(upbeat music) - So I used to absolutely hate LUTs because I felt like it
would dictate my final look. And I feel like for a lot of beginners, they still make that mistake. So in this video I'm gonna show you instead of being a LUT (censored), how can we take back that control and make LUTs our (censored). So if you're pumped, get excited. And also guys, I'm doing
a live webinar next Monday at 11:00 AM Pacific Time. I'm gonna be revealing the secrets to creating an epic commercial look. So make sure you sign
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I drop brand new content. Let's roll the intro. (upbeat music) All right, so first of all, we're gonna look at the beginner way and I'm just gonna show you
how people usually use LUTs and it's not the right way to do it. And I'm also going to commentate as I go through why
it's not the right way. So what usually people would do, let's just say we have this shot, it's shot on Alexa. This is our hero frame. So let's just say that the beginner does
all of these things right. He knows the camera information and he knows what a hero frame is and then grade based around that frame. So all that is well and good. Let's just say that he also
knows a proper node restructure. And let's just give our beginner
the benefit of the doubt on all of those fronts. One thing that I wanna show you under my preference is I am
using a DaVinci Wide Gamut as my timeline color space. So let's just do this then. Let's apply a color space transform and convert this properly. So what did we say? That this is shot on Alexa. So let's choose the gamut
three and then log C-3. So this looks all weird. It's totally fine. Now, let's just say that
our beginner also knows how to use the LUTs inside Resolve, okay? So when it comes to the
film looks right here, there is a certain thing
that you have to do to properly basically decipher it. So the way you're gonna
do it is color space. We're gonna do Rec 709
and then the output gamma, we're gonna select Syneon film log, okay? So it looks like that,
which is totally fine, because now we're gonna create a new node. And in that node, let's just say that we select a Balanced
2383, which is the middle one. So 55 is gonna be warmer, and then 65 is going to be cooler. So we're gonna select 60. We're gonna double click
on it and apply the LUT. So normally this is what would happen. A beginner would apply a LUT and then create a node after that and then look at it and be like, "Okay, what do I need to do now?" And most of the time what
they would do is they'll go, "Well, the effect is too strong. So this is..." And you know, drop a comment below and tell me you've been there. You've seen some people do this before where they'll go under
their key input, right? And then they'll just like
start dialing that back. They'll be like, "I don't
wanna apply a lot of this. I just wanna apply a little bit and then build my own look on top of it." Well, by doing that, it's not as simple as just like you're
bringing down the opacity. You're basically taking out
the character of the LUT, what the LUT is supposed to do, okay? And there's a lot going
underneath the hood when you apply a LUT. And by just reducing that simply doesn't really lowers the contrast. It's lowering the saturation. It's lowering literally the character, the DNA of the LUT, okay? So again, don't be that guy. That is the number one
mistake where people do that. What I wanna show you is like, how do we get to our desired look without fudging with the actual
characteristic of the LUT? Okay? So that's the entire idea. You never want to suck
the soul out of your LUT because that's the whole point, right? You're using a specific LUT
for the look characteristic. So why do you wanna water that down? Another thing that they would
do is they'll make a lot of their changes after the LUT node. They'll do all their
adjustments afterwards. And the problem with that is that this is a properly
exposed shot from Alexa. But if it wasn't properly exposed, if you apply the LUT
and things get clipped either from your shadows or highlights, and then you make adjustments afterwards, it's not coming back. Even in a software like Resolve, that is 32-bit float because LUT is that choking point, okay? That will cut out like
whatever is being wasted after applying the LUT. So if the top end is gone, it's gone. You can't bring it back. And that's why LUTs can be detrimental. Okay? Another thing a beginner would do is that once they apply the LUT, they can go and use their Lift Gamma Gain. Let's just say that they
do something like this and they go, "Okay, now the
contrast is kind of nice." Like, "I like this, this is good." Another thing that they don't do is that they don't necessarily mess around with the balance of their image. So those are some of the things, like I don't wanna go too deep into all the mistakes beginners would make but I wanted to just make
you aware of some things that either you might be doing or you've seen somebody show you that way. And it's okay at times
