Community Manager

Question

FAQ: Premiere Pro Lumetri Color Custom LUT directory and location

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
April 1, 2016
20 replies
191438 views

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.

Show previous replies

D

defaulty3btm7u485i0

Participant

I have created the folder as suggested here, but ... one big question remains... where do I get my LUTs files from? I have them running on Premiere Pro 2019 but I lost them when I open Premiere Pro 2021...

R Neil Haugen

Legend

If you'd created the folder setup while running in 2019, it would be the same folder. So ... where did you put them while using 2019?

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

T

tp-doku

Known Participant

Anyone who works professionally with Premiere will stumble across this poorly programmed error at some point. It is incomprehensible why Adobe does not tackle the problem.

My house has a unique house number on it, not "previous house number plus 1".

R Neil Haugen

Legend

As someone who uses LUTs professionally in both PrPro and Resolve, I do have some experience.

As is noted above in this and many other threads ... the program/package folder of Lumetri included LUTs is for INTERNAL use only by the programs. ALL the apps ... PrPro, AfterEffects, MediaEncoder, and Prelude. Period. It is expected by the apps to be the same in all of them, is therefore "known" and totally stable in design and usage.

It is not a bad design issue or a problem to be solved. It IS by design. And works exactly as needed, and as it should.

And it is the same process as with any other NLE of Fx app, the user's own LUTs are not stored in the program location. I use Resolve, and none of the LUTs I've made or added for use within that app are inside the storage that Resolve uses for LUTs. I needed to set a user's LUT folder in the preferences.

Adobe gives you a location you as a user are to use to add LUTs. Slightly different from the Resolve model, where you have an option to navigate to and select the LUTs folder that Resolve will use to find user LUTs in.

But Adobe's process accomplishes exactly the same thing: the user has LUTS the program will access, and those LUTs are not in the program folder itself.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

jackavalon

Participant

Installing the LUTS in these suggested location does not fix the problem of them being read out of order - not for me anyway. Everytime I add a new LUT it screws up my color correction on existing projects because it reads them in order, not by filename. The only fix for me is to give new LUTs a "Z" prefix to force them to show up last. This is a ridiculous workaround to have to use. Why doesn't the software just read the filename?

R Neil Haugen

Legend

Putting in the folder chart shown above should load them by name ... it always has here, and I've never seen it not do so elsewhere . The behavior of seeing by location/order is specific to the "relative reference" process Premiere uses when reading the LUTs in the internal storage system in the Program/Package file locations. If you add ANYTHING to the Program/Package folder system, you would get exactly what you're describing.

I use a prefix system so due to the computerese alpha-numeric sorting, mine load before the included ones, and they always are shown in computer alpha-numeric order. I've got a screen-grab of how they appear in my Creative tab drop-down. Note, I've got the ones with prefixes showing first. And one I didn't add a prefix to, the Lott LUT, which is in my folder of LUTs as in the chart above in this thread ... but shown in the Creative tab drop-down list alphabetized mixed in with the included LUTs.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

jackavalon

Participant

Hi Neil - thanks for the reply. It's not a question of the LUTs loading - I have never had a problem with that even when I used to add them to the Program/Package folder. My problem is that when you add LUTs earlier in the list, everything after that gets bumped down, so if I have used a particlur LUT in a clip in a project, when I reopen that project a different LUT is now applied to that clip.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

That chart is still the only place users should add LUTs ... and it's great as it is referenced by Premiere Pro, AfterEffects, and MediaEncoder without the user having to do anything. And also, across new versions installed. They still go to that folder setup to 'see' LUTs.

So there is nothing to update ... period. If you're using the proper folder-tree, they are recognized by all versions of those apps.

As to the Input and Output folders, those don't have anything in them on my machine, and ... I don't have a clue what they would be for. They're not seemingly synced with the Basic and Creative tab folders. So ... ignore them.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

K

KatB830

Participant

Hi Neil, I hope you can help me - I recently downloaded some luts and tried to move it to the correct LUT directory. However, I can't find this location on my Mac. When I go into Application Support - Adobe - Common folders, I only see a Plugin folder with a subfolder that says 7.0, then another subfolder that says Media Core and a dummy txt. I know that I haven't moved around any of the folders so I'm not sure why it would be missing but hope you have a suggestion for me.

Thanks for your time - Kat

R Neil Haugen

Legend

@Kevin-Monahan is far more versed on Macs than I.

Have you tried adding the /LUTs folder, and subfolders for Technical and Creative?

That would give you the full folder tree for both Basic and Creative tabs to utilize. I know you have to at least always add the last pair, the Technical and Creative folders.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

DavinciWhite

Participating Frequently

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.html#InstallCustomLUTfiles

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!

mikejaz2

Inspiring

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!

MDLA Films

Participating Frequently

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

Legend

Wow. Curious how many are in your folders?

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

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

MDLA Films

Participating Frequently

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.

D

dan.harper

Known Participant

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

Legend

Here's the location on my computer ...

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

Wes Howell

Adobe Employee

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.

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

R Neil Haugen

Legend

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

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

Kevin-Monahan

Author

Community Manager

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.

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

R Neil Haugen

Legend

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

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

E

Editired

Participant

I have custom LUTs for the Sony F55 I'd like to add into Premiere. The files are all .cube. When I try to import presets the .cube files are greyed out. Any hints as to how I get these LUTs into Premiere?

E

excited_Genie16B8

Legend

Switch to the Color workspace. Under the Basic tab, apply an Input LUT using your .cube file.

On the Effect Controls panel, right click on the Lumetri effect and save a preset.

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