Free LUTs and Lazy Color Grading in Shotcut

Hello again!

So by far,

the most popular video on my channel has been

my easy and lazy color grading method that I’ve done

early on in my channel.

But that was five years ago.

So five years later,

is that still the way I use Shotcut to color grade my videos?

And so this is going to be a follow-up to,

I mean, a long overdue follow-up to a video that I created five years ago.

As usual, before I get started,

I want to show you what version of Shotcut I’m using for this tutorial.

I am using Shotcut version 25.10.31.

I wanted to show you how I do it with the three cameras that I use

when I do my travel videos.

Namely, the first one here on track, on this track,

is my DJI Osmo Action 3.

Now in the second track, I use my phone,

and I happen to have a Pixel 5 phone.

And then the third camera I use is a 360 camera

called Insta360 X4.

And so I want to use all three of my cameras

or shots from my three cameras

to give you examples of how I would color grade each one.

As you can see here too,

to make it a little bit more convenient for myself,

I’ve separated each shot from each camera on their own track.

So if this is a timeline that I’m editing for a travel video,

what I would do is I would put all my DJI shots on this track,

all my Pixel ones on that,

and then all my Insta360 on that

so that all I need to do is make a change

a color grade for that particular track

and it essentially does it for all the videos on that track.

So let’s get started.

This one here is a shot that I took in Roatan.

And this is from my DJI Osmo Action 3.

So if you don’t notice, it’s a little bit washed out.

That’s because all the shots that I take from my DJI

so that I get the best quality and the best exposure

is I do it in their proprietary log file,

which for the Action 3 it’s called the D-Cinelike.

So this isn’t what it looks like in real life.

This is actually their log version.

So the first thing I need to do before I do anything else

is I need to get it back to what it’s supposed to look like

in real life or what the camera really sees it as.

So typically they call it Rec. 709

and so I need to bring this back to Rec. 709.

Rather than modifying this using the color grade filter,

I’ve already created a filter set that I can share with you

but just know that this filter set

only works for DJI Osmo Action 3.

Luckily for any future DJI products,

you can download a LUT, Rec. 709 LUT

on the DJI website.

So you don’t have to create your own filter set or your own LUT.

Just go to the DJI website for Osmo Action 4,

Osmo Action or Action 5 Pro

and then the latest one is the Action 6.

You just download it and it gets it back to Rec. 709.

Unfortunately DJI did not create one for the DJI Osmo Action 3

so I had to create one myself.

And so here’s the process of what I go through

to get it back to Rec. 709

which is basically the starting point before I do anything else.

And so while I have that video selected,

I’m going to go to Filter

and then I’m going to go to Filter Sets here

and I’m going to find the one I created

called DJI Action 3 De-Cinelike.

And as you can see here, it’s a series of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 different filters

to calibrate it so that it then modifies it

so that it looks exactly like how it’s supposed to look like in real life.

So once I play it, that’s what it looks like.

So now that I have it down to square one,

now I can actually start doing my color grading.

So I’m now going to add the next filter which is White Balance.

And then if you remember my old video,

I would just go to a part of the video that is supposed to be neutral

or 100% white.

And I’m trying to remember if his bolt is actually 100% white.

As you can see here, this area here, there’s a little bit of a blue cast.

Let’s go here.

Okay, I’m going to choose this section right here.

So I’m going to go to White Balance and then I’m going to select that section there.

And that’s what I’m going to use to calibrate for white balancing.

The other thing is, it was a pretty sunny day that day.

And so if I were going to go by the Kelvin degrees,

I would go around 55, 5500?

Something like that.

So that’s around the daytime.

That should be the correct color temperature for that time of day.

Okay, so now that I have the white balance,

the next thing I’m going to do is I’m going to choose Color Grading.

But I’m not going to color grade it.

Again, this is for exposure, not color grading.

I just happened to be using the color grading filter, but this is actually exposure.

So I’m going to find a good spot here to help me with exposure.

Maybe right there.

Okay, as you can see here, my highlights are set to about 95.

And actually, that’s where I like it to be.

And it’s already clipping, as you can see, because you know,

it’s clipping because you see this solid line here.

And that’s based on the previous filter set that I’ve set.

So I can actually raise that up.

I’m going to try to get it as close to, again, 100% without actually going past it.

So if I go below it a little bit like that, okay, so right at 98.

So that’s where I’m going to set my highlights.

And then my shadows here, I’m actually pretty close to zero here.

So I’m just going to show you the difference of what this thing did.

So we kind of just gave it a little bit of a pop.

So now I’m pretty happy with the exposure.

Let’s just play it real quick and see what it looks like.

Okay, so it looks really good.

Let’s see if this is clipping.

Maybe I’ll drop the highlights a little bit lower.

