Photoshop CC LUTs

The video industry has been using LUTs for some time.  Recently Photoshop, Lightroom, ON1 RAW, and other image editing software introduced the use of LUTS (Look Up Tables). It so happens the files are transportable between software packages.  Thus, we can copy these files from other software packages or download them from the internet.  The purpose of a LUT is to remap the colors of your

Loading a LUT file

 image the same way as the video industry has been doing for years.  As a layer adjustment a LUT will not degrade the quality of the image as other adjustments may do. You can also combine them for your own creative look then, save it as your own CUBE or 3DLUT file.

Add a LUT to an Image

To add a LUT layer click on the checkered icon in the “Adjustments” panel to bring up the “Properties” panel, then click on the “Load 3D LUT” button for a drop down list of LUTS.  After selecting a particular LUT, the layer will show a LUT icon and its mask.  Right click on the LUT icon and select either “Blending Options…” for addition effects or “Edit Options…” to change to and some other LUT selection.  After that, add another LUT layer and find out how it could further enhance your image!

Find More LUT Files

LUTs for Photoshop are located in the directory:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019\Presets\3DLUTs.

LUTs copied from other programs or sources may be pasted there so they may show up in the drop down list.  There is a limit to how many LUTs can be active at a time in Photoshop. However, another method is to create your own directory to store those LUTS.  To open them, click on “Load 3D LUT…” in the drop down list.  It will bring up the file dialog for to locate your LUT files.

Click “Load 3D LUT...” to locate your LUT directory

LUTs can be located in several places on the internet such as:

https://www.on1.com/blog/free-cinematic-color-grading-luts-by-lutify-me

https://www.on1.com/free/lut-packs/all-luts/

Try searching with the key words “free luts” or “color lookup tables’

Bouquet before change

"Candle Light Look" LUT applied

 Create and Save a LUT File

When finished editing the image with a few LUT layers and other adjustments, save those adjustment layers as a LUT.  This is much faster than going through the tedious task of creating “Action” files.

Joliet Prison - Original

Joliet Prison with Several adjustment layers

Above the “Background” layer, adjustment layers are added when invoked. One or more adjustments are required to export the new LUT. All Adjustments used from the Adjustments panel can be added as layers and used to create new LUT tables.

Adjustment panel icon descriptions

Highlighted layers ready for export

Select all the layers except the “Background” layer then click on “File”, then “Export”, then “Color lookup tables.

In the dialog that pops up, choose Quality: Poor, Low, Medium, High, or Maximum.

Chose Format: 3DL CUBE, CSP, or ICC Profile.

For the image above, I chose Medium Quality and “CUBE”

See setting explanations below.

Click OK.

Choose a directory and filename. I saved the “Prison” image as “Dark Mystery” to another location on a drive.

Test the New LUT

Select all layers except the Background layer. Ctrl-G to create a new group.
Deselect the group. Be sure the Background layer is selected. Then click on the “Lookup Table” icon in the adjustment panel. Click on Load 3D LUT button. At the top of the drop down list, click ““Load 3D LUT…” as explained previously. Navigate to the directory the LUT file was saved and load it. It should look just the same as the original creation.

Export Color Lookup Dialog Settings
Put metadata text in the “Description” field, not the actual name for your LUT. Photoshop will automatically add “© Copyright <current year>” to the text entered in the “Copyright” field.

Grid points are selectable from 0 to 256 or a choice of indistinct settings: poor (8), low (16), medium (32), high (64), and max 256). From what I can tell, 3D LUT grid points indicate the bit depth of a 3D cube. For example: 32x32x32 cube would have 32 grid points? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_lookup_table. What is known is the more grid points the larger the file.  I haven’t seen any noticeable differences yet so I use medium or 32 grid points. I suppose you could also put the number of grid points in the “Description” field.

There are four formats to choose from: 3DL, CUBE, CSP, and ICC profile. They all do the same thing but can be used for other software packages.  The most portable and common format is CUBE. The ICC profile is chosen only if edited in CMYK color mode. CMYK will be converted to RGB automatically when saving in the other three modes.

Finally
One final note, masked layers will not work because it is not an adjustment layer. If a masked layer is included in the selection when saving your LUT it will look weird when loaded. Masks must be applied before or after loading a LUT.

The best thing about using LUTS whether your own or purchased is you can create your own personal style.