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Make Your Own LUT Preset: Cinematic Color Grading

You want a cinematic color grade that fits your photos — not a one-size-fits-all filter pack. The fastest way to make your own LUT preset in 2026 is to build a tiny app around the exact look you’re after.

Build your own cinematic LUT in Auto

There are plenty of ways to make a LUT: a custom LUT maker online tool, learning how to create and import LUTs in Photoshop, or running a LUT generator from your Lightroom presets. Those work — but they mean juggling software, exporting .cube files, and settling for controls someone else decided you needed.

Auto is different. You describe the look you want, snap a photo, and Auto builds you a personal mini-app (a “Frame”) around it. Here’s the flow:

  1. Open Auto and take or load a photo — ideally the kind of shot you’ll grade most (night cityscapes, portraits, whatever’s yours).
  2. Describe your look. Tell Auto you want a cinematic color grader with preset styles, an intensity slider, and basic exposure controls.
  3. Refine in plain language. Ask for more preset options, a before/after toggle, or a specific teal-and-orange split.
  4. Save the Frame. Now you have your own preset maker you can reopen anytime — tuned to your taste.

It takes minutes, and the result fits your photos because you built it around them.

How someone built theirs

One Auto user built a night-photography grader — and their prompt history shows exactly how a real preset maker comes together.

They started broad: a cinematic photo editor for turning night-time cityscapes into teal-and-orange looks, with curated presets (“Midnight Neon,” “Cold Urban,” “Golden Hour Glow”), an intensity slider, fine-tuning controls for brightness and contrast, and a press-and-hold before/after toggle.

Then they got specific about the color science. Their second prompt reads like a colorist’s notebook: lift the blacks slightly so shadows aren’t crushed, push shadows toward teal (hue ~190–210°), keep midtones slightly cool, and split-tone the highlights — warm amber for bulb light, but let neon signage stay vivid magenta instead of dragging it toward orange. That’s the difference between a generic filter and a real cinematic grade.

Finally, they course-corrected: give me multiple options to choose between, and remember color grading should enhance the original photo — no unnecessary shadows, no fake grain.

That back-and-forth is the whole point. You don’t have to nail it in one shot; you shape the Frame until it matches what’s in your head. Frames like CineGrade are proof people are already building exactly this kind of tool.

FAQ

Do I need to know how to create LUTs in Photoshop first? No. You describe the look you want in plain words and Auto builds the controls. No .cube exports, no color-wheel theory required — though you can get as technical as you like.

Can I match a LUT I already use in Lightroom? Yes — describe the look (the shadow tint, contrast, split-tone) and Auto recreates it as a live Frame you can tweak.

Is this good for video editing projects? Auto Frames grade photos. But building your own grader is a great way to lock in a consistent look before you create a LUT for video editing projects elsewhere.

Can I make more than one preset? Yes. Build one Frame per style, or one Frame with a whole carousel of presets.