Film simulation and HaldCLUTs

[black_daveth (Dave)]

@bobm

So I naively ask how do I do this? Up until output, which I have set as RTv4-sRGB, my working profile is ProPhoto. So is this an incorrect choice if I want to use film simulation?

I know absolutely nothing about RawTherapee sorry, except for the fact they offer a handy collection of film simulations that I can use in darktable. I can only assume that the RawTherapee devs have come up with a sensible solution that doesn’t involve you having to worry about managing any colour space transformations yourself.

@bobm

I realize for the reasons you stated that the results are going to be pretty arbitrary. But what I am trying to understand is what do I have to do to match as closely as possible the output that the author of the LUT intended.

well a jpg straight out of your camera made with the default profile will probably get you as close as anything. These artistic LUTs really could be anything, you can read more about it here.

if you want more accurate results I would suggest using a tool like DaVinci Resolve to build your own HaldCLUTs using other people’s painstaking film emulation efforts that you can then bring back into a stills workflow in RawTherapee or darktable.