video · guide
LUTs in DaVinci Resolve
Copy the .cube into the LUT folder, update the list, then drop it on a node.
Step by step
- Open Project Settings → Color Management and click Open LUT Folder.
- Copy the
.cubefile into that folder. Making a subfolder calledFilmgridkeeps it tidy. - Back in Project Settings, click Update Lists, then Save.
- On the Color page, find the LUT in the LUTs panel and drag it onto a node — or right-click a node and pick it from the 3D LUT menu.
Give the LUT its own node at the end of the chain. Then the Key palette's Output Gain acts as a strength slider, which Resolve otherwise does not give you for LUTs.
Resolve applies LUTs in the node's working colour space. If your timeline is set to a log or wide-gamut space these looks will come out wrong — they expect ordinary Rec.709 video.
Which LUT to load
Every LUT here is a standard .cube 3D LUT, so all 296 work in DaVinci Resolve. The real problem is choosing one, and downloading twenty files to audition them is the slow way round.
Preview all 296 on your own photo →
Drop a photo into the tool and every look renders on it at once. Find the two or three worth keeping, then download only those.
Popular starting points
Kodak 2383 Print
The standard cinema print stock — what a film actually looked like projected in a cinema.
3 renderings
Fuji 3510 Print
Fuji's cinema print stock — cooler and greener than Kodak's equivalent.
3 renderings
Kodak 2393 Print
A punchier Kodak print emulsion — 2383 with the contrast and saturation raised.
3 renderings
Kodak Portra 400
The default modern portrait film: warm, forgiving skin tones and a very long highlight roll-off.
16 renderings
Fuji X-Trans III Classic Chrome
Fujifilm's documentary simulation — muted colour and hard shadows, evoking Kodachrome.
1 rendering
Kodak Tri-X 400
The definitive photojournalism film: gritty grain, deep blacks, enormous latitude.
6 renderingsGetting the strength right
Most film looks read better between 50% and 80% than at full strength. Real film never had to sit on top of an image that was already white-balanced and contrast-corrected, which is what you are asking it to do here.
Apply the LUT after exposure and white balance, never before — a look applied to an image that is two stops dark bakes the mistake in rather than fixing it. There is more on why in what a LUT actually is.
Other applications
Adobe Premiere Pro · Adobe Lightroom Classic · Adobe Photoshop · Final Cut Pro · Capture One · Affinity Photo · Adobe After Effects · OBS Studio · GIMP