· 1 min read
A look you can defend
On downloading a LUT versus building one you can explain to a client at 11pm.
colourworkshops
Ilse Brandt
There is nothing wrong with starting from someone else’s LUT. There is a great deal wrong with finishing on one, because sooner or later a client asks why is it that colour and “it came like that” is not an answer anyone is paying for.
Build from a still, not a preset
Take one frame you love. Match it by hand — lift, gamma, gain, then hue by hue. It takes an afternoon the first time and twenty minutes by the fourth. What you get is not a better look; it is the same look, with reasons attached.
The 11pm test
Can you explain each decision in one sentence to someone who is tired and worried about money? If not, it is decoration, and decoration is the first thing cut when the schedule slips.