LUTs, aka Look Up Tables, are an essential part of the modern digital filmmaking workflow. They allow you to preview specific grades while shooting on location, they can give a basic correction for log profiles, and they can provide a jumpstart to post-production. Building them and finding the right LUT can be a pain and many colorists have spent years building up a collection.
Or, now you can find a ton of free LUTs by heading over to freshLUTs. Put together by Film Simplified, which is led by Alex Jordan of Learn Color Grading, you will find an impressive and continually growing collection to help you with your next project.
This is an entirely free library of LUTs that can be used by anyone. freshLUTs is meant for sharing and with over 100,000 users and 1.3 million downloads there is plenty of content on there.
LUTs are usually hard to find and this solves that problem handily. There are filters to help you sort out ones for your camera or even the style you want. It makes finding one you know will work a lot easier.
Normally, if you are downloading LUTs it is kind of a mess of downloading folders and then making sure you have the ones that will work for you. And there isn’t usually a preview of what you are getting.
Image Credit: Blackmagic Design
freshLUTs has a preview window available so you can see what the image looks like before and after this particular LUT is applied. Below that you will have even more information on the LUT, such as the gamma, color, key, and style.
Being a social experience you can view the author and how many times this LUT has been downloaded and liked. If you head to the creator’s page there is more information on them along with links to their work.
The search page is a powerful way to filter out LUTs based on the look you want. You can get specific enough to select S-Log3, a warm tint, high key, and then a style, such as retro or noir.
As a user, you can upload your own LUTs to share them with others. It might also be a good way to show off some of your work. It also makes it easier to share your LUTs if you were doing that already using less-than-ideal methods like sending out a Google Drive link.
What do you think about freshLUTs? Have you used it before?
[source: Learn Color Grading]
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