j francis photography wrote:
Why haven't they percolated down into programs like Photoshop faster, especially since it is able to accept them as input?

LUTs have existed long before Photoshop had support for them. So the right question is why Photoshop still looks like a program from the 90s. In maths lookup tables have been known and used ages before there were even computers.

Is it a patent issue?

When I studied patent law we were told that it is not legally possible to patent a method, a formula or a know-how. So I don't think one can patent a series of numbers or the way they are interpolated.

anchev wrote:
I don't think one can patent a series of numbers or the way they are interpolated.

A few decades ago the technique of using the boolean logic XOR operation to toggle bits and flash a cursor was patented and successfully challenged in court, with Commodore forced to pay up to $10 million. They couldn't pay and this led ultimately to their demise. There are plenty of crazy patents, but in this case I'm pretty sure that it's not any patent issue and there are programs that can create 3D LUTS. I've not tried but I believe Lr can produce a LUT from a preset (not sure if's 1D or 3D though), and calibration software such as Dispcal, calman and lightspace can of course.

j francis photography wrote:
What does that Adobe Speedgrade software do?

It was for colour grading, but Adobe have killed off speedgrade. Wanted to try it but it became incompatible with newer Premier Pro versions despite having a seemingly good shot matching feature that PP doesn't have, and then I switched to Resolve anyway.

Nick Ridge wrote:
A few decades ago the technique of using the boolean logic XOR operation to toggle bits and flash a cursor was patented and successfully challenged in court, with Commodore forced to pay up to $10 million. They couldn't pay and this led ultimately to their demise. There are plenty of crazy patents, but in this case I'm pretty sure that it's not any patent issue and there are programs that can create 3D LUTS.

I don't know if you have read the patent in question (I haven't) but from what I found on the web, it definitely includes much more stuff than just toggling bits by using XOR:

https://www.google.com/patents/US4197590

One of the criteria for patent to be possible is newness and number interpolation is not something new.

I've not tried but I believe Lr can produce a LUT from a preset (not sure if's 1D or 3D though)

LR cannot export LUTs.

J Diffner Photography wrote:
You can export LUTs directly from Photoshop (Lightroom requires a separate plugin).  In PS, make your changes then go to File > Export > Color Lookup Table

But that's using Photoshop's tools. In certain cases working with a 3D LUT in software like the one mentioned above is more powerful and easier than using what Photoshop provides.

j francis photography wrote:
In certain cases working with a 3D LUT in software like the one mentioned above is more powerful and easier than using what Photoshop provides.

And much more efficient. Using 1 LUT vs using N adjustment layers in Photoshop, wasting memory for masks and all that. Photoshop is simply a very old software which Adobe don't seem interested to bring to a new level.

CLICK retouch wrote:
You still need masks. LUT will not give you local corrections. Think of it as a better version of Selective color/Curves.

https://www.modelmayhem.com/education/p … -with-luts

Check the part "What LUTs cannot do"

anchev wrote:

https://www.modelmayhem.com/education/p … -with-luts

Check the part "What LUTs cannot do"

Your point is?

2thestudio - Ivan wrote:
Your point is?

Confirming and expanding a little on what CLICK retouch said.