LUTs — Lookup Tables
Define LUTS
LUTs stands for Lookup Tables. LUTs are an easy way to color grade footage, set a predetermined look, and a reference point for style. It is an array of numbers that provide a shortcut to a computation, which in short would be a preset look for video footage.
How do they work?
Color LUTs are a table of numbers that will take given colors and spit out the corresponding color that we set it to. Some LUTs change contrast, saturation, or even an entire color to a new one. All of these tables of numbers make up the LUTs that are then applied to video footage.
Summary
Overall, LUTs, or lookup tables, are tables of numbers used to color change video footage. Large groups of number tables together create a complete LUTs, or what we can think of as a color preset, that can be applied to video footage and spit out new colors and better looking footage. LUTs can also be helpful to store for later use, I imagine this can be very helpful when editing film!
Two new sources
GIF
This GIF shows a Lightroom preset, but it is the same idea when using LUTs for video footage.
