LUT question from FCP switcher

[Dikkker]

Hi all,

long time Final Cut Pro user here now switching to Premiere because … features … Now I need to relearn a lot of things and I'm already watching tons of tuts but they don't answer all my questions. That's why I come here 😀

My question today is: I'm filming with a log profile and my first step after import is always to apply the camera/input LUT to all clips. In FCP I can select multiple imported clips and apply the LUT to all with one click.

In Premiere I seem only able to do it for one clip at a time (I've installed the camera/input LUTs in the respective folder, so they appear in the Lumetri Simple Correction menu).

But there's got to be a way … some keyboard shortcut or some other trick. 

Please enlighten me 🙃 

Thanks!

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dikkker,

I read your message. One thing you can try is to select clips in the Project panel and choose Clip > Modify > Interpret Footage. Then, scroll down and choose an Input LUT from the menu in Color Management. It will be applied all the footage that way. Let us know if it works.

Thanks,
Kevin

[R Neil Haugen]

You can use the "Input LUT" process Kevin mentioned.  Works on many clips for many people.

But as I've been around colorists for the last decade, I'm not so interested in applying any one-size-fits-all LUT job. As if all the clips are given very close to the exposure/lighting contrast/sat that was used to create the LUT, things are good. But if any of those are ... not the same ... then things go off the rails and you can't get them back.

Because there's a reason colorists call LUTs the dumbest math out there. (And why transform algorithms are used anywhere you can instead of LUTs ... )

And applying a LUT via the Interpret Footage Input slot, or the Lumetri panel Basic tab's LUT slot, means the LUT is applied before any other controls are processed. Which again is ok if your clips are a perfect match for that LUT. But if not, you're ... stuck.

You don't have to be, and I'll go over how to quickly deal with this in a moment. A bit more explanation first.

Resolve is an app built for colorist work, right? And if in Resolve, if you apply a LUT on a node, it is processed as the last step of that node. And any corrections applied to that node are processed before the node. Which means you can apply the LUT, and then "trim" the clip's exposure, contrast, and sat to fit through the LUT correctly.

To do the same thing in PrPro, use the conversion or 'normalization' LUT in the Creative tab LUT slot, so you can use the Basic tab's Exposure, contrast, sat, highlight & shadow controls to trim any clip as needed. I recommend doing this as a saved preset for every different linearization LUT you use.

And it's simple to apply this to ENTIRE BINS at once!

Select your clips in the Project panel/bins. Drag/drop your Lumetri conversion preset to those clips. Done.

Now if any do need any trimming of clips once on the sequence, you can simply tap the Source tab in the Effects Control Panel, and then go to that Lumetri preset, in the Lumetri panel, and ... trim away.

There are so many things that will go faster if you use the Source option to apply bulk corrections to clips.