Pratik Naik and Modifying Color with 3D LUT Creator

For those of you who don't know who Pratik Naik is, you're missing out on an extremely talented and witty retoucher with immense talent. Known by many as Solstice Retouch, his work is seen around the world in many a marketing campaign and commercial work. A little over a year ago now, Pratik started his youtube channel, under the name 'Solstice Retouch' and has posted a variety of different video types ranging from time-lapse videos of his retouching of work, some gear reviews and thoughts, and additionally some downright comical videos. Just recently though he posted a video of his review of the demo of 3D LUT Creator.

In Pratik's video, he talks about the power of 3D LUT Creator, saying 'it shifts colors in a way that's not possible in photoshop.' Anyone that's tried to do any drastic shifts of color across a scene will immediately go to curves, or selective color, or anything of that nature, and especially if you're trying to isolate a specific color range, like reds or yellows, then the way you have to do it is either via very selective and tedious masking, or via the selective color adjustment layer. For anyone that's used these techniques, it takes a great level of skill, dedication, and in most cases patience to really be able to achieve a result that is satisfying. Frequently though, you're subjected to banding, odd edges, and other unfortunate side effects that lend themselves to the destruction of some images.

It should be noted at this point that this video is NOT a tutorial on coloring in photographs, but more a demonstration of the efficiency and power of the program.

Simplicity

Now many a photographer have had an image, and have done all their retouching, and come to the end and thought, "I really like that, but it would be better if that thingymabob, (official scientific term) was a slightly different hue or intensity." On screen right you can actually see the photo that Pratik is demonstrating on, which is shot by none other than the amazingly talented Bella Kotak, and on the left, a large color space with a spider web mesh over it. As Pratik hovers his cursor over various sections of the photo, you can see a marker popping up on a junction in the spider web representing that specific targeted color in the photo. Clicking on that point and dragging it will obviously change the color, but what you don't expect is how smoothly and beautifully it does it. Due to the structure of the mesh, when you move a point, it effects all the surrounding points, but proportionally and unless you push the limits too far, the color shift is smooth.

A Visual Program for the Visual Minded

As the video goes on to explain, for many programs, you almost have to have a scientific mind to operate some of their more complex and beneficial functions, however, as Pratik points out, this program simplifies that, and narrows it down to clicking on the color or colors that you want to modify and moving them until they meet the vision or look that you're wanting to attain. That fact alone coupled with all the additional features that are provided to allow you to modify the colors, all of which are manipulated through visual means, all results in an easy to use and purely artistic program that allows for beautiful coloring of photos. Check out the video and what Pratik has to say, is this a program that you would be interested in using?