Organising LUTS

[LeonKershaw]

Hi

I've been exploring LUTS recently & have gathered quite a few.

I was wondering if I it's possible to organise them into separate folders rather than having a large list.

If so, how would I go about that?

[R C-R]

Have you considered adding presets to the LUT Adjustment panel? You can create multiple categories & import LUTs into those categories to keep them organized however you want. To access these options, use the Gear icon to the right of the LUT section of the Adjustment panel.

Otherwise, just store them organized into whatever folders you want, but you will have to remember where each of them is.

[LeonKershaw]

Thanks but that didn't work out.

I tried creating a new category & along with the LUTs that come preinstalled but that produced a folder called Default which contains:

Luts, Luts2, Luts3, Luts4 etc. There was no option to name anything & each of these Luts folders contain nothing but I can name them individually.

So then I tried to delete these new folders & ended up deleting the lot.

Then, having no LUTs at all I uninstalled and reinstalled Photo but that didn't help because I'm still Lutless!

Maybe I'll forget about Luts

 

[R C-R]

I am not sure what you mean by "folders." If you click the gear icon you should get this popup menu:

If you choose the first item, Create New Category, you should get a new category with the default name "LUTs" & one item in it named "(Default)." You should be able to add LUTs to it (or whatever the current category is) by using the "Import LUTs..." menu item & choosing *.cube & the other supported 3D LUT types in the open file window that appears.

Each imported LUT can be renamed, deleted, moved to a different LUT category, or exported by right-clicking on it to get another popup menu like this:

The other options on the gear menu do what they say they do, so if you used "Delete Category" that would delete the current category.

Adding more than one category via "Create New Category" probably uses the "LUTs2, LUTs3, LUTs4 etc. names unless you rename them, but each of them still should default to having one item in them awhen created, the LUT named "(Default)" that makes no changes & can't be deleted or renamed.

[LeonKershaw]

 

6 hours ago, R C-R said:

I am not sure what you mean by "folders." If you click the gear icon you should get this popup menu:

I innocently assumed that a category (lets say BW) was something like a folder - you clicked on & it contained BW LUTs whereas a category you named 'Film' contained Film LUTs. No?

 

6 hours ago, R C-R said:

If you choose the first item, Create New Category, you should get a new category with the default name "LUTs" & one item in it named "(Default)." Y

As I previously mentioned, when I chose 'Create New Category' it produced a category called Default which contained the following categories:

Luts, Luts2, Luts3, Luts4 etc. I wasn't able to rename 'Default' so then I had two 'default' categories & the others which I didn't want. Yes I could rename them &/or delete them.

It was then that I mistakenly deleted the whole lot leaving me LUTless! I don't remember what LUTs Photo had originally but as mentioned, in order to get them back I uninstalled & reinstalled Photo. Unfortunately this didn't help.

I've now found some more free LUTs online & successfully imported them.

I'll continue to play around with this but it's not what I would describe as intuitive but then perhaps that' just me.

Thanks for your help

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, LeonKershaw said:

Unfortunately this didn't help.

With the application closed, you can delete your adjustments.propcol file (which will remove all custom adjustment presets, including LUTs) and it will be recreated when you restart the application.

The FAQ below will help you find where that file lives:

 

[LeonKershaw]

Thanks

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

 

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, LeonKershaw said:

I innocently assumed that a category (lets say BW) was something like a folder - you clicked on & it contained BW LUTs whereas a category you named 'Film' contained Film LUTs. No?

The gear icon on the LUT Adjustments panel opens the menu of options like I showed in my previous post. One of them is to create a new category, which at creation time is assigned the default name "LUTs." The name can be changed to whatever you want but that has no bearing on the kind of LUTs that you can add to (import into) that LUT category. If you do not add any LUTs to that category, the only LUT in it will be named "(Default)." It is the only LUT automatically added at creation time, & it does nothing by itself -- it is an "Identity" LUT so think of it as sort of a placeholder for when you want to add a LUT adjustment layer but do not want it to have any effect until later. It is also the only LUT in a category that cannot be deleted or renamed.

10 hours ago, LeonKershaw said:

As I previously mentioned, when I chose 'Create New Category' it produced a category called Default which contained the following categories:

I think you are confusing LUT categories & the LUTs that are in them. LUT categories are a lot like Brush categories -- each category can have one or more items in it (like brushes or LUTs) & each category can be named however you want, but the category name has no influence over the items in it -- you could name a LUT category "Fred" or "Quack" & that would have absolutely no effect on the LUTs in it.

