Using DNG profile editor

If I have exported a profile from the DNG Profile Editor, will that profile automatically show up in the camera calibration panel of Lightroom 2.0 ? If it is not a very good profile, how do I then delete it? (computer is running Vista).
Thanks.

MadManChan2000 wrote:
(2) if you want to delete it outright, visit this directory to delete it manually...
- Be aware that if you do this, all of the photos that were using the deleted profile will revert to "something else". i.e. the profiles are not embedded in the images. Theoretically they could be, but they aren't - somebody please correct me if I didn't say that quite right.
It may be more correct to say that although all the profile information is still in the DNG image file, Lightroom can not access it from there, and neither can the DNG Profile editor.
You could however use dcpTool to reformulate a useable profile from the info that is embedded in the DNG image file, if you wanted.
I'm a bit out on a limb here, so please don't hold me to all of this, exactly.
Rob
Message was edited by: Rob Cole

Similar Messages

About to use DNG Profile editor

I've had my Colorchecker for a few weeks, and I finally have time to set up my profiles for LR 3.4. In reading the DNG Profile editor tutorial page (http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles:Editor), I have a few questions:
1) If I use Tutorial 5, I am guessing I will have to create a profile for each lighting/WB condition, i.e., one for Tungsten, one for Fluorescent, one for sunny, one for overcast, one for flash, etc... Is that correct? Is there an advantage to doing this vs. going for the dual-illuminant approach explained in Tutorial 6?
2) In Tutorial 6, for the dual illuminant profiles, it states that one of the reference shots should be taken at 6500K. I'm not quite sure how to achieve this, since daylight and flash, to semi-constant WB sources I can easily achieve, are around 5000-5600K.
3) Should I (in LR) White-balance the Colorchecker reference shots, then convert to DNG, prior to bringing the DNG file into DNG Profile editor? Or is it preferable to WB as explained in Tutorial 1, step 3?
4) Finally, it's somewhat unclear how I bring the profiles into LR for use during the Import or Develop phases. Tutorial 1, step 9 mentions a "CameraProfiles directory" for ACR and LR, so I'm guessing I need to go digging through the Adobe folders to locate this directory and place/save my profiles there?

eswrite wrote:
1) If I use Tutorial 5, I am guessing I will have to create a profile for each lighting/WB condition, i.e., one for Tungsten, one for Fluorescent, one for sunny, one for overcast, one for flash, etc... Is that correct?
If you want a broad purpose DNG profile then yes, doing a dual illuminate profile is useful. Shoot a target under tungsten and under daylight and make the dual illuminate profile. There's no real reason you need to spawn off a bunch of other profiles for only slightly different light. The dual illuminate will handle cloudy or overcast just fine. If you also shoot with special lighting sources like fluorescent (which doesn't have a complete spectrum) or other non-standard lighting sources then do a profile for those special conditions. If you are creating a profile specifically for studio flash, you can get by doing only a single illuminate profile for the strobes...but in that case, the profile won't be as accurate if you also try to use it under tungsten–which would be the reason to do a dual illuminate profile.
As far as the D65 color temp, the closer you can get to it the better, but D55 should work fine. The key is to make sure it's evenly lit. The big difference between D65/D50/D55 is the relative amount of the blue light components-all three will be fairly close. Tungsten however has vastly less blue which can impact the sensor's spectral response–which is why the dual illuminate is suggested.
Once you do the CC shot, don't bother with tone/color corrections in ACR before converting to DNG. They won't have a material impact on the profile creation. The CC shot MUST be evenly lit and of an optimal exposure...
As far as where the profile goes, it depends on the system. Once you've created the profile, PE should default to the correct location, otherwise state your system and we can tell you where to put them.

Right steps to use DNG Profile Editor and ACR

What is the right sequence of steps to do to use properly DNG PE and ACR ?
Must be converted the RAW in DNG directly, without open the RAW in ACR ?
Must be opened the RAW file in ACR, reset the ACR values to zero and then convert the RAW in DNG format ?
Must be converted the RAW file in DNG and then reset the ACR values before apply the camera recipe created ?
thanks in advance,
federico

thank you Massimo,
the procedure is clear now.
"What is the nearest original Adobe profile that is so "equal" to the GM one you obtain?"
what i want to say is that when i open the file raw in ACR i see some colors. when i apply the profile generated by PE, i see about the sames colors. i notice that the colors are about the same without the profile (little differences i see in the darken tones but only in the ACR graphic). this with my D700. with the D200 the differences before to apply the profile and after are strong, visible.
Grazie Massimo,
credo sia tutto chiaro adesso anche se mi lascia perplesso il risultato finale.
"What is the nearest original Adobe profile that is so "equal" to the GM one you obtain?"
quello che volevo dire è che con o senza profilo, praticamente l'immagine con la D700 varia di pochissimo (me ne accorgo solo leggendo il grafico in ACR). con la D200 invece, applicare un profilo ha un impatto molto evidente, le differenze sono marcate.
grazie
ps: your english is right. it is mine that does not work so well.

