Superb new camera profiles and camera & film emulation presets (Cobalt-Image)

[jankap]

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I have Mojave and Sony. The first result is better than I managed. I wonder why they switch to the four/thirds format.

Edited August 31, 2021 by jankap

[Guest Nowhereman]

^ Maybe RPP has an arcane input for the format...

I think RPP is useful as a RAW developer and editor of last resort, for extremely difficult files in terms of color, light and exposure.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Nowhereman

[jankap]

Last version 2014.

[Guest Nowhereman]

^ No, I have RPP 64 on which the copyright is 2006-2020. Version 4.8.0. Have a look at their website for the latest version.

[jankap]

My version

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RPP version and then with Denoise executed. This "film" version even corresponds more the situation I remember.

[Guest Nowhereman]

Today, I reprocessed the image below because I didn't like what I had done with it some time ago: too much contrast and too much over-saturated yellow. For the first version below I used the Cobalt-Image Kodak Portra 800 (Linear) profile, which is almost identical to the Cobalt Repro profile that I also tried. I then tried the RNI Kodak Aerochrome 05 profile, which I liked a little more and, then also tried the RNI Kodak Aerochrome 04 profile, which I found was went in the direction that I wanted, but excessively so — and, finally tried the VSCO Kodak E100G - -, which is the one I like the best for this image, although I may work on this a bit more. Any reaction to these different versions? (You can best compare them by double-clicking on the first one.)

The point of posting this is to say that presets or profiles may be useful when you want to explore the direction in which you want your processing to go into terms of color rendition. 

Incidentally, Kodak Aerochrome film is a long discontinued infrared film that was made for military surveillance technology (for camouflage detection in aerial reconnaissance). It was used by Irish photographer Richard Mosse in the Congo, as related in this BBC article, because, as Mosse states, he had two subjects: One was Congo, of course, but the other was photography itself. The decision to use infrared film was in keeping with this intuitive desire to negotiate a broken interface. I was deeply unsatisfied with documentary photography and wished to push it well out of its comfort zone.
Joseph Conrad struggled with the same sort of problem here in Congo a century before. He described a very concrete humanitarian disaster in language that verges on the abstract and on heightened sensory impressionism. Heart of Darkness is written in an oppressive and sinister tone: "We were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled." Conrad pushes language almost to the breaking point, struggling to recount an elusive darkness. "It is like another art altogether;" writes Conrad, "that sombre theme had given a sinister resonance, a tonality of its own, a continued vibration that would hang in the air and swell on the ear after the last note had been struck."...I felt Aerochrome, Kodak's discontinued colour infrared film, would provide me with a unique window through which to survey the battlefield of eastern Congo. Realism described in infrared becomes shrouded by the exotic, shifting the gears of Orientalism. Traditional documentary evidence is pushed unwillingly into fiction, and an unsettling pink world of magical realism is formed. It's not unlike Werner Herzog's ecstatic truth.

M10 | Summaron-M 1:5.6/28 | ISO 800 | f/5.6 | 1/60 sec | Chiang Mai | Kodak Portra 800 (Linear)

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RNI Aerochrome 05

RNI Aerochrome 04

VSC0 Kodak E100G - - 
_______________________________________
Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

Edited September 5, 2021 by Nowhereman

[robert blu]

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From the four versions I prefer the first and even  more the fourth, but this is just my personal visual taste! In my opinion presets are only a starting point, which of course can be useful.

I didn't know the work of Richard Mosse, thanks for the link. Interesting but I'm not (yet?) sure if  I like this kind of style.

 

[Ulysseita]

Hello!

I am very happy to find this interesting topic, thanks to Nowhereman! I am one of the founder of the Cobalt project, please fell free to ask for any question.
We are really involved to improve the basic rendition to be able to offer our service also to high end labs and , in the same time, to expand and update the film emulation line!

 

[Guest Nowhereman]

@Ulysseita - Thanks for chiming in, Giuseppe. 

