One of the most important part of Filmmaking and Photography process is definitely Color grading

Great color grading can make a whole difference between a great shot and a dull one. Color grade can take average footage or image and transform it into a great one, but also a bad color grading can ruin amazing footage and destroy all the hard work put behind it.

When you use 3D LUTs as part of your color grading process, it is important to learn how to use LUT and follow some simple rules.

3D LUTs have been part of DITs, colorist and all the film industry for years and recently they are starting to be embraced by photographers and individual filmmakers.

What is a LUT?

LUT means Look Up Table, a LUT is a table used to map one color space to another, like a Log image into Rec.709 space for example

LUTs are used also to calculate and preview how an image will be reproduced on another display device and as Color Transformation LUT like the Cinemapro Canon to Alexa LUT.

LUTs can be used as a great starting point for color grading.

In resume, a LUT is a look you can apply to your footage or images in order to give it a distinctive, creative, starting point for your color grade.