Importing LUTs into Lightroom

[lelandschmidt]

How does one import color LUTs into Lightroom? When in Premiere I can import the LUTs (.cube) to use on videos and want to do the same but in light room for photos. How does one do this? Do i have to convert the LUT preset into a different type of file? Thanks

[john beardsworth]

Lightroom doesn't use LUTs. It has its presets.

[lelandschmidt]

That doesn't exactly answer my question. How would one create a .cube file format into a preset that Lightroom can use?

[john beardsworth]

I doubt that is possible. Lightroom has its own system of applying styles or consistent looks - presets. I suppose you could apply a LUT to some video in PP, render out before and after JPEGs, then import both into Lr and manually adjust the first so it matches the LUT version, then save your work as a preset which can be applied to many images. But that's a lot of manual work. Just because LUTs are used in PP, it doesn't make them relevant in Lr.

[alesk65797272]

New version can use LUTs. You store them under the profile menu. I have yet to find out how to get it there.

[johnrellis]

Download the Profile SDK: http://www.adobe.com/go/profile-sdk . It has a tutorial for creating LUT-based enhanced profiles.

Unfortunately, Adobe neglected to allow for LUTs using the Rec 709 color space, which is the most commonly used color space for video LUTs.  (Unless otherwise specified, LUTs you download are almost always in Rec 709.)  Please add your constructive opinion to this feature request: Camera Raw: Add Rec 709 to LUT color spaces in new enhanced profiles | Photoshop Family Customer Com... . Be sure to click Vote in the upper-right corner.

[john beardsworth]

See http://www.adobe.com/go/profile-sdk  (direct zip download)

[johnrellis]

Many people have asked for this feature -- please add your me-too vote and details of why you want it to this feature request in the official Adobe feedback forum: Lightroom: Ability to use 3D LUTs | Photoshop Family Customer Community . The more details of why you want it, the more likely you'll influence Adobe.

[XavierDominique]

Lightroom has a lut feature called LCC or file extension icm. For more examples go to lutify. I believe they are the first to create a lut for lightroom beside adobe themselves.

[johnrellis]

I recently released Apply LUT, a plugin that applies 3D LUTs to photos in Lightroom, which works quite a bit different from Lutify.  Apply LUT acts like any other external editor, creating a 16-bit TIFF for the result of applying the LUT. Whereas Lutify uses Develop Soft Proofing and virtual copies. Apply LUT uses the widely used .cube format, whereas Lutify uses the less popular ICC profile format. Both require you to import the LUT into LR before using it.

[erikb36753266 · Accepted solution]

I know this thread is a little old, but I found a tutorial on YouTube that gives a roundabout way to get .cube LUTS into Lightroom via the Camera RAW module in Photoshop. Worked great for me.

  How To Install Your Own LUTs in Adobe Lightroom 7.3 - Lightroom Classic CC Tutorial - YouTube

[SeanMcCormack]

Hi Erikb,

Yes indeed, the only way with the new system is to add them via Camera Raw. The same for making your own Profiles from Presets.

[johnrellis]

... way to get .cube LUTS into Lightroom via the Camera RAW module in Photoshop.

Beware that most LUTs available for download are in the Rec 709 color space, which Camera Raw doesn't support. You can tell Camera Raw that the LUTs are sRGB, which is close to Rec 709, but you could see noticeable differences in tone, especially in the shadows.

[erikb36753266]

Thanks, John! I don't know a lot about LUTs in the video world, so stumbled upon this thread when I was trying to import some that I had downloaded. That information is really helpful.

[johnrellis]

Since the Rec 709 and sRGB are fairly close as color spaces go, whether you'll notice differences in the  colorspace depend on the LUTs, the image/video, and your creative/aesthetic goals.