It’s the LUT Life for Me!
A while back I did a video tutorial on how I create LUTs using Affinity Photo to color grade images and import them into my desktop 🖥️ program Exposure X5. Because Exposure X5 (and later versions) is one of the only image post-processing apps that has a well developed, robust and dedicated LUTs tool, it has been where I’ve chosen to utilize this powerful feature on my desktop. But what if I’m not on my desktop, or have access to Exposure X5 which is only available on a desktop/laptop computer? And before you say anything, I’m not interested in carrying around a laptop 💻. I much prefer to work on an iPad for mobile goodness! Well, it turns out I have found a great solution to that conundrum.
There is this wonderful, fairly new to me (it’s been in development over the past several years) app called Nitro that has been created by one of the original Aperture developers from Apple. Nik has been coding this powerful RAW processor and image editor for the MacOS and iOS/iPadOS simultaneously. The integration of this app across platforms via iCloud is a great and welcome feature. As Nik is currently the lone-wolf working on this app, what he has already achieved is remarkable, and there is a long list of features still to come, but what struck me right off when I discovered the app was that he’s included a fairly robust dedicated LUTs tool in the tool stack! It comes pre-loaded with some LUTs (and a number from the Lutify.me website), and of course you can import your own LUTs too. This to me is BIG, and is so much better than how, say, Capture One Pro 23 (16.2.0) still has no dedicated LUTs tool, but instead relies on its “Styles” feature, which by its very nature makes adjustments to the built in tools like Curves, etc. to achieve its color grading effects. Alternatively you can change the built-in ICC Profile to a LUT compatible look. Still rather awkward compared to a dedicated LUT tool. In contrast to the “Styles” method, proper LUTs files make color grading adjustments to an image without moving a single slider in any tool set. That’s how it should be.
And this from the Lutify.me website on Capture One Pro:
Now how does Nitro handle standard LUT files? Mind you this is currently at version 2025.1, so this is pretty robust for this early a release.
This is a TIFF from an original RAW file from a Nikon capture and is courtesy of my dear friend and mentee, Amy Roth. I posted on this image in an earlier blogpost about how to workaround the dreaded “file not recognized” message in Aperture when you capture a RAW file from a newer camera not supported by Aperture. This time, I used Nitro on the iPad Pro to process the image using a number of the powerful tools already included.
When you click over to the Edit tool on the right panel (top icon) and go to the LUT (Looks) tool, you see the Built-in LUTs folder. If you’ve imported your own LUTs, Nitro will create a new folder called MyLUTS for you to import them to and display that as well.
Inside the Built-in LUTs folder, you get sub folders to keep things organized, and easy to identify, such as the Lutify folder. You can of course create your own LUT Folders to organize those from 3rd parties or that you create on your own that you import into the tool, but that’s a topic for another post 😉. The image below is shown without the LUT applied, but with the other edits applied. Notice the RAW Tuning tool has been applied, this is only available in the Nitro tool stack when working on a RAW image file. The highlighted blue tools are the ones used in conjunction with the LUT to render a better result.
For this image, I chose one of the Built-in LUTs from the Lutify folder. Here the LUT Cold and Warm is applied. Along with the other image edits, the image is much improved from where we started. Remember, LUTs are a starting point to get your images where you want, and rarely the only solution to your color-grading.
With a final tweak to the White Balance after applying the LUT, the image is complete. Remember you can always adjust the Intensity of your LUT, as well as feel free to choose another at any time, as most editing software either for video or still imaging are non-destructive.
So, to sum up why I say “It’s the LUT Life for Me!” is that it is such a versatile, creative tool that once you create them (or purchase online) you can incorporate them into your workflow via a number of compatible programs for still images AND video editors. Yep, the same file can be imported into both image and video programs, as long as you remember to be sure you use the .Cube format. Nitro will even remind you of this when you go to import your own or purchased LUTs. Now while I say I don’t use LUTs on every image, just knowing I have the option to, and especially seeing how Nitro implements the feature which can be further enhanced with the other editing tools, it feels like my future editing will benefit from these great tools!