Working with video

Luttie grades video the same way it grades a photo: you build the look on a frame, and the same settings are applied to every frame when you export.

Loading a clip

Drop an MP4, MOV or WEBM file onto the canvas, or choose it with Upload your photo/video. The clip opens on the canvas, on a frame about a second in. Every panel works exactly as it does on a photo.

Playing the clip with your grade

A player sits under the canvas when a clip is open.

• Play runs the clip with your grade applied, live. Nothing is rendered and nothing is uploaded, so it needs no account. Change a slider while it plays and the picture changes with it.

• The slider moves through the clip. Stop on any frame to grade against it.

• When you stop, that frame becomes the picture on the canvas, so exporting an image, the before and after view and AI Grade all use it.

• Original and compare work while the clip plays: the original side moves with it.

• The speaker button turns sound on (playback starts muted), and the loop button repeats the clip.

• Space plays and pauses.

Playback is a preview: on a slow computer or a very large clip it may skip frames. The exported clip is always rendered frame by frame.

If a clip won't open, the browser can't decode it. MP4 with H.264 works everywhere. Where a browser can't decode ProRes or HEVC itself, Luttie does (below).

ProRes in Chrome and Edge

Chrome and Edge can't play ProRes, so Luttie decodes a frame itself. The clip opens as a still with a Pick the frame to grade slider under it: move it to the frame you want, grade it, and export a .cube to apply to the clip in your editor. All ProRes flavours work (Proxy, LT, 422, HQ, 4444, 4444 XQ), and a log clip stays log, so the log inputs apply. Preview and Export Pro render the graded ProRes clip as video too; playing it under the canvas needs Safari.

HEVC (iPhone clips) on Windows

Chrome and Edge on Windows can only decode HEVC (H.265) with Microsoft's HEVC Video Extensions or a graphics chip that supports it. Without them, Luttie decodes the clip itself, the same way as ProRes: it opens with the frame slider, and Preview and Export work, more slowly than usual. A 10-bit HDR iPhone clip comes out in standard range, so its highlights look flatter than in Photos.

Exporting the graded clip

Once a video is loaded, video controls appear under Export in the left sidebar.

• Preview is free and needs no account: it renders 6 seconds around the frame on the canvas, with a watermark, and plays it. Saving that file needs a free account.
• Export Pro renders the whole clip without a watermark. It keeps the source frame rate and audio.
• Start here and End here trim the clip to the part you want, from the frame on the canvas.

In Chrome and Edge on a computer, Export asks where to save the file and writes it as it renders, so clips of any length work. In other browsers and on phones, one export is up to 2 minutes, and a phone saves at up to 1080p, ready for Photos.

With several clips or photos open, Export all Pro renders every one of them in one go. To even the clips up first, use shot matching: put the best clip on the canvas and match the others to it.

See Exporting video for details.

Grading footage for another editor

For anything longer or already in an editing timeline, it's usually better to export the look as a LUT and apply it in your editor. Grade a representative frame, then use Export LUT Pro. See Using LUTs in other apps.

For log footage from Sony, Canon, Nikon, Apple or DJI cameras, see Log footage.