[How-To] Apply LUT to video using your phone
INTRODUCTION TO LUT | COLOR GRADING VS CORRECTION | COLOR WORKFLOW | VN VIDEO EDITOR | APPLYING LUT | CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION TO LUT ^
There was a time in the past that color grading seems like a thing that only professional film makers are doing with movies and films but as professional video editing or grading software are nowadays easily available to everyone, usage of LUT is becoming more common. But what is a LUT? The word LUT basically stands for "Look Up Table" which is a table in a way to transform input color values from your camera to your desired output color values for your output end result video.
I will not be explaining in this post how to do that with your professional software on your PC or Mac, I am however going to be showing you how to do that on your PHONE which basically opens up "Color Grading" to anyone who owns a phone and possibly FOR FREE.
COLOR GRADING VS CORRECTION ^
There has always been a slight confusion over the terms "Color Correction" and "Color Grading" since film makers started introducing them in movies at the dawn of movies and film making. The gray area between these 2 became even larger when LUT applications became an IN-THING as anyone who is into video content creation would want to slap on a LUT to their video, either to create a mood to their videos or simply just to differentiate themselves from others.
Therefore, what is the main difference between "Color Correction" and "Color Grading"? How and when should we apply a LUT to our videos? You can find lots of technical information and explanation on the internet, I am therefore not going to repeat those. I am however going to explain this in layman's term so that anyone can understand.
"Color Correction" in simple term is the process of fixing your out-of-camera video(s) to make it look as close as possible to how you see the actual scene through your eyes. This process involved adjustment to the following:
Highlights (Brightest Elements)
Shadows (Darkest Elements)
White Balance (Color Temperature)
Saturation (Color Intensity)
"Color Grading" on the other hand is geared towards styling and creating a mood or atmosphere rather than "fixing" that the "Color Correction" is in charged of. To put this easier to understand for everyone, let me mention some famous movies in modern times that uses "Color Grading" to such perfection.
The Godfather uses an "Analogous" color scheme which means the color used in the film are widely side by side on the color wheel and it had a very "Dark" feel throughout most of the film with deep black in certain area of a scene.
Mad Max uses a "Complementary" color scheme with the famous "Orange & Teal" widely used throughout the whole film.
The Joker (2019) had a very unique use of "Triadic" color scheme in "Red, Blue and Yellow" with each color used to represent different mood or setup.
"Blue" in the movie usually is present when situations are stacked against Arthur Fleck like for example the hospital room where his mum was in; when he was beat up in the alley, the teenagers were mostly dressed in blue; the famous fridge scene where he ended up smashing everything was in blue.
"Red" in the movie usually present moments of positivity like for example the bus scene where he was fooling around with the kid was warm; the TV show scene too was warm in the early stage.
"Yellow" in the movie represents him losing his sanity or him attempting to regain control. That famous scene of him dancing down the steps was yellowish. Arthur killing the 3 guys in that train scene was yellowish.
These are just a few examples of famous use of colors and to a certain extend "Color Grading". But before I lose you, do check out this "Color Scheme Wheel" for refence for "Analogous", "Complementary" and "Triadic" color schemes.
By now, you should have a better understanding of "Color Correction" and "Color Grading". To sum up this section, "Color Correction" fixes the colors of the scene to match what you see through your eyes whereas "Color Grading" creates mood or atmosphere to suit what you are trying to represent.
COLOR WORFLOW ^
A proper color related workflow to any video(s) should always come in 3 stages;
1. Color Correction 2. Color Grading 3. Final Color Adjustment
What do I mean by final color adjustment? The final stage is actually meant to fix any imperfection upon applying the LUT which could vary from the usual highlights and shadow to the white balance and saturation OR if you simply want to adjust the intensity of the LUT.
VN VIDEO EDITOR ^
Disclaimer: I do not work for VN Video Editor nor was I sponsored by them, this post and its entire illustration using the VN Video Editor was based on the fact that the app is free and it is easy to use.
As mentioned, the ease of use along with the fantastic features offered on the app and not to mention that the app is free made it the most suitable app to illustrate what I have set this post to be for which is "How to apply LUT(s) to video(s) using your phone".
Kindly head over to either Google Play Store or Apple App Store to download the app before you continue:
APPLYING LUT ^
Before heading straight to the LUT application section, I will need to explain briefly some basic use of the VN Video Editor for those who have not used it before. Kindly grab a free LUT on the internet before we proceed or you can grab one of my LUTs from my store. Just want to stress that I am not going into detail with how to use VN Video Editor but just the necessary feature needed for you to add and apply the LUT to your video(s). I can do an in-depth one if there is a demand for it.
The free version of VN Video Editor allows creation of 100 saved projects and if you need any over 100, you will have to pay for the PRO version.
There are lots of tools here available for you to unleash your creativity and some of them goes beyond the basic. Like I have mentioned this post is about applying LUT, therefore we will be concerned with the "Filter".
But before you do that, you will need to import some videos by creating a "New Project" and select the videos you want to import.
With that go to "filter" and you are ready to either use existing LUT or import your own LUTs. After which you will be given the option to apply the LUT to the selected video or "Apply to all" videos. Adjust the intensity of the LUT to your liking.
THATS IT!!!
CONCLUSION ^
Hopefully this post clear up any potential confusion there may be between "Color Correction" and "Color Grading" and usage of LUT(s) on your videos. It is worth mentioning that I am not saying LUT should be limited to "Color Grading" only. By all means if you want to create a LUT to fix your color for your videos, go ahead. But you do need to realize that there is no such as a LUT to fix all the imperfection with 1 click, the best way to do "Color Correction" is still to go through with your Lumetri Scopes / Scopes / Color Graphs and adjust it according. Only after which would I recommend slapping a LUT on the video(s).
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