FAQ: Premiere Pro Lumetri Color Custom LUT directory and location

[Kevin-Monahan]

Lumetri Color Custom LUT directory

Common question: Where do I place custom and third party LUTs?
You may have read on the internet that you can add LUTs to the Premiere Pro application folder. DO NOT DO THIS!

Though placing LUTs in folders in the app package can work for a single user within Premiere Pro, the workflow falls apart once you update Premiere Pro to a new version, share a project, or even send a sequence to Adobe Media Encoder.

Beginning in version 12.1.2, follow these instructions for installing custom LUT files and to have them appear in the Lumetri Color panel. You can also share the project and export in AME with this technique.

You can install custom LUT files and have them appear in the Lumetri Color panel. To install custom LUT files, create one or more of the directories listed below and then copy your custom LUT files to that folder.

Adobe Documentation: Install Custom LUT files

Custom LUT directories	macOS	Windows
Available only to the local user	/Users/<user_name>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Creative /Users/<user_name>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Technical	C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Creative C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Technical
Available to all users	/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Creative /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Technical	C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Creative C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Technical

Premiere Pro scans the folders at launch and loads LUT files from these directories. LUTs in the Creative directories appear in the Creative Looks dropdown, and LUTs in the Technical directories appear in the Input LUT menu.

[R Neil Haugen]

Those are the correct folder-trees for both Mac and Windows.

Going through Finder or Explorer to get "there", for some users the LUTs folder isn't created by the application on installation. So you may or may not need to create the LUTs folder in each spot you use.

You DO have to create the Technical and Creative folders in those spots. Place your LUTs in the Technical folder for use in the Basic tab, or Creative folder for use in the Creative tab. IF you rename your LUTs by say adding a letter or number prefix, you can both see to it that YOUR LUTs show first in the lists, and even group your LUTs by type of look/effect or source.

On restarting Premiere after your LUTs are in place, they will now appear in the drop-down lists in the Basic and Creative tabs within Lumetri.

Neil

[Kevin-Monahan]

• Thank you for the additional advice.
• It appears that this information is not yet folded into the main documentation for Premiere Pro, yet there are a good number of people still placing LUTs incorrectly in the app package.

[R Neil Haugen]

Yes ... I know! Both here on this forum, on LIft/Gamma/Gain, and in conversations at NAB last week I talked with several people who were having issues ... and all were putting them in the program/package folder LUTs folders. Bad ... very bad ... sigh.

So thanks for making this thread here. I hope users find it and LEARN.

Neil

[dan.harper]

So, after you create this Common Folder and add your technical and creative LUTs, how do you get After Effects to recognize it when you dynamically link a Premier Pro project?   This Common Folder method has never worked for me with the current versions and previous versions of Premier and AE.   And I have to manually re-link every clip I send over when opening.

I'm guessing that people are placing LUTs in the "wrong place" is because that's the only way to make the software work as it should.

[R Neil Haugen]

Puzzling ... my AfterEffects 'sees' and applies LUTs from those locations without issue ... as does MediaEncoder.

Neil

[R Neil Haugen]

Here's the location on my computer ...

Neil

[dan.harper]

Mine are located on my Mac:  Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common LUTs

and if I open After Effects, all my LUTs are there...  If I open Premier Pro, all my LUTs are there..

If I open a new composition in After Effects FROM a clip in Premier Pro, I must go through each clip and tell it where the LUTs are located, even if it's the same LUT for multiple clips...  It's an annoying waste of time.

[R Neil Haugen]

So your full tree for say "Basic" tab Input slot would be LIbrary/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Technical ... and just adding the Creative folder alongside the Technical one.

And of course, you did create the Technical and Creative folders there, and your LUTs are in their respective folders ... and it still ain't working.

That's ... a royal pain. On the following chart, there's a Mac OS option that isn't through the User tree, starts at the Library itself ... have you tried that?

Neil

[dan.harper]

Yes, there is a Technical and a Creative Sub-folder in LUTs...  And they all show up just fine when opening a new document inside of either program in their respective drop down menus, they just seem to be lost when using dynamic linking

My current workaround is an alias to the LUTs folder on my desktop making it at least easier to navigate the many sub-folders to "find" the correct LUT in the open dialog box...  But there needs to be a better way.

