For years the answer to "how do I put a proper cinematic look on an iPhone photo" came with a monthly bill attached. I wanted to apply LUTs and presets to ProRAW photos on iPhone without firing up a desktop or signing up to yet another subscription, and for a long time that just was not a clean option. Lightroom mobile can do it, but only if you keep paying Adobe every single month. So I stopped waiting and built the tool I wanted: a small app called RawCraft that does this one job and nothing else.
This post walks through how the workflow actually works, where to get looks worth applying, and whether it suits how you shoot.
Why ProRAW and LUTs are awkward together on iPhone
ProRAW is Apple's way of keeping the flexibility of a RAW file while still letting the iPhone do its computational work on the shot. You get far more latitude to push colour and tone than a normal JPEG or HEIC allows. If ProRAW is new to you, my guide on how to take better photos with Pro Raw is a good starting point. The catch is that all that latitude means nothing if you cannot apply the looks you actually want.
A LUT, or look-up table, is just a colour recipe, and these days it is just as often sold as a preset. It lives in a .cube file that remaps the colours in your shot to a specific grade, the same idea editors have used in film for decades. The detail worth knowing is that RawCraft works with .cube files, so any look supplied in that format imports cleanly. A native Lightroom preset is a different file type, the .xmp, so for that you want its .cube version, which good packs include.
Either way, almost nothing else on iOS lets you drop your own .cube onto a ProRAW file and export it at full quality. You either pay for Lightroom every month, or you shuttle files back and forth to a Mac, which rather defeats the point of shooting on a phone in the first place. Neither felt right for a workflow that is meant to be quick and self-contained.
How to apply LUTs to ProRAW on iPhone, step by step
Here is the workflow I use now. The whole thing happens on the phone, on-device, with no account and no upload.
1. Pick your ProRAW shot
Start with a ProRAW file already in your library, or capture a fresh one. You need a Pro iPhone (12 Pro or newer) to capture ProRAW, but you can edit any ProRAW file that is already on your device. Your original is never altered, so there is no risk in experimenting.
2. Import your .cube LUT or preset
Bring in the look you want from the Files app. RawCraft is upload-only on purpose: it starts empty, and you fill it with your own .cube files. Any standard .cube works, whether you exported it from a desktop tool, made it yourself, or bought a preset pack online.
3. Dial in the intensity
There is one slider. Push it down for a subtle tint, or all the way up for a full cinematic grade. I find most looks sit best somewhere between 60 and 85 per cent rather than flat out, but that is the appeal of one honest control instead of fifty competing ones.
4. Export in Display P3
Save out a HEIC or JPEG in sRGB for maximum compatibility, or in wide-gamut Display P3 when you want the colour to hold up properly. The export comes straight from the ProRAW data, so you keep the quality rather than grading a compressed copy after the fact.
If you have a batch to get through, you can apply a look across several photos at once rather than repeating yourself shot by shot. That is the entire app. No layers, no masking, no learning curve.
Where to get presets and LUTs worth applying
Because RawCraft ships with no looks of its own, it is only ever as good as the LUTs you feed it. If you already have a grading style you like, import the .cube and you are away. If you are starting from scratch, this is where my own packs come in. My presets at iPhone Creator Pack come in both XMP and .cube, so the .cube version drops straight into RawCraft and you can skip Lightroom entirely.
The useful part is that your look becomes portable. Build or buy a .cube once, and you can reuse it across every shot without re-editing from zero each time. One recipe, applied consistently, is what gives a feed that joined-up signature style.
Best iPhone LUTs: the ones I keep coming back to
People ask me for the best iPhone LUTs more than almost anything else, and the honest answer is that it depends on what you shoot. A moody, teal-shadowed grade that flatters a rainy street will fall apart on a bright beach portrait. So rather than crown a single winner, here is how I choose, and the looks I trust on ProRAW.
- My iPhone Creator Pack. Ten looks I built for ProRAW, shipped as both Lightroom XMP and .cube. The .cube versions drop straight into RawCraft, so you skip Lightroom entirely. They are mine, so treat that as a bias, but they are tuned for exactly this workflow.
- Filmmaker .cube packs. Plenty of colourists sell film emulation and teal-and-orange style .cube sets. Quality varies wildly, so buy from someone whose actual photos you like, and test on your own shots before you commit to a style.
- Your own exports. If you already grade on a desktop, export your recipe as a .cube once and reuse it forever. A look you built yourself will always beat a generic pack because it matches how you shoot.
