3D LUT Creator - Tutorials (2023)

1. What is LUT?

In this video tutorial you will learn how to use 3D LUT Creator together with Photoshop.

You can configure the integration with Photoshop in the "Integration" tab in the program settings. Make sure your version of Photoshop is CS6 or higher as older versions of Photoshop do not support LUTS. If you cannot find the latest version of Photoshop in this list or the integration is not working, please select "Custom Photoshop" and select the path for your Photoshop below.

3D LUT Creator lets you import Photoshop images and send LUTs with one click. LUTs in Photoshop are applied to images as adjustment layers.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to set up 3D LUT Creator as an external editor for Adobe Lightroom.

Lightroom doesn't support LUTs, but you can still use the 3D LUT Creator in your Lightroom workflow. In Lightroom I go to the Edit > Preferences menu and open the External Editing tab. There you can configure 3D LUT Creator as an external editor for Lightroom images. To do this, you must specify the path to the program. You can also set image export parameters.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to work with the image window in 3D LUT Creator.

If you have two monitors, the image can be opened in a separate window. This can be done from the Window > Separate Image Window menu. This is useful if you want to use one monitor for the program tools display and the other for the image.

The image window is also used to display the reference image. The reference image is the image you use as a reference for tonal or color harmony.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to work with a very useful tool in 3D LUT Creator called Look Manager.

Surely many advanced users have accumulated such a large number of LUTs that it becomes difficult to navigate through them. If you have a lot of LUTs, you have two problems. Firstly, you can forget what kind of effect is achieved with each specific LUT. Second, it's also not clear how they will affect your work image or film. Therefore, sometimes it is necessary to apply LUTs one after the other, one after the other, to choose the right effect. Look Manager is specifically designed to solve these problems. For those of you who don't have your own LUT collection yet, don't be sad because 3D LUT Creator includes a complete LUT library!

This video explains how 3D LUT Creator's main color correction tools work: the A/B and C/L color grids.

Let me remind you that you will not find such opportunities to work with colors in any other program, since the main tools of this program take a completely different approach. You work with a color image as a three-dimensional model. Many of you were surprised by this, but don't forget that in order to achieve amazing results, you need amazing tools and completely new technologies.

This video tutorial is dedicated to working with HSP and LAB color models in 3D LUT Creator.

In the video dedicated to the beginning of the A/B and C/L color rasters, we discuss the HSL color space, which is very similar to the HSP color space, the program's basic working color model. So now you're starting with HSP-based color models, especially since one of them (HSPe) is the program's default color model. The color model loaded by default can be set in the program settings.

Note that changing the color model affects the A/B and C/L color grids, as well as the lightness and saturation sliders and special curves on the Curves tab.

In this tutorial we will continue to talk about color models in 3D LUT Creator!

In general, choosing the color model you want depends on the goal you want to achieve when performing color correction. After watching this video you will know how to analyze color models using test images that you can download from 3dlutcreator.com.

In this tutorial we will talk about the brightness slider, luminance curve and ways to adjust curves in 3D LUT Creator.

As you already know from previous tutorials, the lightness slider and the luminance curve in the Special Curves area depend on the color model chosen by the program. In general, both tools work with the component of the color model that is responsible for luminosity. In the LAB model it is the L channel, in the MXY model it is the M component, in the HSP model it is P which is the perceived lightness, in the CMYK model it is the black ink channel and in the RGBW model it is it white light

In this video we look at the remaining special curves in the 3D LUT Creator: the saturation/luminance curve, the saturation/saturation curve and the luma/saturation curve.

Remember that any action you take on these curves can be done using the colored grids. The advantage of color grids is high color accuracy, while special curves usually work faster and easier. Note that the effect of these curves depends on the color model chosen, as well as the corrections made by the tools that work in front of the curves. You can see these tools in the flowchart on the Mask tab. Usually the tools are applied according to the order of the tabs.

In this video tutorial we look at the basics of working with the A/B color grid in 3D LUT Creator!

If you don't know how color grids work, please watch the video How A/B and C/L color grids work in 3D LUT Creator.

In short, the color of the image is tied to the grid, if I fold the grid the color will change too. Neutral colors are in the center of the grid, the distance from the center corresponds to the color saturation. The color of the hue changes as you move across the center of the grid.

The A/B grid can be circular or square. The grid size can be changed if you want to perform precise color correction.

In this video we will continue to talk about how to work with a color grid. I will consider the main practical tasks that can be solved using this unique tool.

If you haven't seen the "Basics of working with the A/B color grid in 3D LUT Creator" video, we recommend watching it.

