M Color

[mjh]

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Ken Rockwell says in his Leica Mr Users Guide that he uses sRGB colour space setting but a number of other reviewers say that Abobe RGB is the better camera setting because of the greater number of colours.

The maximum number of different colours in a JPEG is always 16,777,216, regardless of the colour space chosen. With Adobe RGB those 17 million colours are spread over a larger gamut, though. If you need the larger gamut, you are better off with Adobe RGB, whereas if your subjects don’t really need those hues present in Adobe RGB but not sRGB, sRGB would be a better choice since it supports finer distinctions of colours. For presenting pictures on the web, sRGB is to be preferred as some browsers just assume sRGB and make a mess of images using a different colour space.

 

But this is all moot. If you really care about colour you will use a raw workflow which means that the colour space setting in the camera menu has no effect anyway.

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[tobey bilek]

Easily the best profile is one you make yourself with the Adobe PROFILE EDITOR.

 

JUST USE THE automatic function or chart function. Do not try to set it up by eye.

 

The downside is you need a MacBeth 24 patch color chart, X Rite sells them now.

 

The editor looks at each of 18 color and a 6 step grey scale and remaps the DNG raw to match .

 

I am finally happy I got my M8 colors to match the M9. Gone are the cyan skies and the funky greens from the M8. Put the profile in with the profile tab selection, tell ACR to use default based on camera serial #, save as new default. When images open in ACR or LightRoom, the DNG profile become the start point.

 

It will be so close you will not want to change much . And we can stop arguing over M colors. They are remapped to the color checker or you can remap to any profile you desire.

 

The profile editor is a free download from Adobe Labs.

[01af]

If you're shooting raw, the in-camera colour space setting doesn't matter anyway. If you're shooting JPEG, the sRGB setting makes more sense. So for me, it's Raw+JPEG and sRGB always, with any digital camera.

 

Setting the camera to Adobe RGB makes sense only in very special cases. If your case is one of these, you'll know it. If you have to ask, it's sRGB for you.

[viramati]

Yes it is a .dcp profile usable in LR and ACR, this is the link to my dropbox folder:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11389216/LEICA%20M%20%28Typ%20240%29%20Cloudy.dcp

thanks have downloaded it but am not sure exactly where to install it in Lr on a mac?

[lct]

If you're shooting raw, the in-camera colour space setting doesn't matter anyway. If you're shooting JPEG, the sRGB setting makes more sense. So for me, it's Raw+JPEG and sRGB always, with any digital camera...

+1

[thighslapper]

David:

 

Finder

 

Alt-Go to access Library.

 

Put it in Library/Application Support/Adobe/Camera RAW/Camera Profiles

 

Restart LR and it should be in the drop down menu in Camera Calibration : Profile

[jaapv]

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But this is all moot. If you really care about colour you will use a raw workflow which means that the colour space setting in the camera menu has no effect anyway.

But it does mean that you need to control your colour management all through your postprocessing workflow.

[douglasf13]

FWIW, one reason to use adobeRGB and very flat jpeg settings, even if you only shoot raw, is because it gives you a histogram a bit closer to what the raw data would look like.

[mjh]

But it does mean that you need to control your colour management all through your postprocessing workflow.

Yep. If there is no stringent colour management in place, your best bet is using sRGB and hoping it will come out alright.

[01af]

... it gives you a histogram a bit closer to what the raw data would look like.

Not true. Adobe RGB vs sRGB is about gamut, not dynamic range. The histogram will be mostly the same with both settings. If highly saturated colours are present then their positions in the histogram may slightly vary with the color space setting—but the positions of the highlights and the shadows will remain the same.

 

So the accuracy of the historgram is no consideration for the choice of the in-camera colour space. The Adobe RGB option may have a small advantage in the presence of very saturated colours but requires you and your client to have a fully colour-managed workflow and a good understanding how to deal with images in colour spaces other than sRGB. Beware—the latter cannot, repeat CANNOT be taken for granted with most art directors, picture editors, graphics designers, and printing press operators

[Alberti]

The M9 (and presumably M-240) meters off of the shutter blades. Those are painted gray, so if the M had a sensor for it, it could take a reflective K metering off those same blades. Is that how the M9 (and M-240) do it today, or are they making extrapolative guess based upon the captured image?

 

John,

a Brilliant 'invention'.

It solves the measurement issue easily. Specially if combined with the incident light meter on the front of the camera it might be effective.

 

Though a separate handheld sensor (aka light meter) that captures temperature and amount of light and transmits this wirelessly to the camera would be effective too (but more cumbersome) and would solve a more complex problem.

[tobey bilek]

Well, be aware that there are two different situations here:

 

1. For out-of-the-camera JPEGs, Leica may well be able to make changes to the color response.

 

2. For raws, the color rendering is essentially set by physics of the sensor and the profile(s) in the raw developer you're using. While in theory possible, it's highly unlikely that Leica would do anything in firmware to change color rendering - anything Leica could do would be better and more easily done in the raw developer. And changing the sensor is basically the same as making a new camera.

 

So if you have issue with color rendering from raw, you really need to be either building your own profiles, or speaking with whoever built the raw developer.

 

Sandy

 

Adobe Labs Profile editor. Set ACR or LR to recognize a profile generated correctly rather than a generic manufactured one the camera manufacturer wants to push off. ACR needs to see the profile by camera serial number rather than generic M camera profile.

 

I never shoot JPEG, but I would assume there are some in camera rendering settings like saturation and contrast.

 

When finished, all cameras render the the same colors. Adjust as you want and save as preset.

 

After all, red is red, green is green, and blues is blue. What some color engineer does is change these basics to his perception. Why??

[mjh]

After all, red is red, green is green, and blues is blue.

If only it was that simple.

[tobey bilek]

It is that simple until you get into printing/publishing. After the colors are correct, then one needs to go through the soft proof process or allow the printer to do so.

 

The profile involves making a photo of the color checker which has defined colors.

Adobe editor adjusts the file so the camera file is the same as the color checker and makes a look up table,lut.

When brought into ACR/LR, the lut is used to make the colors correct. The lut is used to adjust all further files from the camera with that serial number provided you set the raw converter to convert based on camera serial which is NOT the default.

 

Naturally the monitor needs to be calibrated and the file needs to be white balanced.