Skip to main content
johnrellis
Legend
April 20, 2018
Open for Voting

P: Document the format of RGB LUTs in enhanced profiles

  • April 20, 2018
  • 29 replies
  • 3736 views

If Adobe documents the format of RGB LUTs stored in enhanced profiles, then it will be straightforward for LR plugins to make it much easier for users to import video LUTs as enhanced profiles and apply them to their images. 

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of existing LUTs, primarily used for video editing, and most of those are in Rec 709.  There are several roadblocks to users wanting to use those LUTs in LR:

- Camera Raw doesn't allow the Rec 709 gamma 2.2 and 2.4 color spaces when importing a LUT into a new enhanced profile:
https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/camera-raw-add-rec-709-to-lut-color-spaces-in...

- A user would need to buy an expensive utility to convert Rec 709 LUTs to a supported color space (e.g. ProPhoto RGB or Rec 2020).

- While LR 7 users will have access to Camera Raw via Photoshop (included in their CC subscription), many of them are unfamiliar with Camera Raw and would find the steps for creating enhanced profiles obscure and daunting.

--------------------------------------
My current surmise for how the LUTs are encoded:

- The LUT is converted to the internal LR/ACR working space (ProPhoto RGB primaries and white point, linear transfer function).

- It is compressed somehow. 

- The compressed LUT is then encoded using a minor variant of Ascii85.

29 replies

Participating Frequently
August 4, 2020
That would be awesome, thanks eartho! We are eager to implement this into our LUT editor.
Earth Oliver
Legend
August 4, 2020
Hey all, i'll ask one of the ACR devs for clarity here and they'll either make an appearance or i will copy/paste their reply... hopefully!
johnrellis
Legend
August 4, 2020
Unfortunately, no engagement from Adobe on this idea.
Participating Frequently
August 4, 2020
Any News ??
Inspiring
April 6, 2020
ANY NEWS ?!?!

Inspiring
November 22, 2018
Any news?
Inspiring
July 6, 2018
The LUT data seems to be stored using a custom Base85/Ascii85 encoding that doesn't use XML characters on top of some sort of variable length compression.Wanting to convert my dozens and dozens of LUTs, knowing this encoding is the only think blocking me for automating the process. 
johnrellis
Legend
May 3, 2018
See this related request to document the encoding of the look tables (hue-saturation maps): https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/enhanced-profile-issue-csv-looktable-files-wi...
cameronrad
Inspiring
April 21, 2018
It should be mentioned that any LUTs meant to work on Rec709/2.2 images
I specified the gamma in my comment in terms of Rec709. If a LUT was meant to work on Rec. 709/Gamma 2.2

I also shared a workflow for using Rec709/2.4 LUTs.
However it requires a transformation within the LUT from sRGB to 2.4 and back.

An easy way to do that without extra software is to combine and generate a new LUT in Photoshop by using the Color Lookup Adjustment Layers  and File > Export > Color Lookup Tables.

You can use these 1D transformation LUTs I generated to go from sRGB to 2.4 and vice versa.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wupezb4v75irsj0/sRGBRec709TransformationLUTs.zip?dl=0  

If you have a LUT requiring Rec.709/2.4, place it between the sRGB>2.4 LUT and the 2.4>sRGB LUT and export a new LUT out of Photoshop.

Or if you just want an approximate match, you can use two exposure adjustment layers to apply a 1.091 gamma correction and a 0.917 gamma correction.
johnrellis
Legend
April 21, 2018
"I'm curious if the LUT info is included in the metadata uploaded with JPEGs if you embed metadata."

I just checked, and the metadata includes the name of the profile, its unique identifier, and the unique identifier assigned to the LUT, but not the contents of the LUT.