There are many problems that can be solved with the help of the main color grid: repainting objects, removing hues and reflections, coloring shadows and reflections separately, darkening and lightening individual tones, coloring neutrals, specifically adjusting tones, individual saturation-dependent color harmonies , cleaning the final image of unwanted colors, color calibration with color targets.

In this video we continue practicing with the A/B color grid in 3D LUT Creator!

In the video titled Saturation Curves in 3D LUT Creator we mentioned that all Saturation Curves actions can be performed on the color grid. Now you will see.

The effect of the saturation/luminance curve (or sat/lum curve) can be recreated with the dual A/B grid. The saturation/saturation curve (or sat/sat curve) can easily be replaced with the circular A/B grid. The Luminance/Saturation curve (or Lum/Sat curve) effect can be realized by adjusting the luminance in the A/B color grid.

In this video tutorial we will look at the new tools for working with the A/B color grid that have appeared in version 1.4 of the 3D LUT Creator program.

We already have similar tools for working with curves. Now some of them are available to work with the A/B grid. These tools change the grid so that the image color takes on certain characteristics of the reference color displayed in this swatch. If you double click on it, you will see a window where you can choose that color. You can also use the color swatch or enter the color manually. However, it is much more convenient to hold down the Alt key and click on the desired color. You can click on the working image and reference when it is uploaded.

Watch this video to learn how to use batch processing in 3D LUT Creator!

I would like to remind you that the batch processing feature is only available in the PRO version of the program. Batch processing allows you to process a series of photos with one LUT. This can be useful when listing products for an online store or catalogue. In this video, I'm using a teapot as an example, which I'm going to repaint in different colors.

1. Match the colors to the reference image

In this video you will learn how to export Lightroom and Photoshop plugin presets to 3D LUT Creator and create LUTs on them.

Some of you may be wondering, "Why would I need this?" You may be wondering, "Can I use Lightroom or Photoshop to process my photos edited in a light bar or in Photoshop itself?" And you'll be partially right. Video colorists cannot agree with them.

There are now a large number of presets for Lightroom, for example VSCO. Of course you can render the video in Lightroom, pre-convert it into a photo sequence, then throw everything in Lightroom, render, produce and send all the frames to the video editor. However, if you want to save time, you can take a faster way with 3D LUT Creator.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to work with RAW files in 3D LUT Creator using this image as an example.

First, let's see what the RAW file looks like in Photoshop. As you can see, the lighting in this photo is very yellow. Even at a temperature of 3700K, all objects are yellow. I turn the temperature down and see if the normal white balance for this photo is around 2300K. It was filmed in conditions that were quite difficult to photograph. At f/2 I had to shoot at ISO 1000, which already generates a lot of noise, and with this white balance cooling we made the noise in the blue channel even more evident.

In this video tutorial we will edit a photo with CMYK curves and 2D curves in 3D LUT Creator.

Those who work with video can store CMYK curves in LUTs and apply them to a video sequence. I don't know any video editor with CMYK curves. These curves are very handy for skin tone correction and don't create gaps in gradients compared to masks. This means that this LUT is universal and can be used with other photos without fear of posterization on gradients.

In this video tutorial we will perform Teal&Orange grading in 3D LUT Creator!

What is Teal & Orange? It's about changing all the colors of the image to two: orange, which is usually the color of the skin, and turquoise, which is the middle between blue and green. Let's do it in 3D LUT Creator!

Watch this video tutorial to learn how to get more value out of your existing LUTs.

I'm sure many of you have a large collection of LUTs and not all of them are created by 3D LUT Creator. Even Photoshop and DaVinci have additional LUTs you can use. Unfortunately, these LUTs are often contrast-enhanced or designed for logarithmic data, so we rarely use them as is. In this video I show you how to use the 3D LUT Creator to split the LUT into two or even three parts: RGB curve, master curve and HSL correction. Let's see how they differ. There are two main types of color correction: curves (usually the master curve and RGB curves) and HSL correction, which is used to correct hue, saturation, and luminance.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to darken the sky without artifacts in 3D LUT Creator.

I have a photo, it was sent by Dmitry. The question arose, how to darken the sky without getting artifacts? Let's try this in Camera RAW. I go to HSL, Luminance tab and darken aquas and blues. As we can see we get a light stroke around the trees.

Let's darken the sky in 3D LUT Creator!

In this video tutorial you will learn more about blending modes in 3D LUT Creator.

Blend modes in 3D LUT Creator are very similar to layer blend modes in Photoshop. For example, if I create a LUT that desaturates, I have the option to change the way that LUT is applied in 3D LUT Creator. First, I can change the opacity. I can reduce it or eliminate it altogether. Second, I can change the blending mode from normal to another one from the list.

In this video lesson you will learn another way of toning in 3D LUT Creator.

