Trying to access luts for color correcting in Premiere Pro

A further comment on LUTs ... once you get an idea what say a manufacturer's LUTs do, most colorists I know build their own. Take some Arri say that's outside, and make a specific corrective LUT for the Arri log version in a cloudy outside ... one for bright sun outside ... that's 'salted' to their taste.

Once you've done this, working with the Curves and Color Wheels tab, maybe the HSL also, it takes very little time to create a LUT that works best for you and the media you're given to work with. Rather than the basic one-size-fits- all which of course doesn't fit any one size particularly well.

Neil

The Technical LUTs are the ones used in the Basic tab Input slot, the ones used for "technical" work like correcting to LOG use. Technically speaking, they're in the wrong spot as they get applied before the corrections of the Basic tab, and according to everyone from Van Hurkman to all the camera manufacturers and other major apps. But that's what that folder is used for.

You can find it in the programs folder tree for the app, under Lumetri. And you can add to it without causing issues.

The Creative folder is the more "Look" style of LUTs, found next to the above, and we used to be able to even group our own LUTs/Looks in there with subfolders and all. However, with the 2015.3 version (10.x build series), they made some changes, and it seems like the Creative tab navigates to the items in that folder as much by 'relative' position as name. So ... adding to that folder, even with subfolders, can cause all sorts of bad things to start happening ... wrong LUTs/Looks used on export, even crashes.

For using LUTs/Looks separate from the ones in the Creative folder as supplied by Adobe, it's best to have a custom folder-set on your computer, and access that via the [Custom] option, which tends to remember the folder you were last in. Not as slick as viewing them in the little preview window ... but it's a better practice.

The Obsolete LUTs/Looks are ones that may work, but can have problems with certain other effects or media types. They're still included because some users really really wanted them still available, but ... again, can be a problem. In odd ways.

My suggestion, if you like any of the Obsolete LUTs/Looks, is to apply them via either the Technical or Creative tab to a clip with no other corrections, and then go to the little three-line 'hamburger' menu at the top of the Lumetri tab, and save as a .cube LUT.

In my experience, that creates a LUT that does the same thing but seems to work better with the current version.

As to best LUTs for Sony a7s and FS7 ... Sony, perhaps. And btw ... I've found that applying tech-style corrective LUTs, the best practices is to access them in the Creative tab as noted above, then go back to the Basic tab and correct the clip through the LUT as Van Hurkman et all suggest. Watching your scopes of course for clipping/crushing and levels of your various sections of the image.

Neil