What is a LUT and how do you use it?

A LUT, short for Look-Up Table, is a table that converts the colours in your image into new colours. With a few clicks you lay a fixed look over your photo or video. That is useful, because you get the same result every time and you can use that same look in both your photo editing and your video work.

Want to reread the short definition at your own pace? Have a look at what a LUT is in the glossary.

What a LUT actually does

A LUT is a table. For every colour value that comes in, there is a colour value ready to go out. The software walks through your image pixel by pixel and replaces the old colour with the new one. The nice part is that this works independently of your software. A LUT works in a photo program just as well as in a video program, because all it does is translate colour into colour.

That makes a LUT a comfortable way to capture a look. You build the look once and can then apply it anywhere, on a single photo or on a whole series of clips.

Preset, LUT and Capture One style

These three often get mixed up, but they are not the same. A preset is a set of slider positions in Lightroom or Camera Raw. You apply it and can still adjust every slider afterwards, so you keep full control. A LUT is a separate look-up table that translates the colour and works everywhere, including video. A style is essentially the Capture One version of a preset, a saved set of adjustments inside that program.

In short: you finetune a preset further in the software, a style does the same but in Capture One, and you reach for a LUT when you want the same look in more than one place, photo and video.

Technical or creative, and 1D or 3D

There are roughly two kinds of LUT. A technical LUT corrects, for example to bring footage from a flat camera profile back to normal contrast and colour. A creative LUT adds a mood instead, a warm summer look or a cool film look.

There is also a difference in how they are built. A 1D LUT adjusts each colour channel on its own and handles tone and contrast that way. A 3D LUT shifts colours in relation to each other as well, so green can move towards teal and skin can become warmer, independently of the rest. For real looks you need a 3D LUT. If you want to understand that difference more deeply, read 1D versus 3D.

File formats

The standard is the .cube file. It opens in almost every program that works with LUTs, from photo to video. You will sometimes also come across .3dl, an older format, and .look, which you mostly see in the Adobe world. In practice you will nearly always get by with .cube.

Applying a LUT

In Lightroom you add a LUT as a colour look-up table or profile. You load the file, choose the profile and then adjust the strength to taste. In Capture One you work with a LUT layer or LUT tool, where you read in the .cube file. In video you use a LUT as an adjustment or effect, for example in DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro.

In every case, start light. Lay the LUT on top, see what happens and dial the strength back if it becomes too much. Pay close attention to skin tones. A look that is gorgeous on a landscape can make a face too orange or too green. If that happens, correct your white balance first before you push the LUT any further.

To finish

Every preset on fotografie-presets.nl comes with a .cube LUT in the download. That way you use exactly the same look in your photos and your video, without having to rebuild the settings. Take a look at the presets and see which look suits your work.