johnbuckley Posted October 12, 2009 Share #1 Â Posted October 12, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Until we have a proper M9 color profile in Lightroom, may we ask for suggestions from Forum members on the ideal Camera Calibration in Lightroom? Â I have downloaded the Chromasoft color profile that Thorsten suggested on his site, and have also set up a color profile suggested by Thorsten, both of which are helpful. I've changed my own standard profile that seemed to work with my M8, which helps some of the time as well. (Thorsten's is better.) Â Yet if in addition to the Chromasoft profile, someone has a suggested M9 camera calibration that could be inputted in Lightroom, I know I for one would be appreciative, and I'm betting others would too. I've never actually set up a Camera Calibration, so this terra incognita, and instructions would be helpful, too. Â Thanks in advance. JB Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 12, 2009 Posted October 12, 2009 Hi johnbuckley, Take a look here Ideal Camera Calibration for The M9 In Lightroom. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Noel Holland Posted October 12, 2009 Share #2 Â Posted October 12, 2009 Try looking at the Xrite Colorchecker Passport. Â http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=1257 Â The package comes with software which can act either as a standalone program or as a plugin to lightroom. The software looks at your reference image and recognises the color checker device. It then checks the colour patches and produces a custom profile all virtually automatically. Â About the only downside is that the standalone program needs the source image to be enclosed in a DNG wrapper. However since the M9 saves it's raw files in a DNG wrapper that little problem doesn't exist for M9 users. Other camera users just have to use the DNG convertor to wrap the file before use or else use the lightroom plugin. Â Try registering for their next webinar on the device. (caught the last one myself) Â http://www.xrite.com/ph_learning.aspx?action=webinars&eventdateid=4163 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted October 12, 2009 Share #3 Â Posted October 12, 2009 If it is really that important I would agree that the best way is to do it yourself; even an Adobe M9 profile may not strictly represent your particular sensor. The Colorchecker Passport is a nice all-in-one solution, but if you already have a Colorchecker target Adobe's DNG Profile Editor (free) works equally well. Otherwise, the embedded profile option is normally not so bad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbuckley Posted October 12, 2009 Author Share #4 Â Posted October 12, 2009 Great advice. Many thanks. JB Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WPalank Posted October 12, 2009 Share #5 Â Posted October 12, 2009 Noel, Â Thanks for bringing up the Colorchecker passport. The thought of a Lightroom plug-in that would automate the process really intrigued me. Â The great news is that the software is free and completely compatible with the original (or Classic) Colorchecker card which I already own. You just have to be registered with X-rite. Here's the download site: X-Rite: Get exactly the color you need, every time, anywhere in the world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bo_Lorentzen Posted October 13, 2009 Share #6 Â Posted October 13, 2009 Noel, Â The passport seems to work really well, I have been using it since it shipped and so far it have impressed. particularly how easy it is to use. I have been using the macbeth digital checker so far, but that is a bit more involved. Â . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thompsonkirk Posted October 13, 2009 Share #7 Â Posted October 13, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) The ACR/LR profiler has a bit of a learning curve, but works fine once you get used to it. You need a Macbeth card, a tungsten light source, & another with daylight (approx 6300) color temperature. If you have a mix of old & new lenses (as I do), or a mix of Leica, Zeiss, & CV, then you can get really fussy & profile the lenses individually. You get a pop-up window with all your profiles listed, as well as the standard ones, under the little picture of the camera in the converter tabs. Â Kirk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bo_Lorentzen Posted October 13, 2009 Share #8 Â Posted October 13, 2009 LOL.. good point Kirk, Â GretagMbeth explained this to me somewhere around 1998 ish... I admit to going a bit overboard, on close examination it turns out that the 80-200 had a slightly different color than the 35-70mm etc... ok maybe I did go WAY overboard... but profiling the studio with tungsten was VERY helpful for car shoots. also daylight strobes are not as daylight as one might think once the color-checkers are in the box for comparison. Â The problem I have still not solved - having a gazillion profiles and how to manage them practically. ha ha. Â No doubt that 90% of the time, one standard profile is a lot easier to deal with. Â Â . