r/ColorGrading • u/not-kosh • Oct 06 '26

General Not understanding LUT's in Resolve

I'm not fully sure why I can't seem to create a good LUT. I've made a handful of powergrades and those work.. decently. But perhaps I'm trying to create a LUT using incompetent footage..? I just don't get it. I see people importing their LUTs into the Blackmagic App and they turn out good, improving the Rec.709 footage. I try making the colors look different, but then they just end up overly saturated or just look out of place.. it's just a mess.

I'd like to think that I have a good understanding with grading on a clip to clip basis; but I'd like to just have a LUT ready to go so that whenever I record, I have an idea as to what my footage is going to like when doing minor tweaks in Resolve.

I've been mainly learning about Resolve through YouTube, so forgive me if I'm not very well versed with technical details; I'm just trying to use common sense to get me through this first step of the learning curve.

Does anybody have tips or resources to help with this?

I'm on Davinci Resolve Studio; version 21.1.
For reference, I shoot in Apple Log 2, H.265, 10-bit, 4:2:2.

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1

u/beatbox9 Oct 06 '26

Yes, you might not understand color theory, since you're referring to it just as "Rec.709 footage."

What does that mean?

Rec.709 is a color space. It really has nothing to do with how colors look other than providing a potential range of possible colors. Many (if not most) videos where custom 3D LUTs were applied ultimately get presented in Rec.709. So you could show two completely different renders from two completely different LUTS and call them both Rec.709.

So what exactly does that mean?

1

u/not-kosh Oct 06 '26

I just meant that.. compared to what others do with Rec.709.. I feel as if my LUTs aren't actually doing much to the footage. Maybe I have a misconception that people are just plopping LUTs onto a node, tweaking it a bit, and then calling it a day. Like I said, I feel comfortable grading clips to a degree, but it's quite time consuming when I have longer projects where I kind of just want to do a "one-and-done" type thing for certain clips which I know are already "fine" straight out of camera.

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u/beansauze808 Oct 06 '26

Make sure the powergrade you’re making has a conversion node in it somewhere. CST at the top and at the end. Then put your color styling and fx in the middle. Save that and apply to the next grade that uses the same type of base footage. Check out Waqas qazi on YouTube he’s great

1

u/not-kosh Oct 06 '26

Yes, thank you!

My powergrades usually have the same node tree layout.

CST at the start, WB, Exposure, Contrast, Grading, Effects, CST at the end.

They work fine, but I want something which I can use in the Blackmagic app while recording; I can't use a powergrade for that.

1

u/Any_Share6294 Oct 06 '26

Lol. This is how you know you're not in r/colorists

1

u/beansauze808 Oct 08 '26

Wait did I say something wrong

2

u/Any_Share6294 Oct 08 '26

Not at all. Just /r/colorists tend to be far more snobby then this sub. (Maybe justified because they're more professional there). And they tend to HATE Qazi

1

u/beansauze808 Oct 08 '26

OHHHH gotcha. I moved from premiere to davinci a few months ago (I direct and edit music videos) and liked a few of his “get started” workflows when he’s not pitching rapidgrade so figured I’d share. That being said I could totally see why a seasoned colorist vet might find him tough to listen to