Mastin Labs Presets as Real-Time LUTs by Joe Ensley

by Mastin Labs

We're excited to share a guest article today by the amazingly talented Joe Ensley.

The Best of Both Worlds

I’ve always dreamed of having a digital camera that could mimic the look and somewhat unpredictable effects of film.

I thought one day a camera manufacturer would eventually figure out a way to create a random generator rooted from film stock so that every time you took a digital photo the result would create slight “imperfections” from picture to picture. That hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve been excited to try out the next closest thing.

I’ve gone from film to digital FX, back to film, and then back to digital. Pentax K1000 in high school— to Nikon — to Leica —Mamiya — and now Panasonic. I’ve never been a Fuji digital shooter, but I’ve always been envious of their film simulation recipes even with my full frame Leica M10. I was jealous.

I always have the intention of editing RAW, but sometimes you don’t want to have to edit every single picture in full quality. Sometimes you just want to dump tons of good-looking small JPEG’s to your friends instantly so they can easily share them.

Enter the Panasonic Lumix S5ii with their Real-Time LUT feature.

I’m a loyal user of Mastin Labs presets. I love the hard work that has been put into them and I love the results. Now I can have those looks from Fuji that I craved instantly viewed in real time on my Panasonic camera, and not only that but Kodak as well!

Why settle for just one film stock emulation when I can have some from both companies?

I loaded up my S5ii with compatible Mastin Lab’s Video LUT’s for Panasonic cameras and voila! Instant film looks in real time.

Kodak Ektar 100 JPEG (straight from camera) by Joe Ensley

I recently have been able to put these Real Time LUT’s to the test for an incredible week in Alaska. Spoiler Alert: I will be continuing to keep these Mastin Labs LUTs on my camera when doing photography moving forward.

I cringe when photographers say that a new piece of gear or process has “invigorated” their energy to get out at shoot, but I’ll confess when using these LUT’s on the trip did bring up those feelings. It’s so awesome to be able to see a closer representation of what your final image will look like in the live view. It’s way more thrilling to shoot this way than previewing using the standard blah default presets of the camera (Standard, Vivid, Natural).

Shot by Joe Ensley. Ektar 100 JPEG (straight from camera)

Workflow

The pictures that I’m sharing are all JPEGS straight from camera with no additional editing to brightness. In most scenarios, I would set my Real Time LUT to Kodak Ektar, Fuji 160NS, or Portra 800 then adjust my white balance usually around 6000 because of the extreme overcast in Alaska.

I would then tweak the hue of the white balance. Shooting with the Mastin LUTS in Live View on my camera made me realize just how overexposed I’ve been shooting this whole time with the default presets. I may have been way overdoing the exposure because it seems the Mastin LUTS need the highlights protected more than my standard Panasonic camera presets.

Now, the results you get from the Mastin LUT JPEGS vs Editing the RAWS in Lightroom will look different. You can’t expect a JPEG with no work done to it to look as polished as taking your time in the editing room, but it still is way more fun to have the LUTs activated while shooting!

I could easily see myself shooting with the JPEG LUT’s, importing them straight to my phone and doing very basic exposure editing with the iPhone’s built in Photos app then texting them to my friends.

A lot of the photos shared during this trip the JPEGS may look more dim because I was focused on really protecting the sky highlights knowing later I would spend time at home editing them fully. If you wanted to expose brighter to get a more finished JPEG look you could totally do that.

Shot by Joe Ensley. Ektar 100 JPEG (straight from camera)

Shot by Joe Ensley. Portra 800 JPEG (straight from camera)

Portraits

On the way to a nature preserve we stumbled across a small intimate wedding. It was just the bride, groom, one friend officiating, and another friend trying to take photos with their phone while holding a baby.

We politely offered to snap a few photos for their ceremony and they were game for the opportunity. I switched my LUT from Ektar to Fuji 160NS and got some lovely portraits in under a minute. I didn’t think I would have an impromptu opportunity to test the LUT’s out at a wedding while on this trip but was really pleased to see how the Mastin Lab's Fuji presets handled portrait photos!

Shot by Joe Ensley. Fuji 160NS JPEG (straight from camera)

Limitations + Conclusion

The biggest downside with using the Real-Time LUT’s while shooting is that in order for it to be activated with the Panasonic S5ii, it uses V-LOG first and in V-LOG the minimum ISO is 600.

It worked out easy in Alaska because it was mostly in overcast dimmer light, but I could see how using it on a bright sunny day would be a pain forcing you to shoot at 8,000 shutter speed to get anything below f3.5.

I did get some opportunities coming back to the lower 48 states to continue testing out the LUTS in brighter conditions and have remained pleased with the results of the JPEGS.

Shot by Joe Ensley. Ektar 100, Fuji 160NS and Ektar 100 JPEGs (straight from camera)

Overall I’m very pleased in getting these LUT’s mostly to use as a live view preview but also in a pinch being able to instantly share ready to use JPEGS. I hesitated for awhile on getting these bc I already own most of the Mastin Lab presets but I don’t at all regret getting the LUT’s. These will continue to stay on my camera in almost all situations!