How to Install and Use LUTs in DaVinci Resolve (Step by Step)
Installing a LUT in DaVinci Resolve takes about thirty seconds. Getting it to look the way it looked in the vendor's preview takes understanding one thing: a LUT is a function, and a function is only correct for the input it was written for.
This guide covers the mechanics first — where the folder lives on each platform, how to make Resolve rescan it — and then the part that actually causes the frustration, which is input colour space.
Where to put .cube files
Resolve reads LUTs from a fixed directory tree. You can drop files directly in the root, but creating a subfolder per pack keeps the browser navigable once you have more than a handful.
After copying files in, Resolve does not notice automatically. Open Project Settings → Color Management and press Update Lists, or restart the application. If a LUT does not appear after that, the file is almost certainly malformed rather than misplaced.
- ·macOS — /Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT
- ·Windows — C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT
- ·Linux — /opt/resolve/LUT (or /home/resolve/LUT on some installs)
Applying a LUT on a node vs. in Color Management
There are two places a LUT can live, and they mean different things. Right-clicking a node and choosing a LUT applies it at that point in your grade — it is one operation among many, and you can grade before and after it.
Setting a LUT in Project Settings → Color Management applies it to everything as an output transform, after your grade. That is the correct home for a display or conversion LUT, and the wrong home for a creative look you want to grade underneath.
The practical rule: creative looks go on a node near the end of the chain. Technical transforms — log to Rec.709, camera to working space — belong in Color Management, or on a dedicated node before any creative work.
Why your LUT looks wrong
This is the real question behind most LUT problems. A creative LUT is authored against a specific input: Rec.709, or a log profile like S-Log3, V-Log or C-Log3. Feed it something else and the maths is still applied faithfully — to the wrong numbers.
Log footage through a Rec.709 look comes out flat and milky, because the LUT expected contrast that was never there. Rec.709 footage through a log-designed look comes out crushed and over-saturated, for the mirror-image reason.
The fix is ordering, not strength. Convert to the space the LUT expects first — with a Color Space Transform node or the project's colour management — and apply the creative LUT after that. Reaching for the mix slider to tame a look that is being fed the wrong input treats the symptom.
Dialling in strength
Once the input is right, the Key palette's Output Gain controls how much of the node's effect survives — the standard way to run a look at 60% rather than 100%.
A LUT applied at full strength on top of an already-graded image is usually too much, because both are doing contrast. Grade to a neutral, correct starting point first; the look then has room to be a look rather than a second correction.
Making your own
Any grade you build in Resolve can be exported as a .cube from the node's right-click menu, which is the cleanest way to reuse a look across projects.
Coming from stills, you can convert a Lightroom preset directly — RawCut bakes the .xmp through a real colour pipeline and writes a 33³ .cube, so the LUT matches what the preset does rather than approximating it.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn't my LUT show up in DaVinci Resolve?
Either Resolve has not rescanned the folder — press Update Lists in Project Settings → Color Management, or restart — or the file is not a valid 3D LUT. Resolve silently ignores malformed files. Dropping the .cube into an online LUT viewer will tell you in seconds whether the file itself parses.
Should I apply the LUT before or after grading?
Creative looks go after your primary correction, near the end of the node chain, so you are grading a neutral image rather than fighting the look. Technical conversion LUTs go first, or in Color Management. Getting this order backwards is the second most common cause of a LUT looking wrong.
Can I use Lightroom presets in DaVinci Resolve?
Not directly — Resolve does not read .xmp files. Convert the preset into a .cube LUT first and Resolve will treat it like any other LUT. Global settings such as exposure, tone curves, HSL and colour grading survive the conversion; masks and local adjustments cannot, because a LUT has no spatial component.
Does the free version of Resolve support LUTs?
Yes. LUT import, node-level application and Color Management are all in the free version. Nothing in this guide requires Resolve Studio.
What LUT size should I use?
33×33×33 is the standard and is what most software and hardware expect. 17³ is smaller and slightly less precise in steep gradients; 65³ is more precise but rarely distinguishable in practice and slower to load on monitors and cameras.
Have a Lightroom look you want in Resolve? Drop the .xmp into RawCut's converter and download a 33³ .cube — free, and the file never leaves your browser.
Convert a preset into a LUT