Everyone loves the Instagram app for the iPhone. It’s a cool way to create vintage/retro photos with a tap of the finger. Seriously, people go nuts over these type of filters. A while back, Daniel Box, created Photoshop actions of these filters. They’re awesome. Just a click of the mouse, and you’ve “Instagrammed” your photo in Photoshop.
I wanted a way to use these in applications like After Effects or Final Cut Pro. An easy way to achieve a simple color change is by using Look-Up-Tables (LUTs). I’m not gonna dive too deep into what exactly a LUT is, but basically, it communicates color changes from different applications. Aharon Rabinowitz posted a tutorial video about using Red Giant Software’s LUT Buddy, a free application by RGS to create and apply LUTs. It’s pretty helpful in introducing someone to what a LUT is, and how they work.
I took Daniel Box’s Instagram Photoshop actions, and made them into LUTs and presets to use with video. They work wonderfully. Keep in mind. LUTs are a bit limited in their functionality; they cannot apply things that use masks or generators, such as vignettes, diffusion, blurs, etc. But they are still awesome.
Here is how to use these LUTs.
- Download and install LUT Buddy from Red Giant Software. It’s free.
- Download and unzip my Instagram LUTs. Huge credit to Daniel Box.
- Apply the effect “LUT Buddy” to your footage, click Options, then Import LUT, then choose which effect you would like.
- If you are using After Effects, copy the provided “Instagram” presets folder into your application presets folder. (Applications/Adobe After Effects/Presets)