Using DNG Profile Editor to modify global saturation

Ok, now I'm dangerous, have used dng_validate to dissect several profiles, both Adobe base and various constructed with PE. I believe I have a reasonable grasp as to which tags are added/modified for various PE operations.
I believe the Adobe Camera Neutral Beta 1 for the D300 does a good job of matching the Nikon neutral picture control. However, my normal configuration for walk-around shooting is the neutral picture control with +1 contrast and +1 saturation. It's easy enough to add contrast to the Adobe Neutral profile with a tone curve; however so far the only advice on adding global saturation is to move the matrix sat. controls, which in turn modifies the ForwardMatrix tags. Is moving each of the three sat controls an equal amount really equivalent to adding a fixed global saturation across all colors?
Or is it better to set up a table with all 18 cc colors and add a fixed saturation to each? Too bad there isn't a global command that would add a fixed sat amount to every entry in the ProfileHueSatMap tags.
Richard Southworth

>Adobe, is there any generally accepted standard for modifying global saturation, or is it just a crapshoot?
There's a big difference when doing image edits in a linear gamma space and a gamma encoded space. Contrary to Margulis, I think it's foolish _NOT_ to use the tools of Camera Raw because you can not exactly duplicate the results in Photoshop (and sometimes visa versa)...and it's Camera Raw whose toolset is designed for working with raw captures. If you have Camera Raw open, making adjustments takes only moments and substantially reduces the time required in Photoshop...and for those things that Photoshop is uniquely suited for, why golly, when you click Open, you get the image with the CR adjustments, open in Photoshop for whatever other adjustments you may need. How cool is that?
Just to be perfectly clear, Margulis knows Photoshop...he's made a career out of writing and teaching about Photoshop. So, he's predisposed to develop processing routines for Photoshop. He's _NOT_ a photographer and doesn't have a photographer's sensibilities...it's also my experience that Dan doesn't really get much practice working with Camera Raw and his skills may be a bit, uh...underdeveloped? And that's fine. Photoshop is a powerful place to edit images of any kind. However, Camera Raw was specifically designed for working with raw, digital captures and you may as well take advantage of that and combine the power of Camera Raw with Photoshop.

DNG Profile Editor step-by-step usage

I hope all will forgive the long post, trying to both verify my understanding and perhaps help others by providing more detail.
1. Shot the CC with a D300 and D200 outside with cloud cover, exposures within seconds of each other, different lenses but both Nikkor.
2. Brought both nefs into ACR, white balanced (approx. 5500K) and equalized exposure using second neutral patch, applied new Adobe standard beta profiles to each. Very good match, first time I've ever seen truly equal images from the two cameras thru ACR.
3. Created DNG's of each cc image nef with DNG Converter.
4. Used DNG Profile Editor on the D300 image (white balanced), set base profile to Adobe standard beta, selected only the Red, Green, and Blue patches on second row. No changes to three colors, created recipe with "Edit both color tables smimultaneously" checked.
5. Opened recipe file with Wordpad, very interesting to examine, easy to see what's going on since in XML format. Six color adjustment sections, three for 2850 and three for 6500. Also the entire base profile in binary form is encapsulated in the XML file.
6. Opened D200 DNG file in PE, white balanced, used old 4.4 profile as base (deliberately trying to create different colors than D300). Loaded the D300 based recipe, exported new D200 profile.
7. Now back to ACR, loaded D300 cc image with Adobe standard beta profile selected and white balanced, and D200 cc image with old 4.4 profile selected and white balanced and exposure adjusted to match D300 image. Opened both in Photoshop CS3 in ProPhoto space. As expected, there was considerable difference in the color patches, both visually and by the numbers.
8. Back again to ACR, loaded D200 cc image with recipe modified profile from step 6 and white balanced and exposure adjusted to match D300. Brought into PS and compared to D300 image. Now the Red,Green,Blue patches matched well with the D300 image, only slight differences. Actually just selecting those three patches brought all 18 cc patches into a fairly close match.
In conclusion it appears to me that a recipe has enough information, with the color table entries and the embedded base profile, to "move" the same colors in another profile to achieve a good match. And it's apparently moving "both ends" (2850K and 6500K separate sections) of the profile appropriately, although I'm less sure of this. Quite an interesting and useful development by Adobe.
Richard Southworth