I don’t need it to be so high.

Okay, so pretty, pretty happy with that.

Pretty happy with the exposure.

Okay, so now that that it’s correctly exposed,

now I’m going to give the video some personality.

And this is where I add what the color grading filter is supposed to do,

which is true color grading.

Now, this is where you add the personality.

So again, I’m just going to choose color grading again.

And here is where you add kind of your hue, your color cast,

whatever you’re going to do, whatever kind of look you’re going for.

So here, if I’m going for somewhat of a sepia-ish look,

you can do that like a warmer look to this.

Just rewind it a little bit, yep.

So this one gives it a little bit of a warmer look,

so let’s toggle it on and off.

So here it’s colder and here’s warmer.

So this is actually a really good look if you want to color grade it that way.

And again, there’s the lazy way, which is just add a LUT.

So if I unselect that, what I can do is I can go to LUT.

All right, and I could choose a LUT.

Where’s my...

See where I can find where my LUTs are right there.

And then if you remember, the cinematic LUT that I like to use

is the standard orange and teal look,

which is called Orange Teal Bluer.

Right there, I’m going to open it.

And then it adds that orange-teal look.

And once again, which was true five years ago,

I’m giving away these LUTs for free.

So if you happen to be one of the few people of the 100,000 people

that have watched that video that still doesn’t have that LUT,

just like and subscribe the video.

And then send me an email.

I’m going to give you the instructions on the description

on how to send me an email.

The only reason why I need your email,

I don’t keep anyone’s email address.

The only reason why I need to do so

is because I save it on a Google Drive.

And the only way to give you access to it

is using your email address.

And so I’m going to show you what this LUT does to this video.

So it kind of focuses on your skin tone.

It makes you look good.

And then the water, anything blue.

So here’s what the original looks like.

Let’s find something else somewhere else here.

See, turn on the LUT.

It’s very subtle.

It tones down all the other colors

other than kind of the blue and orange,

as you can see here.

So there you go.

That’s the lazy way of how I color grade my DJI footage.

So now I’m going to move over to the Pixel 5 footage,

which is my phone.

Okay.

So now I’m going to select this video

and I have nothing here.

I don’t really need to use kind of a corrective LUT

because this one from my phone, I don’t record in log.

I actually record it in auto.

So this is how my phone sees it

or how my phone records everything.

So this is just standard.

So I don’t have to do any of the crazy things

where I’m loading any kind of filter sets.

So this is square one.

I can actually start from here.

So with this selected, again, we want those three filters.

So the first one again is white balance.

Select that.

The second one is the first color grading filter,

which I use actually for exposure.

And last but not least, a second color grading

for any of the personality and looks

that I want to implement into this video.

So I’m just going to deselect all of that

and start with white balance.

And I’m going to play this and look for something here

on the video that should be neutral, right?

I don’t see anything here.

I mean, I’m just assuming that the sign here,

let’s just zoom in real quick here.

Let’s go 400%.

Where did it go?

Where did it go?

Was that it?

Just zoom out again.

Zoom to fit this thing.

Okay, now I had to go left.

So this sign here, I’m just assuming

that the sign is supposed to be white.

So I’m just going to do that and use that

as a reference for any kind of color cast for this video.

Unfortunately, so when I look at the highlights here,

it looks like it’s pretty good.

But then at the very bottom,

there might be some clipping in here.

So I’m going to go to color grade here.

And then highlights were okay when you would go up here,

but when I see the shadows,

the darkest part of the video,

I’ll show you what it does.

So if I drop the shadows,

it just gets dark.

And this is actually a way for you

to add more contrast to your video.

So I’m actually going to raise that

and see if I can recover

some of my lost shadows here

because originally it was like that

and it was just like just touching.

And you see whenever you see these lines,

that means that you kind of are losing

some of your dynamic range here.

So I’m going to go like something like that, right?

Then let’s toggle.

Okay, I mean, it’s okay.

I mean, this is actually okay here.

So let’s just raise it there.

And then we’re going to go for our third filter,

which is the color grade filter.

And again, we’re going to add some personality here.

This is where you kind of add

your different skew of colors

if you want it to be a little warmer.

You want it cooler, which is here.

Again, I’m going to be lazy

and I want it to be more cinematic

using the orange and teal.

So I’m just going to slap a LUT.

Open that and then I’m going to go to the orange

and teal bluer select

and then all of a sudden you have it

a little bit muted,

focusing more on skin tones

and then minimizing all the other colors.

So again, kind of toggling back and forth.

And I’m done, right?

So and that’s if I’m going for that orange and teal look,

I can also go into one of my other ones

like I have one called Add Brown, right?

So if I select that,

that’s what it looks like.