So I think what happened is you created a new LUT category, saw the "(Default)" item in it, could not delete it, & then created more new LUT categories, each of which was given a default name of "LUTs2," "LUTs3," & so on so you would not have more than one LUT category with the default name "LUTs."

So perhaps try this after deleting the file @walt.farrell mentioned:

Create just one new LUT category. Give it a unique name like "My new LUT collection." Then use the "Import LUTs..." option to navigate to where you have saved some of the free LUTs you found online. Select a few of them & click "Open" to add them to your new category. If they all are of the same type, for example ones that simulate various kinds of film stock, you can then rename the category appropriately, like maybe "Films" or whatever.

[LeonKershaw]

It seems to me that this as much about terminology as anything else. Let's try it on your above comment.

"...create a new category (folder), which at creation time is assigned the default name "LUTs. (New Folder)" The name can be changed to whatever you want but that has no bearing on the kind of LUTs (items) that you can add to (import into) that LUT category (folder).
I think you are confusing LUT categories (folders) & the LUTs (items) that are in them. LUT categories (folders) are a lot like Brush categories (folders) -- each category (folder) can have one or more items in it (like brushes or LUTs) & each category (folder) can be named however you want, but the category (folder) name has no influence over the items in it -- you could name a LUT category (folder) "Fred" or "Quack" & that would have absolutely no effect on the LUTs (Items) in it.

You see, they work in exactly the same way as folders except for this 'Default' item that's created (which I don't really understand the point of).

Regarding my inadvertent creation of LUTs1, LUTs2, LUTs3 etc, it came about because when I clicked on 'Create new category' I expected a new category called 'LUTs' to appear but it didn't!
It had been created but it was nestled amongst other categories which I needed to click on to reveal. Not realising this & thinking 'Create new category' hadn't worked I clicked on it again (& again).

So, I think I now have the hang of it.
I'm guessing that Photo was created on Macs rather than PCs.
Thanks for you help.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, LeonKershaw said:

You see, they work in exactly the same way as folders except for this 'Default' item that's created (which I don't really understand the point of).

Folders store items as individual files. You can use apps like Finder or File Explorer to delete, rename, duplicate, etc. individual items in folders, or to create new folders in various storage locations. Neither is true for Affinity categories (brushes, LUTs, Styles, whatever). As @walt.farrell mentioned, all adjustment presets (for Levels, White Balance, LUTs, whatever) are stored in a single adjustments.propcol file, which must remain in its default location with that name or a new, empty one will be created on the next app launch.

The only way to add, rename, or delete a new category or category item is through the Affinity app UI, typically via the 'hamburger menu button' in the panel. New (I think) in 1.9 we got the ability to create & manage LUT categories via a Gear icon in the LUTs section of the Adjustments panel. This much is documented fairly well in the LUT Adjustment help topic.

So this is more than just about terminology. These are two fundamentally different ways of storing & managing items.

Regarding the default LUT items, by default in both AP & in the Photo Persona of APub (if you have that app) if you do not delete anything, you should have a category named "Default" & in it several presets, the first of which is named "(Default)" -- note the parentheses. I have not changed anything in the current 1.10.0.244 Mac beta version of AP & this is what that category looks like:

From what I can tell, the "(Default)" preset is just a very simple identity LUT, its only purpose being to provide a do-nothing "(LUT Adjustment)" layer to the document that can be edited later -- IOW, a placeholder.

5 hours ago, LeonKershaw said:

Regarding my inadvertent creation of LUTs1, LUTs2, LUTs3 etc, it came about because when I clicked on 'Create new category' I expected a new category called 'LUTs' to appear but it didn't!
It had been created but it was nestled amongst other categories which I needed to click on to reveal.

At least on my Mac, every time I use "Create new category" the LUT section of the Adjustment panel automatically switches to show it -- no need to click on anything to reveal that category. I don't think we ever established if you are a Mac or Windows user, so unless this auto switch is Mac-only (which seems unlikely) there might be something wrong with your copy of AP.

