Add Your Heading Text Here

DaVinci Resolve is the industry standard for color grading because it gives you more control than any other editor. But that control comes with a steeper learning curve, especially around LUTs. Here’s exactly how to install a LUT pack, apply it correctly, and use the workflow professional colorists use.

Step 1: Install your LUTs into Resolve’s library

Unlike Premiere, Resolve makes you install LUTs into a specific folder before they show up in the dropdown menus. Doing it once means every project you open from then on has access.

Open DaVinci Resolve. Then:

1. Menu bar → DaVinci Resolve → Preferences (Mac) or File → Preferences (Windows/Linux)
2. Click “User” tab
3. Find “Color” section
4. Click “Open LUT Folder” — Resolve opens the LUT directory in Finder/Explorer

Drag your unzipped LUT folder (with all the .cube files inside) into that LUT directory. Resolve organizes LUTs by subfolder, so creating a folder called “Lutcraft” or “Cinematic” makes them easier to find.

Back in Resolve, click the “Update Lists” button in the LUT preferences. The new LUTs are now available everywhere.

Step 2: Set up your color management

Before applying any LUT, your project’s color management matters. Resolve has three modes — DaVinci YRGB, DaVinci YRGB Color Managed, and DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate. Each handles LUTs slightly differently.

For most filmmakers grading footage from a single camera (or a few cameras with manual conversions), DaVinci YRGB is the right choice. It’s the closest to how Premiere or Final Cut work. Settings → Color Management → Color science: DaVinci YRGB.

If you’re mixing footage from multiple cameras (iPhone Log, DJI D-Log, Sony S-Log all on one timeline), DaVinci YRGB Color Managed with input transforms set per clip is cleaner. It auto-converts each clip to a common working space before you grade.

Step 3: Apply LUTs in the right order

Open the Color page. The node tree on the right is where the magic happens. The default has one node — you’re going to add more.

The correct workflow for graded Log footage:

1. Node 1: Conversion LUT. Right-click node 1 → 3D LUT → navigate to your camera’s conversion LUT (e.g. Apple Log to Rec.709, DJI D-Log to Rec.709, Sony S-Log3 to Rec.709). This neutralizes the Log signal.
2. Node 2: Primary adjustments. Alt+S (Mac: Option+S) to add a new node after node 1. Use this for basic exposure, contrast, white balance fixes that should happen BEFORE the creative LUT.
3. Node 3: Creative LUT. Alt+S again. Right-click → 3D LUT → apply your creative LUT (e.g. our CINEMA or DARK DREAMS).
4. Node 4 (optional): Fine-tuning. Use this for per-shot tweaks that come AFTER the LUT — slight contrast adjustments, saturation pushes, vignettes, etc.

This is the standard “Conversion → Correction → Creative → Final” pipeline. Doing them in a different order produces inconsistent results.

Step 4: The keyboard shortcuts that save hours

Resolve’s color page is keyboard-heavy. The shortcuts that matter:

• Alt+S (Option+S Mac) — Add a new serial node after the current one
• Alt+L (Option+L Mac) — Add a new layer node above the current
• Cmd+D / Ctrl+D — Toggle node bypass (compare with/without)
• Cmd+F / Ctrl+F — Reset current node
• P — Play/pause
• Shift+H — Show wipe between current state and another version

Spend 30 minutes learning these and your grading speed doubles.

Step 5: Apply the grade across the whole timeline

Once one clip is graded the way you want, here’s how to propagate it:

Method 1: Stills + Apply

1. Right-click on the source viewer with your graded clip → Grab Still
2. The still appears in the Gallery panel
3. Right-click the still → Append Node Graph (this loads the node tree onto the current clip)
4. Or: Apply Grade (replaces the current node tree entirely)

Method 2: Copy/Paste

1. Cmd+C / Ctrl+C on the graded clip in the Edit page timeline
2. Select target clips
3. Cmd+V / Ctrl+V or right-click → Paste Attributes → Color

Method 1 is more powerful (it stays in the Gallery for future projects), Method 2 is faster for quick distribution within one timeline.

Common Resolve LUT problems

“My LUT doesn’t show up in the right-click menu.” You didn’t click “Update Lists” after installing. Preferences → Color → Update Lists.

“The image goes too dark / blown out after the LUT.” Your input is wrong — the LUT expects Rec.709 but you’re feeding it Log, or vice versa. Verify with the Scopes (View → Show Scopes) — your input should sit between 0-100 IRE before the creative LUT.

“Skin tones look weird.” The conversion LUT for one camera doesn’t match the LUT pack you’re using. If your DJI D-Log conversion makes skin slightly orange and the CINEMA LUT shifts it more orange, the cumulative effect is wrong. Use a per-camera correction node between conversion and creative LUT.

“Export looks different from preview.” Check the Deliver page → Video → Color space: ensure it matches your display’s working color space. Rec.709 for most use cases.

Pro tip: use Compound LUTs for consistent looks

Resolve lets you bake multiple correction nodes into a single LUT file you can export and reuse. If you find yourself doing the same primary correction + creative LUT + final tweak combination on every project:

1. Build the node tree once
2. Click anywhere in the node graph
3. File → Export LUT → 17pt or 33pt Cube
4. Save it to your LUT folder

Next project, you have a one-click LUT that does everything in a single node. This is how studios maintain consistency across episodic content.

The takeaway

Install once via the LUT folder, then apply via node tree: conversion → correction → creative → final. Use keyboard shortcuts. Propagate grades via stills or paste attributes. Verify input/output color spaces match.

If you want a LUT pack designed to work cleanly in this Resolve workflow, our CINEMA, DARK DREAMS, and DRONE packs are all calibrated to slot into node 3 of the standard pipeline. The Cinematic Mega Bundle covers all three for $89.