California Coast LUTs & Presets

Elevate your photos and videos with California Coast’s premium color tools.

Our collection of LUTs (Look- Up Tables) and Lightroom Presets brings the iconic West Coast look – sun-drenched beaches, golden hour warmth, and vibrant city energy – to your work. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, our products streamline editing and help you achieve a polished, cinematic style in seconds.

What Are LUTs and Presets?

LUTs

LUTs (Look-Up Tables) are files that transform the color and tone of your footage by mapping input colors to new output values. In practice, a LUT applies a one-click color grade – boosting or shifting colors, contrast and saturation – to give your clips a consistent mood or filmic look. LUTs are widely used in video editing for cinematic effects; they can dramatically transform the mood and atmosphere of an image or video with a single click. Each California Coast LUT pack contains multiple .CUBE files (standard LUT format) pre-calibrated for different lighting scenarios, from warm sunsets to cool overcast scenes.

Presets

Presets (Lightroom presets) are saved editing settings that adjust multiple image parameters – like exposure, white balance, contrast, highlights/shadows and colors – all at once. A preset applies accurate combination of tweaks to create a specific style. For example, our presets can add creamy skin tones and sunlit haze or boost the bright, airy feel of beach shots. Lightroom’s presets work with .XMP files, the modern format for both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC 5. As Adobe explains, Presets are simply saved settings designed to produce a specific look, and they are an excellent way to apply a consistent look to multiple images.

Key Difference

LUTs focus on color and tone only, while presets adjust a broader range of settings. As one expert notes: A LUT essentially changes only two specific aspects of an image: color and tone. A preset allows you to change a far wider variety of image characteristics, including exposure, sharpness, and vignetting. In short, use LUTs when you want to fine-tune the cinematic color grade of video footage, and use presets to streamline photo editing or overall project looks by tweaking exposure, contrast, and more in one step.

LUTs vs. Presets: Which Should You Use?

Use LUTs

Use LUTs when color grading video. If you’re editing footage in Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, DaVinci Resolve or similar, apply a LUT to give your scene a specific cinematic style. LUTs are ideal for setting a mood: e.g. teal-and-orange tones for Hollywood flair or soft warm hues for a romantic sunset. They offer precise control over color adjustments and deliver a consistent style across all clips.

Use Presets

Use Presets for photos or overall edits. If you’re working in Lightroom (Classic or CC), a preset quickly adjusts brightness, contrast, color balance, and more. This is perfect for batch editing a wedding album or travel gallery with one click. Presets provide a quick and convenient way to apply a consistent look or style to many images.

Beginners and Pros:

Both tools save you time. LUTs and presets let novices get stunning results instantly, while professionals can fine-tune each look. You can even mix both: start with a LUT for base tone, then tweak exposure/contrast with presets or manual edits.

Inspired by California’s Coast and Culture

Our color collections capture the sun-kissed, dreamy feel of California’s beaches and cityscapes. Think warm golden-hour light on Pacific shores, the cool blue of Catalina’s waters, the cozy browns of wine-country vineyards, and the vibrant energy of downtown Los Angeles. As one similar preset pack describes it, this is a light and dreamy coastal California aesthetic.

Whether it’s a wedding in Big Sur, a corporate interview in Hollywood, or a lifestyle shoot in San Diego, California Coast LUTs & Presets give your content that signature Western vibe. We draw inspiration from wedding cinematographers, film crews, and commercial photographers who work California events.

For example:

Sun-Drenched Romance

Capture golden glows in weddings with soft, creamy light and warm skin tones.

Urban Edge

Emulate the bold, high-contrast look of LA streets or Hollywood nightlife.

Natural Beauty

Enhance landscapes and outdoor scenes with vivid yet organic colors – from the redwoods to the Riviera.

Cinematic Feel

Add a polished, magazine-quality finish to interviews and corporate films, balancing skin tones and light to look professional yet vibrant.

Our Collections: LUTs & Presets

Below are all 14 individual California Coast packs (plus our all-inclusive bundle). Each LUT Collection (video) includes 10 .CUBE LUT files plus one Sony S-Log-to-Rec709 conversion LUT. Each Preset Collection (for .XMP Lightroom presets) includes 6 .XMP files.

Interview Collection (LUTs)

A clean, neutral grade tailored for talking-heads and corporate videos. These LUTs keep skin tones natural and colors balanced for a polished, professional look in interviews with business owners or celebrities. Ideal for documentaries and corporate profiles, it minimizes harsh shadows and distracting tints so your subject looks their best.

Wedding Collection (Presets)

A soft, dreamy look for weddings and romantic events. This preset pack gently brightens whites and pastels, enriches skin tones, and adds a touch of cinematic warmth. It’s perfect for bridal portraits, ceremony photos, and highlights that feel timeless and golden-hued, capturing the magic of big days.

Hollywood Lights Collection (LUTs)

Inspired by the glitz of Tinseltown, these LUTs add bright, vibrant color and glow to your footage. Reds pop, highlights glow, and contrast is bumped for that star-lit intensity. Use it on nightlife, music videos, or event recaps to make city lights twinkle and people stand out with a glamorous Hollywood shimmer.

Downtown Vibes Collection (LUTs)

Channels the energy of urban California scenes. High-contrast and punchy, with deep shadows and bold highlights, these LUTs give a gritty-yet-stylish vibe. Perfect for street photography, city skate vids, or dynamic corporate promos shot against city backdrops. Think sharp blacks, teal-tinged shadows, and a lively pop to bright areas.

Technical Compatibility

Our LUTs and Presets are designed to work across industry-standard software.

Key details:

LUT Files ( .CUBE ):

Each LUT Collection comes with 10 .CUBE files plus a Sony S-Log2 to Rec.709 conversion LUT. The .CUBE format is standard for color grading and is compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, DaVinci Resolve, and most major video editing software.

(Simply import the LUT and apply it as a color effect in your timeline.)

Preset Files ( .XMP ):

Each Preset Collection includes 6 .XMP files. XMP presets are the current format for Adobe Lightroom Classic (desktop) and Lightroom CC, and also work in Photoshop Camera Raw.

Import these presets into Lightroom to apply our looks to your photos with one click.

Quick Installation

For LUTs, just add the .CUBE files to your editor’s LUT folder or use the “Import LUT” feature. For Presets, copy the .XMP into Lightroom’s Presets folder or use the “Import Presets” option. With our intuitive installation, you’ll see the new looks appear alongside Lightroom’s default presets and Premiere’s Lumetri color effects.

Each product also includes a brief help guide so you can start using the looks immediately. All color profiles are professionally calibrated, ensuring consistent results across projects.

With California Coast LUTs & Presets, you get professional-grade color tools that are easy to use and inspired by the Golden State’s beauty. Transform your visual content with sunlit warmth, vibrant city tones, or soft romantic hues – all while saving hours of editing work. Elevate every wedding video, corporate promo, or travel photo with a signature California style.