I would like to know which LUT is most used by you lately?

[Marcelo Cosme]

My friend Ricardo Herling, Senior Colorist for a long time since before the digital, posted this question on Facebook.
He posted jokingly, because he can no longer see the m31 look applied poorly.

Many colorists, said not to use, others have posted NO LUTS boards ...
BUT, reading the cases here at Lowepost, several colorists say they use luts.

"The film was shot on the Alexa in Raw. We used an LUT to convert the C-Log into P3 color space, which also had a bit of a film emulation baked into it.
Eric Whipp - Mad Max ".

Cinderella was shot on 35mm Kodak film stock using anamorphic lenses. I graded using Blackmagic Resolve through a Kodak print emulation film stock and started by balancing the shots.
Rob Pizzey - Cinderella ".

Whenever this subject comes into play, it seems to be something forbidden, shameful ...
I've heard from producers, "Marcelo, do not use any LUT because the director can see this as something unprofessional" ...

Honestly, I use it when I need it, if I have a material recorded in Arri Alexa in Raw as Eric had in Mad Max, what's the problem of putting Lut from Arri to Rec709 or P3.

If a Faded Look 60s is requested, what's the problem after creating the exposure, skin, light among other correction adjustments, apply a Lut Agfa Vista 400 Expired to visually assist my building of narrative, highlights, and more yellowish averages And slightly greenish shades ... (illustrative example).

What is the problem of applying a Kodak 2383 FilmConvert with grain?

I may be wrong, but I see the facilities and tools for a better job ...

I am against the application without technical and artistic knowledge.
I am against using Blockbuster packages, SuperMan look, Grand Hotel Budapest look, etc ...

I did a test with a take recorded on A7s, see how the same material with the same rating, can get more organic with the CONSCIOUS use of a lut.
See the difference mainly in the skin and shadows ...
* In this series I did not use lut, but could have used ...

It is my vision over this subject.

[Marc Wielage]

I'm a fan of using no LUT at all and just doing everything manually. The advantage is that this way, I have complete control of the image pipeline and know how and where everything is going to clip or crush. Once I have a given look (like a Powergrade) for a specific show or a specific scene, I'll use that throughout the scene and then make changes where necessary for style and to make it match.

I don't have a problem with specific color science for Red, like RedWideRGB for color and Log3G10 for gamma (or RedLogFilm for gamma), but after that it's all me. I also have no problem with creating LUTs so that the VFX department can use those while creating composites with log footage, so they know the material will look correct by the time it round-trips back to me. When this is done right, the original correction drops right on and it all looks fantastic. 

But as a look... I think you're better off just experimenting and creating your own Powergrades (or stored looks in other systems) and then try those with new projects. If they don't work, throw them out and come up with something new. To me, that's what a colorist does.

I don't have a problem at all with LUTs thrown on to material on set or as a temporary look for editing, which makes total sense. I also use the temp version as a reference and will routinely match to it with the controls I have, and then use that look as a starting point. The Reference is good to drag along during the session so that you can say, "here's the dailies look -- now here's where we are in the final." They can be identical or as different as you want them to be.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Marc Wielage

[Tom Evans]

There are many reasons to use look up tables, mostly because of the production environment with many departments and artists involved to make sure everyone is seeing the same.

Another important use is look development and on-set use to establish a direction early in production. 

And of course calibration and log to linear transforms.

That said, in a grading session with first access to the footage, meaning no pre-look is applied or direction is set, I find it much easier and faster to manually dial in colors. But, having your controls behave the way they do with a pre-applied gamma curve correction could be difficult to accomplish without the help of a look up table. For a very experimented colorists the curve data can be set pretty accurately for further enhancement, but for a newbie - the look up table can be of great help. 

Edited September 3, 2017 by Tom Evans