So this one is a little warmer

and I actually like how this thing looks, right?

It gives a little bit more contrast

and it makes it a little bit warmer.

And so that is called Add Brown.

Let’s try another one here.

Whenever I want to make my video a little bit more vibrant,

I use this one here called FG_CineVibrant.

Let’s select that one.

Yeah, it is more vibrant than the original, right?

But actually, if I want it to be really vibrant,

then the brown one was the one,

the brown was the way to go.

Let’s see what this copper one looks like.

Okay, so this one kind of just makes a little bit,

it’s a little warmer,

but it’s more drab than the one

if I would have used the brown one here.

Okay, so let’s say this one has been color graded.

Of course, if I meant for all these videos

to be on the same timeline

and on the same output,

if I were going to slap a LUT,

they would all have the same LUT.

So this one here,

it would also be using the orange and bluer

and the same one here.

Now let’s see what this one looks like.

So right now, this one here,

I’m using the orange, the orange and bluer.

But if I would have used the brown one on this one,

okay, but that one looks really good also.

So this one here is going to be consistent with this one.

If this happened to have been filmed on the same trip,

but these are totally different trips.

This one, this one was in Roatan

and this one is just in,

it was a rainy day in LA.

So the last one here,

this one is from a camera.

It’s a 360 camera called Insta360 X4.

This one was also in Roatan.

And so let’s find something more interesting

like this one here, okay.

And this one, this one was not shot in log.

This was shot in auto.

So it came out of the camera like this.

So we are at square one.

We don’t need to add any kind of recovery LUT

or Rec709 LUT.

It is what it is, right?

So we can begin our color grading from here.

Okay, so let me find an interesting place,

at least somewhere that I can select.

I can use the dropper then use as a reference

to tell it that this one is a neutral color

or that this is supposed to be white.

And these are the dolphins in St. Anthony’s key in Roatan.

Let’s find somewhere else.

You know, I’m just going to use the clouds, right?

I’m just use the clouds.

So while that’s selected, I’m just going to go

white balance and odds are the clouds are already white.

Okay, so this is supposed to be pure white.

Okay, so white balance.

And then I’m going to choose color grading

as my second filter.

And my third one is also color grading.

I’m going to deselect the second one.

And I’m just going to go to the dolphins.

Fast forward real quick here.

There you go.

Here they are.

Okay.

So here I’m going to go to the first color grade filter.

And as you can see here, it’s a little tight.

I could actually spread my colors all the way around.

So it looks like the shadows are already pretty close to zero.

But my highlights can be bumped up a little bit.

So if I go to highlights here and if I drag this,

the idea is to get the highest most peak to get as close to 100 as possible.

So I’m just going to move the highlights to there, right?

And I’m going to toggle the difference.

So it was really dark previously.

And then now we’re going to bump up.

So now here’s the problem, right?

And some of the shots here, as you can see,

I’m clipping my highlights here.

I went a little bit too far.

So now I’m going to bring it down a little bit.

So it’s a good idea to actually go to different parts of the video.

To make sure that maybe that one part that I bumped up earlier

was supposed to be darker.

So as you can see here, okay, it’s pretty close, pretty close.

Still close.

That one’s touching.

Okay, maybe I need to drop that a little bit lower.

Okay.

Let’s go to where the dolphins were again.

Here they are.

They’re moving in.

As you can see here, I’m not clipping.

Okay.

So now we’ve bumped it up again.

You can either make your final look using the color grading filter.

Let’s just fast track here and go to LUT.

I’m going to go here.

I’m going to do instead of the orange and teal bluer,

I’m just going to choose brown again because the other ones were brown.

So now let’s see what that looks like.

I’m going to toggle between what the non colorized one versus the brown LUT.

When you play it.

Yes, it does make it a little bit warmer.

And so if I were going for that warmer look,

that’s probably the LUT that I’d be going for.

And once again, that’s part of the LUT pack

that I’m just giving away for free.

So go ahead and like and subscribe to this video

and then request the LUT in the comment section.

And I’m going to find a way to get you the LUT for free.

I just need your email address and that’s it.

So it’s been five years since I’ve updated this video,

but I hope that this update has been helpful for you.

And once again, I thank you for watching this video and I’ll see you next time.

I just wanted to remind you that if you haven’t yet, go visit my channel.

I’m sure you’ll find tons of Shotcut related videos.

And don’t forget to subscribe so that you know when I drop a new Shotcut related tutorial.

Every video on my channel was done on Shotcut.

So aside from examples of what Shotcut can do,

you can also visit my playlist of tips and tutorials all geared toward the beginner.

Visit my Shotcut tips and tricks playlist and learn all the tips and tricks

I’ve learned during my journey toward video editing.

So once again, please subscribe and I’ll see you next time.