LuttieThe Kodak 500T and CineStill 800T look
Kodak Vision3 500T is the fast tungsten-balanced cinema negative behind most film shot at night, and CineStill 800T is the same film respooled for stills cameras. The look is a soft, forgiving toe, clean cool shadows and warm practical lights. Luttie's Tungsten 500 is shaped after it.
Where it comes from
Vision3 500T is a motion picture negative balanced for 3200K tungsten light, fast enough to shoot by streetlight and practicals. CineStill takes that same stock, removes the remjet backing that cinema labs strip off in processing, and sells it as 800T for ordinary C-41 development. Without the remjet, bright light scatters off the film base and back through the emulsion, which is where CineStill's famous red halos around lights come from. Shot in daylight without a correction filter, the tungsten balance renders everything blue, a look photographers now choose on purpose.
How to grade it
In order. Every control below exists in the Luttie editor, free to use in your browser.
Film panel → Tungsten 500
Pick Tungsten 500 as the negative.
Print → Scan
Scan is how CineStill 800T looks from a photo lab. Pick Cinema Print instead for the projected cinema version, which is the Kodak 2383 look.
Source
sRGB for photos and phone video, or your camera's log profile: S-Log3, C-Log3, N-Log, Apple Log, Apple Log 2 or DJI D-Log.
Exposure
Night frames usually want +0.3 to +0.7 EV so shadows sit on the film's toe rather than below it.
Scan balance
Add red light (Red +2 to +4) for the blue cast of tungsten film shot in daylight. More light on a colour means less of it in the image.
Film Effects → Halation
For CineStill's red-tinted highlights, add halation with a warm red hue (Luttie Pro). It tints the brightest areas rather than spreading a glow, so keep it subtle.
When it works
Night streets, neon and practical lights
Interiors lit by tungsten bulbs, candles or lamps
Photos that should read as CineStill without shooting a roll
Footage that needs a gentle, filmic toe instead of crushed digital blacks
When to avoid it
Bright, colourful daylight scenes, where Daylight 250 or Vivid 100 does a better job. And don't expect halos from the stock alone: the CineStill glow is halation, a separate effect, not part of the negative's colour.
Frequently asked
It's the same emulsion. CineStill removes the remjet backing so it can be developed in standard C-41 chemistry, and rates it at ISO 800. Removing the remjet is also what causes the red halation around bright lights, which plain 500T doesn't show.
You can put the Tungsten 500 look on your own photos and footage free in Luttie's browser editor and download the graded image. Exporting it as a .cube LUT, and the halation effect for the CineStill glow, are part of Luttie Pro.
Partly. Real halation is light spreading from bright areas into their neighbours, and a LUT can't do that: it maps each colour to another, one pixel at a time. What it can carry is the colour shift. Luttie's halation tints the brightest highlights red based on each pixel's own brightness, so it bakes into an exported .cube, but it won't spread a glow into the dark areas around a light.
500T is balanced for tungsten light at about 3200K. Under daylight, which is much bluer, the film records a strong blue cast unless you use a warming 85 filter. Many photographers like that cast; if you don't, add blue light in the scan or print balance to warm it back.
No. Tungsten 500 follows the shape of Kodak's published 5219 characteristic curves, with its offsets and colour interactions chosen by eye. It hasn't been measured against real film, and Luttie isn't affiliated with Kodak or CineStill.
Build it on your own footage
Drop in a photo or pull a frame from a video, grade it in the browser, and export a .cube LUT for DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or CapCut.
Related looks
Kodak and Vision3 are trademarks of Eastman Kodak Company; CineStill is a trademark of CineStill Film. Luttie isn't affiliated with either; its film stocks are inspired by published data about real films, not copies of them.