Whatever you choose, the LUT is only half the job. You still need something that will drop a .cube onto a ProRAW file and export it at full quality, which is the gap RawCraft fills.
Free iPhone LUTs: what you can get for nothing
You can absolutely find free iPhone LUTs, and some are genuinely useful. Apple publishes a free Apple Log to Rec. 709 conversion LUT, plenty of creators give away a sample .cube or two, and most paid packs include a free taster. It is a fair way to learn what a look-up table does before you spend anything.
The honest caveat is that free LUTs are usually built for one specific camera or log profile, so they can land oddly on ProRAW's wide latitude. You often get flat shadows or clipped highlights that a tuned pack would have handled. My advice is to collect a few free ones, run them through RawCraft, and only buy a pack once you know the style you keep reaching for. If you already pay for Lightroom, note that Apple ProRAW files open natively there too, so any free Lightroom preset works in that app without conversion.
Apple Log LUTs and where to download them
There is a common mix-up worth clearing up. Apple Log is a video profile on iPhone 15 Pro and later, not a stills format, so it is a different thing from ProRAW. If you shoot Apple Log video you flatten the footage on purpose, then apply a conversion LUT in your editor to bring it back to a normal contrast and colour.
For the download itself, Apple provides an official Apple Log to Rec. 709 LUT through its developer and Final Cut Pro resources, and it is free. Drop that .cube into your video editor to convert Log footage. For ProRAW stills, though, you do not need a Log LUT at all. You want a grading .cube applied in RawCraft, because a ProRAW file is not in a Log colour space to begin with.
Why I built it instead of just paying Adobe
I am not anti-Adobe. Lightroom is a serious tool and I still respect it. What I got tired of was paying a recurring fee for what, in my day-to-day, was one small task: putting a look on a RAW photo and getting it out at full quality.
RawCraft is a one-off purchase. Pay once, own it, and every future update is included. There is no account, no sign-in, and nothing leaves your phone, because all the processing runs on Apple's Metal engine on-device. For a privacy-conscious workflow, that matters more than it used to.
Who RawCraft is for, and who it is not
This is a focused tool, not a Lightroom stand-in for everything. If you want healing brushes, masking, and full RAW development, keep your existing editor. RawCraft is for the specific job of taking a ProRAW shot, applying a .cube look, and exporting it cleanly.
It suits creators who already shoot ProRAW, have a grading style they like, and want it on their photos in seconds without a subscription. If that sounds like you, it will likely earn its keep within a week.
Apple ProRAW vs a normal iPhone photo
It is worth being clear on why LUTs behave so much better on ProRAW than on a standard shot. A normal iPhone photo is a HEIC or JPEG with all of Apple's computational processing baked in and locked down. The file is small and looks great straight away, but there is little room to push colour before it falls apart.
Apple ProRAW keeps the same computational benefits but saves them into a large DNG with full RAW latitude, often ten to twenty times the file size. That headroom is the whole point: you can drive a grade hard and the image holds together. It is exactly why a .cube lands cleanly on ProRAW and turns muddy on a baked JPEG. If you want to get more out of the format before you grade, my guide on how to take better photos on iPhone with ProRAW covers capture settings in detail.
Is RawCraft worth it?
If you shoot ProRAW and you have ever resented paying monthly just to apply a look, yes. At a one-off price it pays for itself against a single month of a subscription, and the free version gives you one full export so you can test it on your own shots before you buy. Pair it with a good set of LUTs and it quietly becomes the last step in your photo workflow. You can try RawCraft on the App Store and bring your own looks, or grab a ready-made pack if you want a head start.
Frequently asked questions
Can you apply LUTs to ProRAW without Lightroom?
Yes. RawCraft lets you import your own .cube LUTs and apply them to ProRAW files entirely on your iPhone, with no Adobe subscription and no desktop round-trip.
Can you use Lightroom presets on iPhone without Lightroom?
Sort of. A Lightroom preset is an .xmp file that needs Lightroom to apply it. But many preset packs, including mine, also ship a .cube version of each look, and that .cube imports straight into RawCraft. So you get the same grade on your iPhone with no Adobe subscription.
Do you need a Pro iPhone to use it?
To capture ProRAW you need an iPhone 12 Pro or newer. To edit a ProRAW file that is already in your library, any iPhone running iOS 17 or later will do the job.
Does RawCraft come with any LUTs or presets?
No, and that is deliberate. It is upload-only, so your library starts empty and every look in it is one you chose. You can import any standard .cube file, including the .cube versions of my packs from iPhone Creator Pack.