Our verdict
LUTS are a comparatively new phenomenon in stills photography, but a very exciting one, and a compelling alternative to presets. So which should you use? They work in very different ways and there are pros and cons to both. Essentially, LUTs are a ‘take it or leave it’ effect. They apply a base look to your image which you can add to with the host software’s own tools, but you can’t modify directly. It’s just like choosing the ‘ Velvia’ film simulation on a Fujifilm camera, or the ‘ Vivid’ profile when editing a raw file from a Nikon.
LUTs used for creative effect, however, apply stronger shifts and greater corrections than camera profiles, so if you do go on to make further manual adjustments it’s important to remember you’re processing an already-processed image, and there is the possibility of artefacts creeping in if you take it too far.
On the other hand, applying a LUT does not change any software adjustment settings, unlike software presets, and they have another, more important advantage – they are software-independent. The Lutify.me Pro package supports Lightroom and Capture One Pro directly, and any other photo editor which supports regular 3D LUT files. That list includes Affinity Photo, ON1 Photo RAW, Skylum Luminar and, of course, a whole host of video- editing tools.
You probably won’t use all the LUTs in this package, but that does not make it bad value. In fact, the large number of LUTs included makes it worth it, and while initially there may be a handful of favourites you like straight away, even this is enough to justify the purchase cost. Compared to most commercial preset packs, the Lutify.me Pro package is good value, partly because of the sheer number of LUTs and partly because it works with so many different programs.
Check the software requirements on the Lutify.me website to make sure you are using a sufficiently recent version with LUT or profile support. For example, Adobe users will need the April 2018 Creative Cloud update to use the LUT profiles directly in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom.