Comparing ARRI’s New LUTs To ‘Resolve Color Management’

Custom Color Management Part 1: How to think about building your color management pipeline

In this Insight, I’m kicking off a new series on custom color management! We’ll be answering the question:

How you can take control of your imaging pipeline beyond what’s offered to us “off the shelf” by systems like ACES and Resolve Color Management (RCM)?

Here in Part 1, we’re looking at the potential use of ARRI’s new LogC4 to Rec709 LUT – even if our source material isn’t Alexa 35! We first implement Resolve’s built-in ARRI transforms using the venerable Color Space Transform (CST) plugin. Then we compare that to executing the same basic color management pipeline but incorporating the ARRI LUT.

Understanding the concept of a color pipeline shootout

Every project we tackle as colorists has unique needs. Sometimes the reproduction produced by one color management framework (ACES, RCM) doesn’t get us as close to our creative intent as it could. In these situations, it’s helpful to have various options ready to audition and stage a “shoot-out” to see which best supports our vision (and that of our clients!).

Key Takeaways from this Insight

By the end of this Insight, you should understand:

• How equivalent pipelines in different color management systems will produce different images
• Why it’s useful to think of color management as a creative foundation and to optimize your color management
• How to use transforms like Arri’s new LogC4 to 709 LUT as alternative color management – even if your footage isn’t Alexa 35!

Links mentioned in this Insight

• Download the ARRI LogC4 LUT package
• If the above link stops working, you can find the most recent version of the LogC4 package at the ARRI LUT Generator page. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page for their most recent download packages for LogC3 and LogC4.

Related Mixing Light Insights

• Color Correction Workflow Part 1: Seeing Like Your Client – If you’re intrigued by the concept of a ‘shootout’, check out Patrick’s Insight about the Hero Shot workflow – which can be incorporated into this workflow, especially for long-form projects.

– Cullen

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