How to Import & Use LUTs in Affinity Photo - Luxe LUTs
FollowOur LUTs for color grading your images are conveniently offered in .cube and .aflut format! While you can install groups of (or individually apply) .CUBE format LUTs in Affinity, we have created LUT categories for easy import into Affinity Photo (and other compatible Affinity Suite apps). This guide will demonstrate the process for installing, using, adjusting, and stacking LUTs in Affinity Photo 2.
Importing all LUTs in the Adjustment Tab
Applying LUTs as an Adjustment Layer
Adjust Your LUT
Troubleshooting
To Import LUTs all at once
You can import all of your LUTs under the Adjustment window in Affinity Photo.
You will download a .zip file labeled with the collection name and "for Affinity" (if on MAC, Safari may automatically unzip this and allow you to view the .aflut file within). If not automatic, be sure to unzip/extract your file(s) prior to import.
- Launch Affinity. First you will need to locate your Adjustment window. If you don't already have this open or in use, you can quickly open it up via Window > Adjustment:
- Under the Adjustment window locate the "LUT" option, click the little arrow or the cube to expand options, then select the little gear icon to see your LUT options:
- To keep things organized, select "Import LUT Category..." from those options:
- Select your unzipped .aflut files for import and click "Open":
- Click through to view & apply your newly imported LUTs:
When you first click one it will create a "LUT Adjustment" layer above your image in your Layers panel, clicking through each option will allow you to quickly change and preview your LUTs (as they will not create multiple adjustment layers).
Once happy with your selection, you can move back over to your Layers panel and make adjustments to taste through opacity changes or masking!
If you will be frequently using LUTs, we recommend moving your windows around to be able to see both Layers and Adjustment windows at the same time:
If you'd like to stack another LUT on top, you'll create another LUT Adjustment layer via Layer > New Adjustment Layer > LUT...
Apply LUTs via Adjustment Layer
You can also apply a LUT in Affinity Photo very similarly to the process in Photoshop, as an Adjustment Layer. For this, you will download the LUTs file (Not the LUT Categories for Affinity file), and unzip and store the .cube format files somewhere easy to locate.:
To begin, you’ll open your image in the program, then:
- Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > LUT.
- A pop-up box will appear near the bottom right of your workspace, select Load LUT:
- Browse to find your Luxe LUTs and select the LUT you’d like to load:
- This will apply as a "LUT Adjustment" layer:
Adjust your LUTs
Select the "LUT Adjustment" layer you applied, and adjust opacity from the layer panel to adjust the "strength" of the edit:
This is especially useful for layering multiple LUTs or when masking specific LUTs to only parts of your image:
Change the LUT you applied to that layer by selecting the "LUT Adjustment" layer you would like to change and select "Load LUT..." again from the LUT options then select a different LUT:
Troubleshooting
If you opened an image in Affinity, but don't see a layers panel/window or don't see "Layer" as an option across the top menu, be sure you are in the Develop Persona by clicking the blue "Develop" button:
When you first purchase your LUTs it can be helpful to use the examples on the product page to reference the toning of a specific LUT prior to application, or to experiment with each different LUT in a collection to get a feel for how they color your images!
Featuring Images by: @greyoakandsage