to lower the opacity if you're going for a specific look but there are better ways to attack it. And that's what we're gonna look at now. So what I'm gonna do is
I'm just gonna save this, grab this still and this time, reset this. And now what we're gonna do
is first of all, a pro tip: Always have a Rec 709 version
readily available, okay? And I'll show you why that's important. So what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna drop my transform here and I'm just gonna select
gamut 3 and log C-3 Rec 709, Gamma 2.4. And now I'm gonna go ahead and create a new version. And we're just gonna reset again. And now if I just go back, we have this Rec 709 available. So anytime we build a new look, we can reference back to this because that's what the producers and the directors saw on site and the cinematographer if they didn't have their own custom LUT. So then they can just go
back to this and be like, "Okay, this is what it looked like and this is where we're at." You know, it's always good for the client to see what
they originally had, okay? And it can just save you a lot of trouble later down the pipeline. So what we're gonna do
now is I'm gonna go ahead and create couple of different nodes. And what I wanna do is I wanna work in the DaVinci Wide Gamut color space. So I'm gonna drop a CST here, select the right parameters right here, and then do DaVinci Wide
Gamut and DaVinci Intermediate because we want all our nodes
to work in that color space. And then on the back end, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
drop color space transform. I'm gonna select DaVinci Wide
Gamut, DaVinci Intermediate, and then again Rec 709, Gamma 2.4. Guys, once again, if I'm going too fast here about the color space transform stuff then definitely join me in
the live webinar next Monday because I'm gonna be going in detail and explaining the why
behind this how, okay? So what I wanna do is
I wanna do this first and then balance out my image. So what am I looking at? The image does look pretty good, right? Like right off the bat,
it's looking pretty good. But we can do a few things, right? So like if I go in my Lift Gamma Gain, I can lift up the image a
little bit, not too much. Take my gamma, pull it down a little bit, just to give the image
a little bit more weight and then gain up like that. And if I do before and after, we're making some difference
and it's looking pretty good. I think the whole image
is just a little bit on the warm side and we can
even see it in our vectorscope. So what I can do is go
under my printer lights, try it and test it, and then I'll give you the
hot key that I'm using. It's not gonna show
because I'm using my panel but you're gonna see the
difference here, okay, in the numbers right here. So what I wanna do is I want
to just add maybe one cyan. So let's add that up and see what happens. So if I do this and go back here, it looks good, not bad. What if we subtract one yellow? No, I don't wanna do that. So I'm gonna go back on this. And then let's just do one... like subtract one red and it does this. And that's not bad, okay? Another thing that I wanna do here is I just wanna give it
a little bit more color. I feel like there's just not enough color in my image right now. So I'm just gonna go under saturation, crank it a little bit not- Well, always go too far and then come back and I'm gonna park it
somewhere around here. I'm gonna take my gamma,
pull it down a little bit; gain, pull it up a little bit. Okay. So this is where we're at right now, guys. It's looking good. It's looking pretty balanced. And then what I can do
is I can go to my Rec 709 and then this is where I'm
at with just like balancing, and just adding a little
bit of color to my image. So this is where we're at. Now, we're gonna move on
and we're ready for the LUT. So the only change I have to make here is change my output gamma from
Gamma 2.4 to Syneon, okay? And as soon as I do Syneon film log, it's gonna look pretty washed out. That's okay. Now let's go apply the same LUT. So I'm gonna double tap on that. And now look at the difference
already in our image after doing a little bit of work, compared to what the beginner had. So let me just show you. Just look at the color
difference that we have, how much more color information
we have in our image here just by doing a little
bit of like prep work before applying the LUT, compared to what our
beginner ended up with. And even their version was
like looking pretty good from where they started. But, like, look at this. I mean, they're not even
in the same league, right? Because even if I hover over on the skin, look at the skin indicator right here, like how the skin is sitting
to the right like magenta and it doesn't look right. But at the time, it was looking okay. But look at our skin now, dead in the center where
it's supposed to be. And overall, just the color
separation is out of control and we're not done yet, okay? So we still have a few
things that we can do. So one of the things that
I want to do right now is I'm seeing that my
highlights run a little hot when I applied this LUT. And that's the thing that
