LUTer

LUTer is a term for a practitioner who designs, selects, and applies look-up tables (LUTs) to color grade digital images and video. The label is informal and overlaps with colorist or LUT artist, but a LUTer may specialize in creating or adapting LUTs rather than handling all color tasks. A LUT is a mathematical function that maps input color values to output values, enabling consistent transforms across shots, devices, and deliverables. LUTs can be 1D, adjusting individual color channels, or 3D, altering color relationships in three-dimensional color space for more complex looks or camera-to-display accuracy.

Typical duties include analyzing footage, choosing or creating LUTs to achieve a target look, applying LUTs in post-production software, and refining them through tests. LUTers often work with directors, cinematographers, and editors to balance creative intent with technical constraints such as color space, gamma, and dynamic range. They document LUT metadata, manage versioning, and ensure LUTs perform consistently on different monitors and platforms.

Common workflows involve establishing a baseline grade from camera data, designing a LUT that encodes the desired transform, and distributing the LUT for use across departments. LUTs can speed color work and promote visual consistency, but they have limitations; a LUT may not account for every scene variation and can introduce artifacts if misapplied. Proficiency relies on knowledge of color science, camera profiles, and testing across footage.

Historically, LUTs grew from film and video color transformations and became central to digital color grading in the late 1990s and 2000s.