Stacking lumetri on adjustment layers - what order?

Question

Hi all, I think this will be a relatively quick one. I've managed to confuse myself into worring that I've been doing things wrong and wanted to get some clarity.

I do very simple grades in PP. My process has been to stack Adjustment layers renamed as LUT, GRADE etc. That way I can easily turn layers on and off without having to drill down into one layer, or the video layer to find the different adjustments. It also feels a bit cleaner being able to name, colour and structure them visually in the timeline rather than have to go into the effects panel and twirl down each lumetri that's stacked on one layer/video track.

My issue is really about the order of the stack. It'd usually go sothing like this:

V3 - adjustment layer grade applied via lumetri color

V2 - adjustment layer with correction LUT applied via lumetri color (no grade or creative appilied)

V1 - video (often in log signal)

I was always of the understanding that the LUT should come last, so with the grade layer on the top of the stack, PP was driling down first though my creative corrections (V3) and finally applying the destructive LUT (V2) at the end, is this right?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

R Neil Haugen · Accepted Answer

Premiere Pro's processing order is pretty straight-forward if ... visually backwards at times.

Effects Applied Directly On Clips

ON a clip, in the Effects Control Panel (ECP) ... the order is always top down. Upper effect processed first, and so on going down the list top to bottom.

Even within Lumetri, nearly all processes are processed in the order they appear. Including the controls within a tab and the tabs themselves. So Basic tab is processed before other tabs, and within Basic tab, it's still top down.

Effects applied via Adjustment Layers

This is where it can be confusing. If you use multiple ALs, the lowest one is processed first, then the next one up ... and so on.

So with a clip on V1, any effects applied to the clip are processed as above. THEN any effects from the lowest track AL ... then if there's more ALs above, going up one at a time bottom to top.

However ... within any AL, the processing is STILL done top down. So the items in Basic of an AL are like unto the clip use, processed before the Creative tab. And if you have multiple Lumetri on an AL, then the top one is processed first ... and on down.

Neil

Alan_Silvester · Answer

Sooo, in the absence of any responses I think I might have solved my own issue...and it looks like I've been doing it wrong, for years! Arrrggghhh!!!

I layered my LUT and grade on one adjustment layer with the LUT at the bottom as my baseline. This is the way most tutorials recommend. I then did my 2 adjustment layer trick, one with the LUT and one with the grade. When the LUT was on track 3 the grade matched the baseline as if it were on one adjustment layer. When the LUT was on track 2 the grade looked different, not as good! This is a revalation, if not a little frustrating!

neatvideo I found this article from neat video and maybe this is the reason? If PP renders upwards then technically the grade being first (track 2) and the LUT being second (track 3). Thus the LUT is last if it's at the top of the stack of layers. The direction of travel within an effect is down, but for layers it's up!?!?!?!

If any of this makes sense to anyone please help me as I think I'm right but very tired.

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