Looking for some free color grading LUTs to load into your monitor for live previewing? I’ve provided you with this free pack of 8 professional monitoring LUTs.
Recently I picked up one Atomos Shinobi 5.2-inch monitorI’m very impressed with it so far. My favorite feature of the monitor is its ability to load custom LUTs to preview different looks on set.
Of course, you can use custom monitoring LUTs for a variety of purposes, but I like to use them for quick auditions on the day.
By testing a few selected creative looks against any given camera/lighting setup, I can get a clearer idea of what might (or might not) be possible later in the grade. It may also inform other creative decisions about lighting ratios, color temperature, and more.
For anyone working in commercial, monitoring LUTs are also a great tool to use with clients. Instead of vaguely describing how your final, color-corrected images will look, you can display them instantly.
Monitor LUTs
I designed these LUTs to be as versatile as possible, which is why this kit contains a mixed bag of commonly used looks.
There are a total of 8 LUTs in this free pack:
- Lookup table 1: high contrast
- Lookup table 2: low contrast
- Lookup table 3: Desaturate
- Lookup table 4: Natural warmth
- Lookup table 5: Naturally cool
- Lookup table 6: bleach bypass
- Lookup table 7: high contrast monochrome
- Lookup table 8: low contrast monochrome
Use LUTs
The LUTs in this pack come in industry-standard .cube files, making them compatible with almost any professional-grade monitor.
Simply load the LUTs onto your monitor and turn them on and off to preview each look.
If your camera supports custom LUTs (.cube format), you can also load the LUT directly onto the camera to achieve the same results.
logging
If you are shooting in logarithmic color space on your camera, be sure to set the output signal (to the monitor) to Rec 709.
These LUTs are not designed to convert your footage into logs, so you will need to set up your camera to do this for you. Once this is done, you can activate one of the surveillance LUTs to add a stylized look to the Rec 709 footage.
If your camera does not allow you to output Rec 709 images when shooting in log color space, you can build your own custom LUT to work around this problem.
I recommend doing this in DaVinci Resolve.
Simply apply a conversion LUT to the shot in Resolve (assuming V-Log is applied to Rec 709), then apply one of these monitor LUTs on a separate node. After stacking two LUTs on the same shot, you can now output a new LUT from DaVinci Resolve that combines the two. You can then repeat this process for each remaining LUT included in the package.
Download Free Monitoring LUT
These monitoring LUTs are completely free to download and use. All I ask is that you share this page with friends and colleagues so others can enjoy them too.
Click here to download the free monitoring LUT package
Hope you all enjoy them and they help improve your workflow!
If you like these LUTs, you’ll love my full range Professional color grading LUTs are provided through CINECOLOR.
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