As stated earlier in this thread, I’m very happy with the Basic DNG Profiles for the M10. I’ve also bought the Kodak Films Emulation package. Although I usually start by trying Cobalt Standard (when skin color is important) or Cobalt Neutral, I mostly end up using Cobalt Repro or the Kodak Portra 800 (Linear) profiles. I suppose that is because I find the latter two linear profiles particularly useful for images that have difficult light (strong backlight or sidelight) or difficult colors (such as combinations of saturated yellows and reds) — and mainly I’ve been reprocessing these types of difficult images that I shot previously because I haven’t been shooting much in the current Covid situation.

I find that I use Cobalt Repro more, particularly if there are skin tones, and that I tend to use Kodak Portra 800 (Linear) when I want more contrast. Actually, I find that, often, with Kodak Portra 800 (Linear) I  have to remove some orange from skin tones using the Lightroom HSL tools, a problem that I don't have with Cobalt Repro. Indeed, that surprises me because Portra 400 and 800 films produce such good skin tones.

Is this something that needs to be fixed in the profiles, or a is it a matter of White Balance? More generally, would it be better to flatten files in terms of contrast (as I sometimes do for SilverEfex) before applying a Cobalt Film emulation — or is that something that you could build into your profiles so that they apply to the same types of files? (Nevertheless, I view emulation profiles as a starting point for further processing rather than expecting a one-click solution.)
_______________________________________
Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

[otto.f]

17 hours ago, Ulysseita said:

Hello!

I am very happy to find this interesting topic, thanks to Nowhereman! I am one of the founder of the Cobalt project, please fell free to ask for any question.
We are really involved to improve the basic rendition to be able to offer our service also to high end labs and , in the same time, to expand and update the film emulation line!

 

Yes I have a question: do you have any experience with B&W conversions after using the cobalt Neutral or Standard profile first and does this have any surplus value for the acutance impression in the B&W image? (I sold my Monochrome1 to buy the M10R which is a very nice camera but sometimes I think it’s difficult to get a real bite in my B&W conversions from it). 

[Ulysseita]

On 9/18/2021 at 11:29 AM, Nowhereman said:

@Ulysseita - Thanks for chiming in, Giuseppe. 

As stated earlier in this thread, I’m very happy with the Basic DNG Profiles for the M10. I’ve also bought the Kodak Films Emulation package. Although I usually start by trying Cobalt Standard (when skin color is important) or Cobalt Neutral, I mostly end up using Cobalt Repro or the Kodak Portra 800 (Linear) profiles. I suppose that is because I find the latter two linear profiles particularly useful for images that have difficult light (strong backlight or sidelight) or difficult colors (such as combinations of saturated yellows and reds) — and mainly I’ve been reprocessing these types of difficult images that I shot previously because I haven’t been shooting much in the current Covid situation.

I find that I use Cobalt Repro more, particularly if there are skin tones, and that I tend to use Kodak Portra 800 (Linear) when I want more contrast. Actually, I find that, often, with Kodak Portra 800 (Linear) I  have to remove some orange from skin tones using the Lightroom HSL tools, a problem that I don't have with Cobalt Repro. Indeed, that surprises me because Portra 400 and 800 films produce such good skin tones.

Is this something that needs to be fixed in the profiles, or a is it a matter of White Balance? More generally, would it be better to flatten files in terms of contrast (as I sometimes do for SilverEfex) before applying a Cobalt Film emulation — or is that something that you could build into your profiles so that they apply to the same types of files? (Nevertheless, I view emulation profiles as a starting point for further processing rather than expecting a one-click solution.)
_______________________________________
Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

We are in the middle on the work upgrading Fuji, Kodak and later Kodachrome.
So you can expect something more than just as color correction (portra 800 and "siblings"), having as our main purpose for film emulation, the usability.
A separation between profile and curve is the biggest news and some corrections are also included.

About comparisons, do not forget, the cobalt linear is made to excel as color fidelity, the Film emulation is made to emulate a film so even the legacy of "great skin tones" is still on for Portra, please take in account the variability given by wb, different light conditions and original skin tones.
 

