Since the use of LUTs has grown in popularity in recent years, there are at least a myriad of packs available online already alongside many others being rolled out left and right almost every single day. Finding those that are worth your money, though, is a whole different story. That’s because most LUTs typically push images off to a point where they start to look unnatural, wash out the skin tones or overemphasize the highlights or shadows of your image. While this type of processing could work for a particular project, it’s not very useful as a general grading asset that could offer enough room for customization and color tweaking.
Luckily, Harv of Harv Video/Audio Stuff has compiled a list of three LUT packs that not only are affordable but also bring the quality needed to get the most out of your Sony footage. All of these LUTs should be able to create a pleasing visual aesthetics while maintaining life-like skin tones, a common problem with most look-up tables.
What sets a LUT apart from some typical color presets is the fact that LUTs are mainly tailored to a specific color space, and sometimes even particular camera brand and the utilized color science. Depending on the situation, LUTs are usually applied during the beginning of color grading to act as a foundation for the look of your scene.
The first pack mentioned in the video is the Vellichor LUTs created by Ricardo Sousa. Harv’s general opinion towards the selection is that each LUT brings a beautiful look to the footage. Plus, these are easy to work with and can preserve skin tones surprisingly well, despite the stylized look to some of the LUTs.
The end image ranges from pastel and artistically low-contrast to vibrant and rich colors. The Vellichor LUTs work perfectly with most camera profiles, including Cine4 or S-Log, however, with flatter profiles, these might need some further tweaking.
The second pack on Harv’s list comes from Triune Films, the company behind the popular filmmaking series Film Riot. These LUTs are highly stylized based on popular blockbuster movies.
Majority of the included look-up tables appear punchy intended to be used as a creative tool with vibrancy varying depending on the intensity you set with the LUT (although you may want to be careful with the intensity for some). Currently, there are four different packs including Triune Color: Cinematic LUTs, Triune Color: Horror LUTs, Triune Color: Western LUTs, and Triune Color: Film Stock LUTs.
Last but not least, comes the DELUTS SETS created by James Miller. According to Harv, these are quite stylized and interesting looking, with commonly raised blacks throughout the set. As with the LUT packs from Triune Films, you may want to tread lightly with the intensity of the LUTs or else you may end up with an image that seems a bit overwhelming.
James Miller’s DELUTs – SONY SET contains 137 Creative Colour Grading LUTs for S-Log2 and Slog3 in a wide range of editing applications that support .cube format LUTS such as Adobe Premiere CC, Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe Photoshop CC, Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Speedgrade, DaVinci Resolve. Additionally, seasoned filmmaker provides multiple guides and tutorials for those of you who want to get a better sense of the given assets and learn how to use them more efficiently.
What are your favorite LUT packs that you typically use when color grading your Sony footage? Drop a few lines on the topic in the comments below.
[source: Harv Video/Audio Stuff]
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