How to use Color LUTs inside Lightroom and Camera Raw
LUTs inside Camera RAW and Lightroom Classic
People love LUTs ([color] Look Up Tables) because of their versatility. A LUT is like a preset, but the same LUT works in Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut pro, Motion and various other imaging and video editing tools. The LUT works on Windows or Mac.
It’s power enables you to make adjustments on your video and then get exactly the same “look” on your photos, so they match perfectly. When you apply a LUT the result is called a look.
A lot of people don’t realize you can use LUTs in Lightroom because it’s super hidden, let me show you how.
In order to use a LUT we have to make a Color Profile first. Don’t worry, it’s easy. We cannot Make a Profile in Lightroom, so we have to start in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW).
How to Make Color Profile
In Photoshop, open a photo and then choose Filter>Camera RAW Filter
If you want to apply other adjustments to the Profile, make them now. In this example, we will stick to the pure LUT.
Click the presets button
You will see the button to make a new Preset.
Hold down Alt/Option and click the button
Because you used Alt/Option, the Create Profile box will open instead.
Scroll to the bottom and you will see Color Lookup Table. This is where the magic happens.
Click the box
When you click the box the Mac finder or Windows explorer will open asking for your LUT.
Navigate to your LUT that you want to load. Note, it must be in a .Cube format. You may have some LUTs that you purchased, downloaded or made yourself.
If you want the PhotoshopCAFE LUTs I’m using here, you can download them for free here.
Photoshop also ships with some LUTs. You can find them here:
On Mac: Adobe Photoshop 2026/Presets/3DLUTs I think they are in a similar location on Windows. (drop a comment and let me know)
Here you can see the LUT is loaded up (Mildly Cinematic).
See the 3 boxes: Min, Amount, Max. Take a mental note they are here, we will discuss those in a moment.
Name your Profile and Click ok.
It won’t change your picture yet. We have just made the Profile. Now we have to use it.
Using the Profile in ACR
Click the adjustments button
At the top, you will see an icon that looks like 4 small boxes
Click it
Now you see all the Profiles. Click on User Profiles.
As you roll over the thumbnails, you’ll see the photo change. Click on a Profile to apply it.
Because the Profile contains nothing but the LUT, you are actually applying the LUT to your photo.
Use the amount slider to change the strength.
Setting the Strength of the Profile
By default the Amount slider goes from 0 (Min) to 200 (Max). That means from nothing to double strength. The Amount is set to 100% which means the LUT will initially be applied as normal.
When you make your profile you can change these if you like. Remember the 3 boxes at the bottom I mentioned earlier?
Here is an example where I set min to 50 and Max to 150.
When you adjust the amount slider, it will go to 50% as a minimum, when you move the slider to the left of 50 nothing happens. (Its really easy to understand this, watching the video at the top)
Because the Max is set to 150, when you slide past 150, no more changes happen.
To remove the custom Profile, click on Profile and choose Color in the Edit panel.
I did mention Lightroom at the start. Because Lightroom and ACR share the same processing engine, it works the same in both, HOWEVER you CANNOT make a Profile in Lightroom. You have to make the Profile in ACR.
Using the LUTS (profile) in Lightroom.
In Lightroom Classic, choose the Develop module
In the Basic panel, you will see 4 boxes, click them to open Profiles.
You can click on the Profiles to apply them, the same way you do in ACR.
The good news is when you make a Profile (or preset) in Camera RAW (ACR) it automatically will appear in Lightroom, they share presets. If you make a preset in Lightroom, it will also be in ACR.
Notice, there is also an amount slider in Lightroom.
You can also batch apply these to images in Lightroom if you choose to.
As you can see, it’s a bit of a workaround to use LUTs in Lightroom, but its possible.
To be honest, it’s not as difficult or time-consuming as it may seem. Once you’ve made a couple of profiles, it goes really fast, its really just 3 or 4 clicks.
You can grab the free LUT’s here, or you can make your own in Photoshop. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to make LUTs in Photoshop.
I also have a a cool workflow for video people. You can take your video in Premiere pro and them make a LUT in Photoshop and use it in Premiere pro.
I hope you found this useful! Let me know in the comments! (You can subscribe the our youtube channel at the top, under the video.)
Great to see you here at the CAFE
Colin
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