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbuckley Posted October 17, 2009 Author Share #9 Â Posted October 17, 2009 UPDATE: I recently asked about camera calibration, because I've been unhappy with the embedded profile for the M9 in Lightroom. (Which is to say, no profile.) I was nicely steered toward exactly this solution: the X-Rite Color Checker Passport. Â It cost me $99 dollars, took three days to arrive, and all in, I've now invested maybe an hour watching various videos. Having just set up my first profile in Lightroom using this system, all I can say is "Wow." Â It's raining where I live, so I haven't created profiles outdoors, but creating a Tungston profile based on a calibration in my house makes me think that the *exact* colors in my kitchen were captured by my M9 and are now in Lightroom. It's incredibly easy, using the Lightroom plug-in. Â Thank you for the recommendation. I highly recommend this. JB Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dspeltz Posted October 18, 2009 Share #10 Â Posted October 18, 2009 The color checker is one cool tool. Go for it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikasmg Posted October 18, 2009 Share #11 Â Posted October 18, 2009 Until we have a proper M9 color profile in Lightroom, may we ask for suggestions from Forum members on the ideal Camera Calibration in Lightroom? Â To be honest I'm not sure how to go about doing a colour profile but for what it's worth, I do have some observations about files coming out of my M9 relative to an M8. This is kind of anecdotal since I have not done a direct one-on-one comparison and it may be specific to my cameras. Â 1. In general I tended to under-expose on the M8 by about half a stop to get the best results. For an M9 this appears unnecessary. This may be specific to my cameras and I wonder if anyone else has had the same experience. 2. M9 colours appear a little less brilliant though more natural. I like them but I am also aware than when exporting JPGs to email to friends, who are used to more snappy results, I find myself boosting brightness and contrast a little. Don't think I did this as much with M8 files but, as I say, on the whole I prefer the M9 rendition. 3. In general the colours in an M9 file appear more balanced and "sober" if that's the word I'm looking for though they lack nothing when rendering a bright contrasty sunlit scene. Â Perhaps unrelated to colour profiles, I should add that I'm amazed by the detail in these files although I'm still a little disappointed by the dynamic range - not a major improvement from the M8. it seems a little to easy to burn out a bright sky though generally when shooting in DNG this is fixable. Â - Vikas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbuckley Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share #12  Posted October 18, 2009 To be honest I'm not sure how to go about doing a colour profile but for what it's worth, I do have some observations about files coming out of my M9 relative to an M8. This is kind of anecdotal since I have not done a direct one-on-one comparison and it may be specific to my cameras. 1. In general I tended to under-expose on the M8 by about half a stop to get the best results. For an M9 this appears unnecessary. This may be specific to my cameras and I wonder if anyone else has had the same experience. 2. M9 colours appear a little less brilliant though more natural. I like them but I am also aware than when exporting JPGs to email to friends, who are used to more snappy results, I find myself boosting brightness and contrast a little. Don't think I did this as much with M8 files but, as I say, on the whole I prefer the M9 rendition. 3. In general the colours in an M9 file appear more balanced and "sober" if that's the word I'm looking for though they lack nothing when rendering a bright contrasty sunlit scene.  Perhaps unrelated to colour profiles, I should add that I'm amazed by the detail in these files although I'm still a little disappointed by the dynamic range - not a major improvement from the M8. it seems a little to easy to burn out a bright sky though generally when shooting in DNG this is fixable.  - Vikas  Vikas - I completely agree with you on points number 1-3. I used to have a -1/3rd to -2/3rds EV in place for all outdoor shooting. I now keep it neutral, as I seemed to be exposing everything to the left. And agree with you on colors. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
erl Posted October 28, 2009 Share #13 Â Posted October 28, 2009 The impression I am getting is that the Passport works with Adobe LR. I am currently a confirmed C1Pro user, so will the Passport work with advantage for C1 users, or is there any other choice? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted October 28, 2009 Share #14 Â Posted October 28, 2009 It will definitely not work with C1 out of the box (a real shame), but perhaps C1 will read a LR-profiled DNG? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandymc Posted October 28, 2009 Share #15 Â Posted October 28, 2009 perhaps C1 will read a LR-profiled DNG? Â No - best case, C1 ignores anything LR writes, worst case C1 read the whole file entirely wrong. Â Sandy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WPalank Posted October 28, 2009 Share #16 Â Posted October 28, 2009 You have to remember that the Passport system is a Plug-in. Adobe has actively encouraged developers to come up with Plug-ins for the LR product. Does Capture One allow outside developers to create Plug-ins? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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