contrast is like really, really pushed on this LUT. So I wanna do a few things. I wanna go back in here. I wanna drop my highlights. I'm gonna grab my highlights slider and pull it back a little bit. I'm talking like maybe 15 or 18-ish. Like, around here. That makes a big difference, okay? Because if I do before and after, you can see like how much more
information we're retaining in this area. And then what I wanna do is
I wanna go under my shadows and lift it up a little bit, not too much. So I'll go to around 12-ish,
somewhere around here. And this is where we're at right now. Now I'm gonna take my gain and I'm gonna pull it down just a touch. Again, not too much, but somewhere around here. And if I do before and after, these changes are making a big difference. Basically, after applying the LUT, our contrast was too crunchy and we opened it up by using
our shadows and highlights. Okay? And another thing that I wanna do is I want to go in here and create a very gentle custom curve to just kind of dictate
the look a little bit more to like what we want
than what the LUT did. Okay? So we, again, buying
back that control, okay? And it could be as subtle as this. If I do before and after, you can see like how soft, film-like contrast we're creating. And I'm just gonna do this to have some pop in my highlights, but then I'm doing a really
nice gentle film roll off on the bottom end. And you can see that
all the detail is there but it's looking very,
very cinematic, okay? And this could be it. I'm keeping it very simple, just to kind of show you
how we can take the LUT and then build our look on top of it. I'm gonna create one more node and that's for this purpose only. Right here, you see, like, with the 2383, it creates
that orange and teal that is built into that LUT. And let's just say that
our director is like, "I'm sick and tired of it. I want cleaner blacks." So to get the cleaner blacks, we do have to create a
post LUT node right here. And then in here, all I have to do, I'm gonna go under my log controls and I'm just going to
subtract that cyan, okay? So I'm gonna just pull
up my reds a little bit and my shadows, and you can see it already that we're closing that gap right here. We don't have to go too far. Even something like this
is looking pretty good. And another thing that we can do is I can just take my shadows and pull them down a little bit. Not too much, but something like that to
have like strong blacks. And I'm gonna take my red and dial it back a little bit, okay? Not- Because I don't wanna overdo anything. And if we look at our blacks now, they're looking a lot better. And now we don't have like
a stylized matted blacks that we had with this LUT. This is more like a quote, end quote, Rec 709 what you would see on TV where the blacks are very close to zero. And that's what we got going on right now and it just adds a little
pop to our entire image. And that's what we ended up with, guys. So once again, if I were to undo that and all the changes that we made, this was just straight up with the LUT but we had already done some homework just doing our primaries that
gave us such a crazy leg up over a beginner's look. And then this is all cherry on top. We created a really nice gentle roll off by using our custom curve. And then finally, we
just corrected the blacks per our director's request and then brought them down a
little bit for a sharper look. And if I were to now see our Rec 709, this is our Rec 709. It looks like log, right? But this is log. So this is our Rec 709 and then this is the look that we created. Everything is protected. All the detail is there and the highlights and in the shadows. And now if I were to compare
it with our beginner's version, that was the beginner's version, and you can see how one
directional it is compared to what we ended up with and how simple, yet effective it was. So now let's check out the
final look in full screen. (upbeat music) So as you saw by watching this video, that color grading will
never be binary, right? Zeros and ones. Color grading will never be objective. There's always going to be
different routes you can take to get to your destination but hopefully this cleared up some things that you can do when using LUTs to get a better result out of your image. Also, I wanna know your thoughts, when you use LUTs, do you feel similarly like I used to, where it just takes so much control? Or do you love what it does, where it just gives you a
completely different perspective and a look that you couldn't
come up with on your own? So, I wanna know what you guys think. Drop a comment below. If you are enjoying this
content, then do me a favor, smash the like button so we can reach more awesome
people such as yourself. Do not forget to sign
up for the live webinar. Like I said, the seating are limited. Link is in the description. So check it out. I wanna see you guys next
Monday at 11:00 AM Pacific time. On that note, work hard,
get obsessed, get possessed. I will see you guys in the next video. (upbeat music)
