Making a LUT is less technical than it sounds. A LUT is just a recorded colour transform, so creating one means making a grade you like and then asking the application to write it down. The care goes into *what* you grade, not into the export.
What you are actually making
A .cube file is a lookup table: for a grid of input colours, the output colour the transform produces. Nothing else travels with it — no masks, no tracking, no exposure metadata, no layer structure. If you have not met the underlying idea, what a LUT is covers it in five minutes.
Two consequences follow, and both decide whether your LUT is usable:
- Everything on the node is baked in, including corrections meant only for that clip.
- Nothing conditional survives. A power window, a tracked mask or a qualifier is not part of the transform. Only the overall colour relationship is.
Grade the right clip first
This is the step that decides quality, and it happens before any export menu.
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Use correctly exposed, representative footage | Use the shot you happened to like most |
| Balance first, on a separate node | Grade on top of an unbalanced image |
| Include skin if the LUT will meet skin | Build on a landscape and hope |
| Keep the creative work on one node | Spread it over six |
If the clip is log, convert it to Rec.709 first and keep that conversion on its own node — which Rec.709 LUT your footage needs covers choosing it. Whether you include that conversion in the export is the decision in the next section but one.
Work in the order that makes grading easy: balance, then look. Colour grading basics is the short version, and the Resolve workflow is the longer one.
The four routes
DaVinci Resolve
The most controlled option, free, and the one worth learning.
- Grade the clip, keeping the look on its own node.
- Right-click that node → Generate LUT → 33 Point Cube.
- Save it into the LUT folder, or anywhere you like.
Right-clicking the *node* rather than the clip is what limits the export to that node's work. Right-clicking the clip exports the whole chain, conversion included.
Premiere Pro
Grade in Lumetri, then the Lumetri panel menu → Export .look or Export .cube. Premiere exports the full Lumetri effect on that clip, so anything clip-specific in the panel goes with it. Applying LUTs across a bin in Premiere is the other half of the loop.
Photoshop
For stills, and better than it sounds. Open a representative image, add adjustment layers — curves, colour balance, selective colour — then File → Export → Color Lookup Tables, and save as CUBE.
The constraint is that only global adjustments export. Masked layers, local dodging and anything painted are ignored. Applying a LUT to a folder in Photoshop covers the reverse direction.
From a Lightroom preset
Not directly. Lightroom cannot export a .cube, and a preset is not a LUT — it is a set of parameter values that Lightroom re-applies. To convert one, apply the preset to a neutral reference image, open the result in Photoshop and match it with adjustment layers, then export from there. It is an approximation, and it is what free Lightroom presets can and cannot be turned into.
Convert or creative? Decide before exporting
The most common mistake is shipping one LUT that does both jobs.
A LUT that contains *both* the log-to-Rec.709 conversion and your look will only ever work on footage from that exact camera profile. A LUT that contains only the look works everywhere, but has to be applied to footage that is already in Rec.709.
| Export | Works on | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Look only | Any Rec.709 footage | Reuse, sharing, a house style |
| Conversion + look | One camera profile | One project, one camera |
Keep them separate, on separate nodes, and export the look node alone. Then the conversion is chosen per camera — the whole point of the table in Rec.709 LUT — and the look sits on top.
Test it before you trust it
A LUT that looks right on the clip you built it from is not yet a LUT.
- Apply it to three other clips from the same shoot. Drift means the base clip was not representative.
- Check skin. It fails there first, every time — skin tones are the one thing a grade must not break.
- Look at a sky or a wall for banding, which is the symptom of too few points or too aggressive a curve.
- Check the extremes, a very dark and a very bright shot. A LUT built on one exposure often clips at both ends.
- Apply it at reduced strength. A good LUT survives being dialled back; one that only works at 100% is too specific.
Using it on everything you shot
The reason to make a LUT at all is reuse — otherwise the grade would have stayed on one clip.
That is where the per-file work returns: a folder of 300 photos or clips that all need the same .cube, with strength nudged where exposure drifted. BatchTone applies a LUT across a whole folder in one pass with a per-file strength dial, which is the test above and the delivery in the same step — build it in Resolve, prove it on the folder, adjust the few that need it.
It reads any standard .cube, including the one you just exported. There is a seven-day trial with everything unlocked. If you would rather not build one, where the good free LUTs come from is the honest survey.
Common questions
How do I create a LUT in DaVinci Resolve?
Grade the clip, then right-click the node holding your look and choose Generate LUT → 33 Point Cube. Right-click the node, not the clip, or the export includes the whole chain.
Can I make a LUT in Photoshop?
Yes. Use global adjustment layers, then File → Export → Color Lookup Tables and save as CUBE. Masked or painted adjustments will not export.
Can I turn a Lightroom preset into a LUT?
Not directly — Lightroom cannot export .cube. You can approximate one by applying the preset to a reference image and rebuilding it with Photoshop adjustment layers.
What size should a LUT be?
33-point for almost everything. 17-point can band in smooth gradients, and 65-point is larger without a visible gain in ordinary work.
Why does my LUT look wrong on other clips?
Usually because it was built on a clip that was not representative, or because exposure and white balance corrections were baked in with the look. Balance on a separate node and export only the look node.