[Ulysseita]

On 9/18/2021 at 2:32 PM, otto.f said:

Yes I have a question: do you have any experience with B&W conversions after using the cobalt Neutral or Standard profile first and does this have any surplus value for the acutance impression in the B&W image? (I sold my Monochrome1 to buy the M10R which is a very nice camera but sometimes I think it’s difficult to get a real bite in my B&W conversions from it). 

There is something different connected on how big is the variability between Adobe std(color) and our Cobalt. Nothing more I suppose about acutance impression.
If you are looking for something correlated to Monochrome conversion I warmly suggest to take a look on our Leica CCD and CMOS emulations, I also do love for my personal bw the CCD fever M9 bw emulation; I always loved it.

I read you are coming from the Leica Mono... so.. yes go straight to our Monochrome ccd, also supplied with color filters emulations.
You will find the same signature you used to have with a big surplus of the filter to use in post.

[Adam Bonn]

On 9/5/2021 at 6:46 PM, Nowhereman said:

Today, I reprocessed the image below because I didn't like what I had done with it some time ago: too much contrast and too much over-saturated yellow. For the first version below I used the Cobalt-Image Kodak Portra 800 (Linear) profile, which is almost identical to the Cobalt Repro profile that I also tried. I then tried the RNI Kodak Aerochrome 05 profile, which I liked a little more and, then also tried the RNI Kodak Aerochrome 04 profile, which I found was went in the direction that I wanted, but excessively so — and, finally tried the VSCO Kodak E100G - -, which is the one I like the best for this image, although I may work on this a bit more. Any reaction to these different versions? (You can best compare them by double-clicking on the first one.)

I've been trying to reply to this for a while, but something about this page was annoying my PC and iPad... third time's the charm maybe!

I wasn't there to see the colours... but for me the statues look more natural in the goldy-yellow colour and of the two I prefer the first one ( Cobalt-Image Kodak Portra 800 profile ??)

Re VSCO E100G, did VSCO ever offer the M10 presets? My VSCO version stops at the Leica Q

 

[Guest Nowhereman]

15 hours ago, Adam Bonn said:

...Re VSCO E100G, did VSCO ever offer the M10 presets? My VSCO version stops at the Leica Q.

As I recall, the VSCO Film 01-07 packages were updated with support for the Leica M10 in the installers dated August 2018 (see here), which was the last update before VSCO stopped selling presets for computers and limited themselves to smartphone versions.
_______________________________________
Frog Leaping photobook and Instagram

[Ulysseita]

As we are talking here about Portra, please be ready for the update coming out in the next weeks for the Kodak Film pack, we will work on it as we did on Fuji Film one!
https://cobalt-image.com/product/cobalt-fuji-film

[BillinDC]

On 9/17/2021 at 2:41 PM, Ulysseita said:

Hello!

I am very happy to find this interesting topic, thanks to Nowhereman! I am one of the founder of the Cobalt project, please fell free to ask for any question.
We are really involved to improve the basic rendition to be able to offer our service also to high end labs and , in the same time, to expand and update the film emulation line!

 

I too have a question, one which will probably draw scorn from those so inclined:  What is the difference in result between the Leica Monochrom CCD and CMOS simulations, if it is meaningful to generalize?  I'm vaguely familiar with the endless debates between CMOS and CCD sensors, but this question is spedicific to black and white.

[Ulysseita]

The main difference is not on ccd Vs cmos for our purposes; both are just names on the profile side.

 

Mono ccd and Mono type 246 are made having different spectrum sensibility and that is visible on their output.

 

 

[Ulysseita]

we have just updated the Kodak Film pack to 2.0, please delete the older profiles and install the new set downloading it from your account on our website!
https://cobalt-image.com/product/cobalt-kodak-film/

[Ulysseita]

a small update , we added a "comparometer" to inspect, check and find our colour signatures .
https://cobalt-image.com/our_colours/

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[Ulysseita]

and, after a while... we are back online!

 

www.cobalt-image.com