How to Add LUTs to DaVinci Resolve (And Make Them Work for Your Footage)

LUTs — Look-Up Tables — are one of the fastest ways to apply a color grade in DaVinci Resolve. Whether you've downloaded a cinematic pack, received LUTs from a DIT on set, or created your own, getting them into Resolve is straightforward once you know where the software looks for them.

What Is a LUT, Exactly?

A LUT is essentially a mathematical map that takes input color values and converts them to output color values. In practical terms, it shifts the look of your footage — changing tones, contrast, and color relationships — in a single step.

There are two broad types you'll encounter in Resolve:

• Technical LUTs — used to convert between color spaces (e.g., transforming LOG footage from a camera into a standard viewing format like Rec.709). These are part of color science, not aesthetic choices.
• Creative LUTs — applied on top of a balanced grade to achieve a specific look: film emulation, teal-and-orange, muted pastels, and so on.

Understanding which type you're working with matters, because where and how you apply them in Resolve's node structure changes the result significantly.

Where DaVinci Resolve Stores LUTs

Resolve looks for LUTs in a specific system folder. The default paths are:

You can also add custom LUT folders so Resolve searches additional locations — useful if you keep LUTs organized on a separate drive or in a project folder.

Method 1: Installing LUTs via the File System

This is the most reliable method and works across all versions of Resolve:

1. Locate your LUT files — they'll have a .cube or .3dl extension. .cube is the most widely supported format in Resolve.
2. Copy the files into the appropriate system folder listed above. You may need administrator permissions on Windows or macOS.
3. Open DaVinci Resolve (or restart it if already open).
4. Navigate to the Color page, right-click on a node in the node editor, and select LUTs from the context menu. Your newly added LUT should appear in the list, organized by subfolder.

🗂️ Tip: Create subfolders inside the LUT directory to keep things organized — by project, by camera type, or by LUT pack. Resolve preserves that folder structure in the LUT browser.

Method 2: Adding a Custom LUT Folder in Resolve's Preferences

If you don't want to copy files into the system directory, you can point Resolve to a folder anywhere on your machine:

1. Go to DaVinci Resolve → Preferences (macOS) or File → Preferences (Windows).
2. Select the System tab, then find LUTs.
3. Click Open LUT Folder to see the current location, or use the option to add an additional LUT path.
4. After adding the path, click Update Lists — this refreshes Resolve's internal LUT cache without requiring a full restart.

Method 3: Applying a LUT Directly in the Color Page

Once your LUTs are installed, there are several places within the Color page where you can apply them:

• Right-click on a node → LUTs — applies the LUT directly as a node operation. This is the most flexible approach since you can blend, mask, or bypass it like any other node.
• LUTs panel (Gallery) — accessible from the left panel in the Color page, this gives you a visual browser with thumbnail previews of each LUT applied to your current clip.
• Node as a "LUT node" — you can set a node's output to go through a specific LUT, keeping it visually distinct from your other grade nodes.

Method 4: Applying LUTs in the Edit or Cut Page

If you need a quick look applied across clips without entering the Color page, Resolve lets you drag LUTs directly from the Effects Library onto clips in the timeline. The LUT appears as an effect in the Inspector panel, where you can adjust its intensity.

This method is faster but less precise — you lose the granular node control that makes Resolve powerful for serious grading work.

Variables That Change How LUTs Behave 🎨

LUTs don't behave identically across every workflow. Several factors shape what you actually see:

• Input color space — a LUT designed for S-Log3 footage will look completely wrong applied to Rec.709 material. Always check what input the LUT expects.
• Resolve's Color Science setting — whether you're using DaVinci YRGB, DaVinci Wide Gamut, or a camera-specific color managed pipeline affects how LUTs interact with the rest of your grade.
• Node placement — applying a creative LUT before or after a technical LUT, or before vs. after exposure corrections, produces meaningfully different results.
• Resolve version — older versions of Resolve have a smaller LUT browser with fewer organizational options. The workflow above applies broadly, but UI details vary slightly across versions.
• LUT file format — .cube files are universally supported; .3dl files work in most cases but can occasionally cause import issues depending on how they were exported.

The Part That Depends on Your Setup

Getting LUTs into Resolve is the mechanical part — and it's fairly consistent regardless of who's doing it. What varies considerably is how those LUTs fit into your actual color workflow: whether you're working in a color-managed pipeline, what camera formats you're grading, how much exposure latitude your footage has, and whether you're applying LUTs as a starting point or a finishing touch.

A LUT that looks pristine on well-exposed, log-encoded footage can look flat or broken on the same footage shot in a standard picture profile. How Resolve's color science interacts with your specific camera's gamut, and where in the node tree a LUT lands, are decisions that depend entirely on what's actually in your timeline.