Why Do My Film LUTs Look Bad ? - KODAK 2383

No Intro - PRO techniques from an experienced colourist - Why do Film Luts look Bad in DaVinci Resolve. There is a BIG MISTAKE lots of people make when applying the film luts - fixed here in 5 minutes.
*Just to clarify throughout I mention Cineon as 'Colour Space' - I mean Cineon as 'Gamma'. It is not a colour space change but a gamma curve change. I know it has confused a few people, and understand so clarifying here - pressure of recording for YouTube - hopefully the main take away of this episode is still apparent.

#luts #lookuptable #davinciresolve

[waltervolpatto]

Thanks.
few addictions to this method:
1) you "should" put the "resolve tone mapping" to "none" so the transform is more mathematically correct, this is a change from v16 where the default was "none"
2) if you have a log input you can go straight from log to cineon log, for example if you have alexa log files, you can do alexa logC/logC to rec709/cineon log.
3) you can (should?) add a small highlights corrections to smooth the shoulder of the curve, those luts are particularly aggressive in clipping the highlights
4) I recommend a node after the lut that only deals with the flare of the lut, you can make the output black a bit more intense just by lowering the shadows. a grayscale before the lut will shows where the true black sits.

[iComplainer]

Just when I think I’ve reached some basic level of competency in Resolve _here comes Darren!_

[flipnap]

always great to explain these things. there are QUITE a few people who think LUTS are "filters" and obviously they arent (well, in a sense they are but you know what I mean). I had a friend who made a short and showed it to me. He was literally applying the film LUTS on top of rec709 and just left them dark and crunched. I said "what the hell happened?" and he said "you dont understand, these are 'film LUTS' and this makes it more cinematic. this is how films in the 70's were shot!". I explained the basics of color grading to him and he was like "ooohhhh" ha ha. Don't ever underestimate the importance of these "simple" tutorials. they are anything but. You touch on things that many people ignore, as they've usually gotten to a particular link in the chain and never go further because they don't understand the importance. This is where you come in:). cheers!

[AdamSzarmack]

Oh boy. You've made those LUTs actually useable. Now I can't wait to go experiment after avoiding them for so long. You rock Darren!

[chris]

Another blinder - concise, uncluttered and comprehensible, as ever. Thanks, Darren.

[bertrambatoo]

Thank you again, Darren!
Like always: competent, straight to the point, no unnecessary introduction, no advertising and foremost: no stupid intro!
I love your channel, your depth of knowledge and your way of explaining it to us idiots!
Your channel is everything that is beautiful and precious about YouTube.

[kaiwenlidirector]

No intro is my favorite part. Straight to the chase, minus the 'pwat's up everybody, this is so and so...'

[SpectrumpicturesLK]

This is the only place we can learn proper color grading

[ray.watts.]

Thanks Darren, that is very interesting. This explains why I've never managed to get good looking results from the film look LUTs. Going to try this right now.

[OneMonthTwoCameras]

These tutorials are brilliant. Been binging your videos and appreciate all the education as a week 1 Resolve user.

[bayorotilu]

Darren, you are by far the easiest to understand Davinci Resolve Tutor on the planet... I have learnt soo much from you from watching a few of your YouTube videos. Thank you very much and I hope you are planning a course soon... it will definitely be worth it.
Congratulations on your 100k sub. I will spread the news about your channel to everyone that cares to listen and we will be here to celebrate your 1Million subs...:)

[adsertheblade]

Finally, someone shows us how to dial it back properly...I've been trying to figure this out for some time now.
Interestingly, some people insist on putting the CST, and film LUT near the start, with maybe some adjustments in between, but sat, look, and other nodes after it all, not before. I think I prefer it at the end, like you did it.
Anyhoo, thanks for clarifying this procedure for me.

[ShermanKenB]

Best tip ever! I've been perplexed why using lut's has given me such a horrible experience, and I even have tried reducing the opacity to no avail. This is huge for me, thx!

[tarimowakweli]

Simple and clear explanation, Great again n again Sir

[dkhart]

Thank you Darren! I’m guilty of fiddling with the gain of that simulation.. And series of parallels would be highly appreciated!!! 🙌🙌🙌

[BhaswarYouTube]

Wait what!! These LUTs now actually look really good! Thanks a lot for the info Mr. Darren! This was really insightful...

[jonathanhall]

WOW I have had a million questions about the film LUTs in resolve forever now and you answered them all in 5 minutes!!!! Thanks for sure!!

[MartinH]

Great video! Like Bertram Batsoo says; straight to the point, no introductory blabla or whatsoever...love this super helpful type of videos!

[JimRobinson-colors]

Well, well, well - up to the very last step with the compound node and the key output - I thought that I knew everything about that. So a big little lesson there for me. Thanks Darren. When I thought that the film emulation was too contrasty I tended to try to pull some contrast out. This method you use is a better and faster choice.
I think that people might be confused as to why the emulations work on some things and not on others. The reason that happens is because there quite a few LOG gammas curves that are based on Cineon gamma. So someone may have tried it directly on Arri log C, or Vlog, or Slog-3, and it looked pretty good without doing any CST.
I always forget about using the compound node, and this is good application of why I should be using it. Thanks again.

[kevinyampi]

Just tried this and changed my life, thank you!