Copying my LUTs files to the common folder for individual local user yielded the same results.

[R Neil Haugen]

That should not be happening, wonder what the deal is. Most of the engineers of course work both sides of the aisle but in general, well ... they're Mac people. So they use this on their Macs all the time. I know a number of Ae wizzes that use this without issue ... who are also still on Macs.

Wes Howell​ or Kevin-Monahan​ ...  any ideas here? I'm stumped.

Neil

[Wes Howell]

To confirm, this happens when sending content from Pr to AE and the LUT references are lost?

I have seen this mentioned before and this sounds like a bug to me.  I'll look into this and make sure it's logged internally.

Wes

[dan.harper]

Yes...  When you "create new AE composition from clip" in Pr, it first opens a dialog box to name the new composition, then it opens a second dialog box requesting where the LUT file is located and requires you to select the specific LUT you applied in Lumetri Color. (  For each clip you send to AE.  )

[WoodEcology]

Was this ever resolved? I'm still having the same issue described here by dan.harper.

[R Neil Haugen]

How about starting a new thread? This one was actually on simply using the proper LUT location for working within Premiere.

As yours is a Premiere/Ae comp/dynamic link issue, let's get that started in a clean discussion.

Neil

[mateusza97877506]

??

[Baffy19]

Currently they look like this on my Win 11.

 

[MDLA Films]

It appears there is a limit to how many LUTs that Premiere will display. I have a ton of luts and Premiere doesn't display them all. Only goes up to the K's, still got the rest of the alphabet to go.

[R Neil Haugen]

Wow. Curious how many are in your folders?

Haven't heard of anyone maxing that before! How do you use all those?

Neil

[MDLA Films]

I'm always collecting free luts so I have quite a few. My library of creative LUTs is over 2000 (I know that's ridiculous) , and I have about 833 technical luts. I'm not sure what the max luts are, I also know this number is ridiculous, which is why I want adobe to create a Favorites for LUTs and a way better organizational structure for them. It's needed.

[R Neil Haugen]

That is an amazing collection!

I just find it faster to grade than test a number of LUTs. Partly because it's so much faster with the Elements panel I have.

Everyone does it differently  ... oh. You might try having folders organized together and move them in or out of working folders as needed.

Neil

[Baffy19]

Neil, projects require many different variations at the first stage, and it is not possible to choose from a dozen possible ones in this case. I also support the idea of extending the third-party LUT library. It would be extremely convenient. You cannot use the same Lut for different categories of projects. And this is the peculiarity of keeping many variations of third-party LUTs on board.

[Phú Cường]

So have u had some solutions to the problem u're talking about @MDLA Films ? I'm in the same situation as you, and I need a way to handle this.

[mikejaz2]

OK. iMac 2015 vintage, OS10.13, PPro 2020.

I work on a lot of projects from various Disney O&Os. They're starting to get into some wicked cool new cam technology (like the Sony FS7), which make great looking pictures if you use the right LUT.

Unfortunately, they show up on my system minus the proper LUT (or even a note that a specific LUT was applied). Now that I understand what's going on (and assuming I survive the pandemic...), I'll ask for the LUTs in the future.

For the time being, I went to the Sony website and downloaded 4 general-purpose LUTs for the FS7. I followed the instructions below, creating a "LUTs/Technical" and a "LUTs/Creative" folder within the "Comon" folder; dropped the LUTs into the Technical folder; and VOILA!, they now appear in the "Basic" dropdown in Lumetri.

Score one for the home team!

[DavinciWhite]

Hi there; 

     as I understand this is the only proper thread about this topic; implying the need to be updated with every new version and update of the software. Sorry Kevin and Neil for the extra work.

      Right now (Premiere ver. 14.6)  "LUTs" folder has two folders inside:  "Input" & "Output". Now I am wondering if the "Technical" & "Creative" should be added in one of those folders, or if we keep working with them in "Common". Or if "Input" is the new Technical & Creative. 

    From the adobe help FAQ we still get the same info :
https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/premiere-pro/user-guide.html/uk/premiere-pro/using/color-workflows.ug.htm...

WINDOWS
Available only to the local user:

• C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Creative
• C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Technical

Available to all users:

• C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Creative
• C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Technical

So, any idea if those "Inputs" / "Outputs" have any change in the way of installing LUTs? 

Thanks!