Creating Profiles

[glenn_haley]

<p>I recently acquired a Xrite Color Checker Passport to create image profiles for processing. I was very surprised how easily it works and the excellent results it produces. As I understand the process (and please correct me if I’m wrong) the .DCP profiles if produces are scene specific, meaning they are unique to that photographic setting rather that .ICC profiles that are hardware specific, meaning they are customized to your specific hardware.<br>

To me, the .DCP profile is more useful as it gives more accurate coloring and skin tones. As an example, many of our family gatherings take place around the dining table and over the years I have many images taken in this same area. After creating a profile of this area I went back in time and applied the new profile to these older images. Even though I had spent a good deal of time processing these older RAW images in most cases a simple click on this new profile produced noticeable improvements in color tones and saturation.<br>

Unfortunately you can’t use these profiles with Capture One or DPP but in Photoshop and Lightroom they can be used as plugins and work wonders. All you need is the small plastic color chart holder to place in the scene to establish the color guide for the profile shot and the software to create the profiles and NO, I have no connection to this company just a very satisfied customer.</p>

[robert_martin5]

<p>You can make scene specific profiles, but you can also make one that will work as a general purpose profile that gives much better results than the standard profiles availalbe in the software. </p>

<p>Photograph the color checker passport in direct sunlight and incandescent light - make sure the lighting is even and get the exposure correct (no clipping in the 24 patches). Follow the instruction on how to make a Dual Luminant profile and try this one as you general purpose profile. Check the difference between using your scene specific profile or the dual luminant profile. </p>

<p>Adobe also supplies a DNG Profile Editor that works with the Passport image to generate profiles. You can read about the DNG Profile Editor here and download it (it's free) </p>

<p><a href="http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles">http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles</a></p>

<p>I have both the X-Rite Passport and Adobe DNG Profile Editor. I like the DNG Profile Editor better since you can start with a Base Profile and you have more options in the modification..</p>

 

[peter_gilbert4]

<p>I have created a few profiles both for my D700 and my NEX 5N, all done with LR3.x Now that I've updated to LR4.1 I was curious whether or not these calibration profiles need to be updated. I have sent an inquiry to X-Rite since I could not find any answer on the web (there was this same question posted in Adobe Labs - not by me - but so far no responses). In reading Martin Evening's LR4 book, it seems the basic RAW conversion in PV2012 is the same as PV2010, but I'm not sure whether this means the old calibrations are still OK. It does seem to my eye they have much less of an obvious change in LR4 compared with the default "Adobe Standard"</p>

[howard_m]

<p>If you have a Mac, I have software that should convert the dcp -> icc</p>

 

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>the .DCP profiles if produces are <strong>scene specific</strong>, meaning they are unique to that photographic setting rather that .ICC profiles that are hardware specific, meaning they are customized to your specific hardware.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No, not really. In fact ICC profiles are more appropriate as scene specific than DNG profiles. You are profiling the illuminant plus the specific behavior of your sensor. I know X-rite shows the product being used for each setup but it really isn’t necessary. You could get by with a daylight and tungsten profile and then any odd illuminant you run into (Fluorescent, metal halide etc). The creation of a profile is not to ensure perfect rendering preferences from the get-go, mean you don’t have to white balance or alter other rendering controls. It gets you a better starting point for this task since the profile is applied prior to these options but based on a more specific understanding of your sensor and the overall lighting. </p>

<p>ICC profiles are output referred* meaning they describe the full processing path to a rendered image. That is one reason they are usually not effective for digital capture, the exception being very controlled and consistent conditions (think studio controlled copy work). DNG profiles are scene referred* meaning they avoid examining a lot of the processing of a raw converter, define a far more ‘raw-like’ condition of your data. </p>

<p>*see:<br>

http://www.color.org/ICC_white_paper_20_Digital_photography_color_management_basics.pdf</p>

 

[digitaldog]

<p>PV 2012 and 2010 are vastly different. All legacy images prior to importation into LR4 retain their original PV settings. All new imported images are PV2012 although you can disable this (no reason to).You have to manually force an upgrade to PV2012 on legacy images (and you should examine each as you may not prefer the new rendering or may need to further tweak). The original DNG profiles should be fine with either. You can test this but there should be no reason, due to the processing path DNG profiles are used, that you’d need to rebuild the profiles for a newer PV. </p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>If you have a Mac, I have software that should convert the dcp -> icc</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Be interesting to try. Due to the severe differences in where each is used and on what kind of data (output versus scene referred), I would expect that would not be very useful but I’d be willing to be proven wrong and test it. </p>

[peter_gilbert4]

<p>X-Rite confirmed there is no need to re-do older Passport profiles for LR4</p>

[ymages]

<p>Hello<br /><br />is there a clear and simple tutorial step by step with screen shots ti create a .dcp profile for my Leica M with colorchecker passport ?</p>

<p>thank you</p>

[ymages]

<p>Hello<br /><br />is there a clear and simple tutorial step by step with screen shots ti create a .dcp profile for my Leica M with colorchecker passport ?</p>

<p>thank you</p>

[digitaldog]

<p>Try X-rite's site for videos.</p>

[ymages]

<p>Andrew no there is nothing like that or I could not find it</p>

[digitaldog]

<p>http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_learning.aspx?action=videos&litid=1609</p>

[ymages]

<p>Thank you Andrew</p>