The use of PFE LUTs purely as a creative choice is now probably more popular than ever. It has shifted from being a necessity in the post production process, to being a creative choice. This has seen the role of the PFE LUT change. With the advent of digital projection, film as an exhibition format is pretty much extinct. Print Film Emulation As a Creative Choice If the LUT was accurate and had done its job, the resulting film print would be close to identical to the preview you had been viewing on your monitor. Prior to going to print you would remove the LUT and then print your project onto the print film stock. This LUT was traditionally applied at the monitoring level so that your grade would sit below it in the image display pipeline. To achieve this accurately your monitoring setup also needs to be profiled so that the generated LUT takes into account your monitoring pipeline plus all the lab variables and all the qualities of the actual print stock.

It accurately emulates the density and colour response of the print film, to give you an accurate preview on your grading monitor, prior to going to print. Print film emulationĪ print film emulation (PFE) LUT previews how your image will look when printed onto a print film stock. They can also be used to correct the output of a device, for example a monitor calibration LUT generated from profiled data.Īnother common use is to allow you to preview how your image will look when displayed on a different format or device.

They can be creative, such as the teal and orange look or the thousands of other looks offered by the creative preset LUTs. They can be technical, for example converting a log image into Rec709. In simple terms, a look up table (LUT) translates one set of values into another set of values.

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