[LeonKershaw]

From a user's point of view (a Windows user) viewing & manipulating categories & LUTs works for me when I see categories as folders & LUTs as items contained within them.
It may well be inccorrect of me to view them as such but for me it works. (I've recently created several categories & imported a variety of LUTs into them.)
BTW, you state that: '...typically via the 'hamburger menu button' in the panel'. There's no hamburger menu buttons in the Windows version of AP as far as I've see so far.
I hadn't previously realised that clicking on the 'Default' preset undoes the LUT preset just applied, which is useful.
On my Windows PC, when I use 'Create new category' it does not immediately switch to it, as I mentioned in my previous post.
It's possible that there's something wrong with my copy of AP but I think that's unlikely since I have downloaded a new copy and re-installed since I've been tinkering with LUTs.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, LeonKershaw said:

BTW, you state that: '...typically via the 'hamburger menu button' in the panel'. There's no hamburger menu buttons in the Windows version of AP as far as I've see so far.

Look at the top right of your Brushes, Color, Swatches, or Layers panel, to name a few. You should see a 4 line version of the hamburger menu on each of them. It looks like this in the dark UI: 

12 minutes ago, LeonKershaw said:

On my Windows PC, when I use 'Create new category' it does not immediately switch to it, as I mentioned in my previous post.

It would be interesting to know if other Windows users are seeing that same behavior (either in the retail or beta versions). If so, it probably should be reported as a bug or at least as undesirable.

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, LeonKershaw said:

BTW, you state that: '...typically via the 'hamburger menu button' in the panel'. There's no hamburger menu buttons in the Windows version of AP as far as I've see so far.

Some studio panels have hamburger menus (officially Panel Preferences, I think). For example, Layers has one:

The Adjustment panel does not:

 

[LeonKershaw]

I stand corrected. It is so tiny that I hardly noticed it as a hamburger.

[R C-R]

24 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Some studio panels have hamburger menus (officially Panel Preferences, I think).

Others include the Navigation, Metadata, Snapshots, & even the History panel. The Text Styles panel not only has one but so do the text styles in it.

Whatever you call them, these panel preferences provide much of the functionality of the app.

[LeonKershaw]

Yes, you're quite correct, Apologies.

[walt.farrell]

16 hours ago, R C-R said:

It would be interesting to know if other Windows users are seeing that same behavior (either in the retail or beta versions). If so, it probably should be reported as a bug or at least as undesirable.

On Windows, we start out with the Default category with (Default) and several LUTs preinstalled in it. (And to that I have added the Ivan Weiss categories.)

But @LeonKershaw is correct that when you use Create New Category the application does not switch to that category.

Screenshot before "Create New Category", with Default category active and several others available via the pulldown:

 

Screenshot after (Default is still active):

New category was created, but not switched-to:

 

 

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

New category was created, but not switched-to:

That seems like if not a bug, at least not as useful as the auto-switching behavior on Macs. Maybe a Windows user could add that as a feature improvement request?

[LeonKershaw]

Added.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

That seems like if not a bug, at least not as useful as the auto-switching behavior on Macs. Maybe a Windows user could add that as a feature improvement request?

If it switches to that category automatically on macOS, I'd be tempted to report it as a bug in the Windows version. But either way, having it requested is a good idea.

[LeonKershaw]

It's been logged as a bug:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/144848-ui-bug-for-windows-ap-re-luts/&tab=comments#comment-805422

Thanks all for your help.

[Graham1]

Having purchased a load of LUTs, I started to load them through the Applications panel as instructed earlier in this thread. I created a category, renamed it and imported the LUTs into it. All seemed to proceed as expected except that when I clicked on a LUT, it was applied to the image to give me a preview, however, all the listed LUTs in the category were no longer visible. They were still there as I could click elsewhere on the list to apply a different LUT but, I was clicking blind. I tried the same process in the Default category and this did not happen; all LUTs remained visible at all times. When entering the created category again, the list is visible once again but, after making the first LUT selection, the list disappears again and this is repeatable every time after exiting and re-entering the created category. Can anyone help or has anyone else experienced this problem?

[Graham1]

Ok, I have some further information on my question: after deleting the LUT category I had created and then re-creating it with a smaller quantity of LUTs imported into it (10), the list does not become invisible after clicking the first LUT which leads me to wonder if there is a maximum number of LUTs that can be added to a category for it to function properly and not make the problem, described in my previous post above, appear. Does anyone know the answer to this?

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Graham1 said:

wonder if there is a maximum number of LUTs that can be added to a category for it to function properly and not make the problem, described in my previous post above, appear.

How many did you have in that category previously?