ARRI Rec. 709 Match LUTs
The standard bundle includes 20 conversion LUTs (.cube) to convert most common logarithmic gammas to the famous ARRI Rec. 709 look. It provides a natural contrast and richer colors to your image.
I have purposefully chosen not to use the Classic Arri K1S1 LUT as a base but the newer Standard Arri Rec. 709 LUT that reproduces more vivid colors in a natural way, especially in the greens, and slightly better skin tones, compared to its predecessor.
Thanks to accurate underlying mathematics, the contrast curve applied by the LUTs preserves the middle grey value through the conversion process for accurate image exposure.
These LUTs can be used both on-set and in-post, whether it's imported into a camera monitor or within a NLE software, such as DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, etc.
Below, you will find 2 ways of using those LUTs :
On set, these LUTs are quite useful to get a real-time overview of your scene contrast with the famous ARRI Rec. 709 look. You just need to import the corresponding LUT corresponding to your camera log setting.
You can also benefit from importing all the LUTs to an external camera monitor that supports 3D LUTs, to have access to all the LUTs on your monitor and be able to choose the one that matches the camera signal coming to your monitor input.
This is helpful if you regularly change cameras but using the same monitor to display your image.
In post, these LUTs are a great starting point to provide your images with a pleasing amount of contrast and saturation for gamma 2.4 display reproduction.
You can also fine tune your footage, preferably before applying the selected LUT, to preserve the most of your image informations while making your own adjustments.
This post workflow is especially useful while using NLE softwares, such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X, that do not support complex color space and gamma conversions, providing an easy-to-use LUT to get the job done with a quick and effective solution.
Each LUT gives the same Rec. 709 output gamma but expects a specific log input gamma, depending on the camera and image settings.
For each gamma setting, there is at least one specific LUT included in the bundle, making a total of 20 3D LUTs (.cube) with 33 points of precision.
You can find a list of all the supported gammas below :
Apple Log
DJI D-Log
Sony S-Log 3
Sony S-Log 2
Sony S-Log
RED Log3G10
RED REDlogFilm
Blackmagic Design Film Gen 5
Blackmagic Design Pocket 4K/6K Film Gen 4
Blackmagic Design Film
BMD 4.6K Film
Canon C-Log 3
Canon C-Log 2
Canon C-Log
FujiFilm F-Log
Panasonic V-log
Nikon N-Log
Leica L-Log
NB : these LUTs won't make your images look good if they were not exposed properly or if you don't use the one corresponding to your camera settings.
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With the additional (-) stop correction LUTs, you can directly visualize exposure adjustments on your monitor during on-set use. These LUTs offer photometrical compensations - stops of light - of your image exposure to seamlessly integrate into your workflow.
This allows you to properly expose your sensor while simultaneously displaying your image with stop reductions to simulate the 'final' look/exposition, without losing the informations in your scene to be recorded on the camera sensor.
This technique is often employed to maximize the light reaching the camera sensor - thus reducing the noise in your image - while maintaining the desired scene exposure on the camera monitors.
Similar to the Cine EI option on Sony cameras and Exposure setting on RED cameras, this optional tool enables you to lower the exposure level at which the video signal is displayed, without changing the ISO.
The extended bundle offers a similar option but with individual LUTs designed for cameras that lack this built-in function.
A common application of this technique is in achieving the day-for-night effect, where you shoot during the day, properly expose your sensor, and then lower the exposure level in post-production.
You can simulate this effect on monitors by using stronger stop correction LUTs and adjusting the white balance in your camera settings.
For each LUT, you can find 6 corresponding stop adjustment levels:
-0.5 stop
-1 stop
-1.5 stops
-2 stops
-2.5 stops
-3 stops