Creative LUT
Also known as: look LUT, creative grade preset
A lookup table that applies a stylised look rather than a technical conversion, used as a starting point for a grade instead of a finish.
Updated
What it means
Two kinds of LUT exist and get confused. A technical one converts a Log profile to a standard colour space; a creative one imposes a look on top of that. One is arithmetic; the other is taste.
The order matters. Technical first, creative second, and applying a creative table directly to log footage produces the washed-out result everyone has seen. The table expected a converted image and received a flat one.
What it is good for is consistency. One look across a whole edit, decided once, rather than twelve clips each graded by hand to roughly the same place. Agreement between shots beats perfection in one.
How it works in practice
Strength is the setting that matters. Most creative tables are too strong at full intensity, and dialling one back to a third of its effect is normal practice. A look you can name is usually too strong.
It belongs after the technical work. Color correction for exposure and cast first, then the look, because a table applied over an uncorrected clip amplifies whatever was wrong.
Checking it on the hardest clips is the discipline. A look that flatters a sunset can ruin Skin tones in shade, and the shade clip is the one that decides.
What to watch out for
It cannot rescue a bad image. A table over an underexposed clip gives a stylised underexposed clip, and Crushed blacks stay crushed whatever is layered above them. The table is a lens, not a repair.
Dated looks age badly in public. A heavy preset marks an edit to a year as clearly as a font does, which is why restrained tables survive longer. An edit that looked current is the fastest thing to look old.
Mixed cameras need matching first. Applying one look to clips that disagree makes the disagreement more visible, so Color matching comes before any creative decision. One look over two disagreeing cameras makes a third problem.
How RawClip handles it
A single consistent grade is applied across the assembled sequence rather than a different look per clip, which is what keeps neighbouring shots reading as one piece. Footage recorded flat gives that step the most room to work with.