminar, On1, and more. These wedding LUTs will help you create stunning cinematic film graded photos or videos with just a few clicks.
These LUTs are specially crafted for wedding video editing to give you the most beautiful and cinematic results. They will help you eliminate harsh shadows, make whites look clean and bright, and give the colors a creamy, pastel feel. The Majestic Wedding LUTs Bundle includes five color grading presets that will help you achieve the perfect wedding film look for your images or videos.
The LUTs in this bundle were designed by professional wedding videographers and are optimized for Rec709 footage, making them compatible with all cameras. They are easy to use and will work with any type of footage, from sunny to overcast. The Majestic Wedding LUTs pack includes 5 unique looks, ranging from warm to cool tones, with different levels of saturation and intensity. Timbre 01 is a soft and neutral LUT that will help you achieve a romantic look with balanced colors and low saturation. It will also reduce green tints in your shots and mutes red and purple highlights, which makes it ideal for wedding videography in outdoor locations.
Collection Two was developed with the intention of creating a simpler workflow for wedding filmmakers. These creative LUTS will save you time in post-production by helping you reach your color goals sooner. To get the most out of these wedding LUTs, apply them after you have applied a conversion or base LUT to your LOG footage.
The LUTs in this collection were designed by professional wedding videographers and filmmaking experts. They are easy to use and will work well with any type of footage. They will help you create a more polished and refined wedding video with beautiful, natural skin tones and rich, vibrant colors.
How to use LUTs
If you’re looking to create a moody, dark, or romantic look in your wedding films, LUTs are a great way to accomplish that. You can also use them to add a film-like grain to your footage. By using the right wedding LUT, you can create a unique style that will set your films apart from the rest.
To use a LUT, simply drag and drop it onto your media in the timeline. You can apply it to an entire event or track, or to individual pixels in the image. When you’re finished, you can save the LUT as a preset that you can apply to other events or clips. Just make sure that the effects you have added to your project don’t manipulate the image in other ways, such as blurs or vignettes, as this will prevent the LUT from working correctly.
The best wedding LUTs are designed to work with a wide range of cameras and color profiles, including LOG footage. They can be applied to a flat, neutral, or contrast-boosted image. They will also work with images that have been blown out or underexposed.
For example, the Timbre LUT collection offers gentle warmer colors that bring life to footage shot on forest and beach scenes. They also work well with naturally lit interiors and even direct sun.
Another great way to use a LUT is by applying it to footage that has been captured in a high dynamic range (HDR). These LUTs help to bring out the details and vibrance of the scene, making the colors pop and boosting the contrast.
Finally, there are conversion LUTs, which are used to perform specific transformations. For instance, if you have footage that was shot in Sony SLog 3, you can use a conversion LUT to convert the colors from SLog 3 to Rec709, which is a more standard color space for post-production.
To save a LUT, click the Color Grading button on the toolbar in the timeline and then click the Save LUT button. A dialog will appear where you can name the file and choose whether or not to include adjustments made in the Color Grading panel. Once saved, you can import the LUT into any project in VEGAS Pro that supports the.cube format.