Better images, less effort.

The free tool that elevates every project you shoot or grade.

We’re 20 years into the digital cinema revolution, and we’re still trying to figure out how to make our images look as good as they used to. The challenge is so big that 80% of this year’s Oscar-nominated cinematographers said “F*** it — let’s just shoot on film.”

But the problem isn’t capture: it’s context. 
When you have the right visual feedback for your shooting and grading decisions, you can craft stunning, timeless images on repeat — regardless of shooting format.

And when you don’t?
You go to open up your shadows in the grade... and find out there’s nothing there.

• You add a bit of contrast, and your exposures instantly feel dark —
  then when you try to bring them up, they get noisy.

• You spend endless hours tweaking your look,
  and still secretly wonder why something feels off.

• You keep multiple DCTLs and PowerGrades handy just for dealing with artifacts from neon signs and colorful lights.

I’ve got something that kills these problems at their source.
It takes five minutes to set up, and it works whether you’re a DP or a colorist.

It’s called Referent, and it’s built with the same expertise and rigor as Genesis, my $2000+ plugin I created with Academy Award-winning image scientist Dr. Mitch Bogdanowicz. 

Except Referent is free.

What Referent is

Referent is a viewing LUT designed to produce a finished image in a single step, similar to how a film print does. In fact, I was inspired to build it after creating Genesis and experiencing the power of a one-stop solution that puts out an image with full contrast, rich skin tones, and aesthetic color mapping.

It’s not a stylized film emulation with lifted blacks or tinted shadows: it’s a proper foundation that you can add onto as much or as little as you like.

If you're a DP

Referent gives you the same unfair advantage that DPs like Roger Deakins, Steve Yedlin, and Lawrence Sher have used for years — a LUT that tells you the truth about your image while you're still shaping it.

Most stock camera LUTs are designed to be flat and forgiving, but that’s the exact opposite of what you need. 

You need a curve that shows you exactly where exposure is sitting.

You need contrast that promotes good lighting ratios and ensures shadow details are well-captured.

Most important, you need to define your image on the day
— not push it off to your first color session.

The best way to get this is to hire me for $2,000+ an hour to build you a custom look from scratch. The second-best way is to grab Referent.

If you're a colorist

Referent lets you finally stop building your grade on a bad foundation. CSTs and ACES give you a half-finished image that looks like nothing — and then you spend 45 minutes trying to make it look like something.

Referent gives you a starting point that already feels intentional, making your look dev radically simpler. When you're not compensating for an incomplete display transform, everything gets easier. My biggest lesson from building Genesis was realizing that most of what we think of as “look dev” is really just compensating for a bad viewing transform. Upgrade that piece, and everything starts to flow.

What you get

Referent ships as a complete matched set of camera-specific LUTs — one for every major log format — plus a DaVinci Wide Gamut version for Resolve. Just grab the LUT for your color space and load it into your camera, Resolve LUT folder, or both. There's no change in technique or toolset required — just a better foundation for you to light and grade on top of.