How to import LUTs into Blackmagic Camera on iPhone

What a LUT actually does in this app

A LUT (Look-Up Table) is a colour map. It takes every colour your sensor recorded and moves it somewhere else — lifting shadows, cooling skin tones, rolling off highlights — according to a recipe someone else already dialled in. In Blackmagic Camera a LUT is applied as a Monitor LUT, which means the app shows you the graded image live on the viewfinder while you shoot.

That live preview is the part that matters in practice. You are not guessing what the clip will look like after editing; you are framing and exposing against the finished look. If a LUT crushes the shadows in your scene, you see it before you press record, not two hours later.

Step 1 — get a LUT pack onto your iPhone

Free packs live in the @blackmagicamera Telegram channel. The pinned post holds a .zip file, and the post description tells you which colour profile the pack was built for — this matters more than which look you like, as the next section explains.

1. Open the pinned post in the Telegram channel and tap the .zip file.
2. Choose Save to Files, then pick On My iPhone or iCloud Drive.
3. Open the Files app and tap the .zip once — iOS unzips it into a folder beside it.

Do not skip the unzip. The Files picker inside Blackmagic Camera can only select .cube files, so a still-zipped pack looks like an empty folder when you get there.

Step 2 — import through LUTs Manager

The importer is inside the app's settings, not on the viewfinder. The exact menu name is LUTs Manager.

1. Open Settings — the gear icon in the bottom-right corner of the viewfinder.
2. Tap LUTs Manager.
3. Scroll to the very bottom of the LUT list.
4. Tap Import LUT. The iOS Files picker opens.
5. Navigate to the folder you unzipped in step 1.
6. Tap Select in the top-right, then Select All to mark every .cube file.
7. Tap Open. All of them are imported at once.

Step 3 — preview, then decide what gets recorded

Tap any LUT name in the list and the viewfinder immediately shows your scene through it. Cycle through the pack while pointing at the actual light you are about to shoot in — a look that sings outdoors often falls apart under warm indoor bulbs.

Each LUT row has two buttons, and they do different jobs:

• ON (right side) — tap it and the background turns blue. The LUT is now your Monitor LUT: you see it on screen while recording.
• The recording icon (left, next to ON) — tap it and it turns blue too. Now the look is baked into the recorded file itself.

Both blue means preview and recording use the LUT. Only ON blue means you shoot the untouched image while monitoring the graded one — the safer option if you might want to grade properly later, because a baked-in LUT cannot be removed.

The mistake that makes everything look wrong

A LUT is built for a specific colour profile, and it only works on footage shot in that profile. Match them:

• Rec.709 footage needs a Rec.709 LUT. This is the right path on every iPhone, and the default the guide recommends.
• Apple Log footage needs a Log LUT. Apple Log is only available on iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max — and on 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, where the menu calls it Apple Log 2.

Mismatch them and the image looks obviously broken: a Log LUT on Rec.709 footage produces crushed, oversaturated colour, while a Rec.709 LUT on Log footage stays flat and washed out. If a look seems wildly wrong the instant you enable it, check Color Space in Settings before blaming the LUT.

Why your LUT list might look empty

Two things account for almost every failed import. The first is the unzip step above. The second is the Files picker: if you saved the pack to iCloud Drive and your phone has not finished downloading it, the .cube files appear greyed out with a cloud icon. Tap one in the Files app first to pull it down, then import.

If a LUT imports but does nothing on screen, check that you actually tapped ON rather than only selecting the LUT's name. Selecting previews it; ON commits it as the Monitor LUT.