I'll start with toning based on the gradient map adjustment layer in Photoshop and then move on to what you can't do in Photoshop. You must first create a black and white version of the image, for example in the channel mixer you can create an identical rendering for all three channels. I take the green channel as a basis. In the red channel there is 0% red, 100% green and 0% blue. I'll do the same wording for the blue channel. We now have a black and white image. You can select and move all the points to give different contrasts to the colors you want.

In this video tutorial, I'll show you how to apply 3DLUT in games to create stunning visual effects. This video tutorial is mainly aimed at game developers based on the Unity 3D engine.

First of all I would like to say that 3DLUT can be connected in Unity in two ways: through the built-in Unity component and with the help of an external Amplify Color component. These components have different formats for importing LUTs and both formats are supported by 3D LUT Creator since version 1.0.

In this tutorial you will learn how to correct colors by numbers using curves in 3D LUT creator.

Typically, working with RGB curves means adjusting the red, green, and blue components of the image separately. However, 3D LUT Creator allows you to control RGB curves to separately adjust hue, saturation and lightness for a specific color. It's very handy, especially when you need to correct your skin tone.

In this video tutorial we are going to correct skin color in an unusual way: we are going to use the color table adjustment tool!

In this video you will learn how to work with color masks in 3D LUT Creator.

Masks allow you to apply a color correction to specific parts of the image based on the basic color properties of the image.

Please note that the surface of the curves has changed in 3D LUT Creator.

1. Color Correction with Color Checkers in 3D LUT Creator Part 1

In this video tutorial we will continue to talk about color correction with Color Checker in 3D LUT Creator.

We will consider color correction of videos from cameras that do not support recording in RAW or Log profiles. First, let's do a little experiment. Suppose we film a gray object with a video camera. Each camera has its own built-in RAW converter that converts sensor data to sRGB, reg709 or other similar formats. In our experiment, I will simulate a built-in converter using Adobe Camera Raw. Suppose we photographed the gray object but forgot to set the correct white balance. And the picture turned yellow. Ideally, after shooting this footage, we only correct the white balance and get the correct gray color of our subject.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to use DSC Labs Chroma Du Monde graphics in 3D LUT Creator to adjust colors in images captured with a Black Magic camera.

Here I shot with a Black Magic camera in ProRes Video Codec with BMD film profile and wrong white balance. What is strange to me is that DaVinci doesn't let me change any settings of the ProRes footage even though the camera and software are from the same company. The only way to change color temperature in DaVinci is if you have a still image with a color table. For example, in 3D LUT Creator you can do this even if you don't have the color table framework. There is more about this in another video.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to match colors from one camera to another using Color Target and 3D LUT Creator.

Here are four pictures sent by Michael. A special thanks goes to him. Two images were taken with a Canon 5D Mark 3 and two more with a Sony A7 S2 with different color profiles. Canon images have high contrast; We will use them as a reference. The Sony images were taken with a low contrast profile and we will try to match them to the Canon colors.

1. Work with LOG video sequences in 3D LUT Creator

and in this video tutorial you will learn how to use 3D LUT Creator with DaVinci Resolve to color correct RED camera images.

I have a short clip shot on RED in R3D format. I loaded it into the DaVinci. Let's see what options we have for working with him. I opened the Camera RAW module and it shows you have RED camera footage. To change this setting, I choose Сlip from the Decode using drop-down list. The first and simplest option that we will see is a development in DaVinci with Camera RAW. To do this I have to select Color Space Rec. 709 and Gamma Rec. 709 and from the RAW file we develop the image with normal contrast. To add a gradient in 3D LUT Creator, I save a still image. Right click > Capture still image, export to TIFF format. I open 3D LUT Creator.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to use DSC Labs Chroma Du Monde graphics in 3D LUT Creator to adjust colors in images captured with a Black Magic camera.

Here I shot with a Black Magic camera in ProRes Video Codec with BMD film profile and wrong white balance. What is strange to me is that DaVinci doesn't let me change any settings of the ProRes footage even though the camera and software are from the same company. The only way to change color temperature in DaVinci is if you have a still image with a color table. For example, in 3D LUT Creator you can do this even if you don't have the color table framework. There is more about this in another video.

This video tutorial shows you how to work with a log recording in Adobe Premiere. As an example, I will use V-Log images from the Panasonic camera.

There are some scenes shot in V-Log with different exposure and white balance. Let's start with these clips.

This video was shot with the correct exposure, please move it to the timeline and go to the color tab. The Lumetri panel will appear on the right. It is responsible for using various LUTs and basic fixes. LUTs can be used in two sections: basic and creative correction. The LUT that corresponds to your camera will be loaded into Basic Fix. The LUT for color toning and grading loads in the creative space.