I think I understand what a LUT is, but...
Can someone explain to me what a LUT is? Apparently it's something very easy to understand, although I'm not quite sure I get it. Even the "simple" explanations go right over my head.
People are adamant that they are not, and should not be used as presets or filters to obtain a final look, why not? If the look is nice, and what I am after, why not (Like Captain Hook's LUT - really like the look of it)? Are those people just elitists or something?
From what I understand, a LUT is used as a starting point for colour grading so that you know what changes are going to be made to your footage during the final step, EG: You have super flat prores footage that's going to be printed to film AFTER you colour grade it, only the print to film alters it, say with extra contrast and saturation. So the LUT you would use would be ONLY what the final print to film WOULD make: a bit of extra contrast and saturation. Then you colour grade it the way you want it to look at the end result, remove the LUT and you're done. Even though YOUR final image with have LESS contrast and saturation, when you do finally get it printed to film, it will look how you intended.
But just now (I think) I read that a LUT is simply a means to share colour grading info across different platforms much like an XML or EDL file for editing programs. So one dude in Resolve grades a clip, then gives you a little file that you import into After Effects and you get the same changes he made.
Can someone explain to me what a LUT is? Apparently it's something very easy to understand, although I'm not quite sure I get it. Even the "simple" explanations go right over my head.
People are adamant that they are not, and should not be used as presets or filters to obtain a final look, why not? If the look is nice, and what I am after, why not (Like Captain Hook's LUT - really like the look of it)? Are those people just elitists or something?
From what I understand, a LUT is used as a starting point for colour grading so that you know what changes are going to be made to your footage during the final step, EG: You have super flat prores footage that's going to be printed to film AFTER you colour grade it, only the print to film alters it, say with extra contrast and saturation. So the LUT you would use would be ONLY what the final print to film WOULD make: a bit of extra contrast and saturation. Then you colour grade it the way you want it to look at the end result, remove the LUT and you're done. Even though YOUR final image with have LESS contrast and saturation, when you do finally get it printed to film, it will look how you intended.
But just now (I think) I read that a LUT is simply a means to share colour grading info across different platforms much like an XML or EDL file for editing programs. So one dude in Resolve grades a clip, then gives you a little file that you import into After Effects and you get the same changes he made.
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