I hope all will forgive the long post, trying to both verify my understanding and perhaps help others by providing more detail.
1. Shot the CC with a D300 and D200 outside with cloud cover, exposures within seconds of each other, different lenses but both Nikkor.
2. Brought both nefs into ACR, white balanced (approx. 5500K) and equalized exposure using second neutral patch, applied new Adobe standard beta profiles to each. Very good match, first time I've ever seen truly equal images from the two cameras thru ACR.
3. Created DNG's of each cc image nef with DNG Converter.
4. Used DNG Profile Editor on the D300 image (white balanced), set base profile to Adobe standard beta, selected only the Red, Green, and Blue patches on second row. No changes to three colors, created recipe with "Edit both color tables smimultaneously" checked.
5. Opened recipe file with Wordpad, very interesting to examine, easy to see what's going on since in XML format. Six color adjustment sections, three for 2850 and three for 6500. Also the entire base profile in binary form is encapsulated in the XML file.
6. Opened D200 DNG file in PE, white balanced, used old 4.4 profile as base (deliberately trying to create different colors than D300). Loaded the D300 based recipe, exported new D200 profile.
7. Now back to ACR, loaded D300 cc image with Adobe standard beta profile selected and white balanced, and D200 cc image with old 4.4 profile selected and white balanced and exposure adjusted to match D300 image. Opened both in Photoshop CS3 in ProPhoto space. As expected, there was considerable difference in the color patches, both visually and by the numbers.
8. Back again to ACR, loaded D200 cc image with recipe modified profile from step 6 and white balanced and exposure adjusted to match D300. Brought into PS and compared to D300 image. Now the Red,Green,Blue patches matched well with the D300 image, only slight differences. Actually just selecting those three patches brought all 18 cc patches into a fairly close match.
In conclusion it appears to me that a recipe has enough information, with the color table entries and the embedded base profile, to "move" the same colors in another profile to achieve a good match. And it's apparently moving "both ends" (2850K and 6500K separate sections) of the profile appropriately, although I'm less sure of this. Quite an interesting and useful development by Adobe.
Richard Southworth

Creative use of CC calibraton in the DNG Profile Editor

The DNG Profile Editor can be used to create profiles that mimic film looks.
I think right now it is manual trial & error process involving changes in hue, saturation and lightness, but it could be theoretically achieved with Color Checker calibration working in reversed order.
- Photograph the CC using your favorite film
- If B&W, develop in your favorite developer
- Scan the film
- Use the scan in the DNG Profile Editor as target values
The current DNG Profile Editor obviously does not allow that, it would require adding a new tab and clone the CC calibration feature and alter it to use the photographed values as target values as opposed to internal values.
I don't know if it would be worth the effort, but I thing the idea is worth of sharing.
By the way, unless I'm doing something wrong, the saturation slides don't seem to go 0%, so creation of B&W profiles is not possible.

Good idea. Yes, I've posted an example on my Flickr.
I chose a picture with good reds and yellows. There are four images in the set:
1. The original, untouched image. This is using the new Adobe Standard beta profile, brought into Lightroom with all default settings, including linear tone curve, no exposure or color adjustments, white balance "as shot", etc. For reference.
2. The image with my test profile applied, but no further adjustment.
3. My original attempt at the image, using the "old fashioned" pre-DNG-profiles raw processing method, for reference. The yellows are orangeish, which isn't that objectionable but also isn't accurate. The reds are weaker than I would like.
4. The "final" image, with my test profile plus additional tweaks -- white balance, tone curve for contrast, crushing out the blacks a bit more, etc. Two or three minutes of total processing, versus quite a bit more for the previous attempt with no "special" profile. The reds and yellows are perfect.
The Flickr set:
http://flickr.com/photos/100mph/sets/72157606547890574/
This was just a first, pretty quick attempt at playing with the DNG Profile Editor. I'm sure it can be tweaked more and even more can be accomplished.
[Edit: note: I changed the "upload date" on the test images so they wouldn't stay at the top of my Flickr page. Ignore the 2007 date, it doesn't mean anything.]

DNG Profile Editor: Can't create profile from JPG file

Guys, could you tell me why DNG Profile Editor fails to create color table using 4 colored circles ? It says "Unable to check white balance using gray patches. Please use the four color circles to identify the four corner patches of the chart and try again" even though I places four circles properly (it works with DNG files shot with my Nikon D700).
I created this DNG file from JPG file by opening it in Camera Raw plugin and saving as DNG file. Original JPG was shot on camera of Samsun Galaxy S phone. I know I'm crazy but I want to have color profile for it All patches are properly exposed after slight correction of Exposure slider in Camera Raw.
I'm using latest beta3 build
Here is link to DNG and JPG file I'm trying to use
http://www.box.net/shared/4v2rzlzjfp
Thanks!

If you convert your JPG to a DNG can you change the profile to the one you computed from the other JPG you converted to a DNG?
Profiles are not for JPGs. Profiles are for RAW files that ACR supports. You can't (easily/ever) get a RAW file from your Galaxy S and Adobe doesn’t' support that RAW format even if you could.
To see if your profiling is working, you can used the ColorCheck module from a trial version of Imatest that you download from www.imatest.com and look at the color-error.
You can also try the Read_Color_CC24.jsx script from Rags-Gardner:
http://www.rags-int-inc.com/PhotoTechStuff/ColorCalibration/

Questions about DNG Profile Editor recipe code

I have been playing around with DNG Profile Editor. With a text editor I made the following recipe:
I have some questions:
1. Right now I have my control points at 60 saturation. Will using two points for each color (say 70 and 40) make my changes more consistent across darker and lighter shades of the specific color?
2. Does DNG Profile editor respect HueLow and HueHigh, are they just placeholder numbers, or are they ignored if two points are close to each other?
3. What does FeatherAdjust do? I'm guessing it controls the rate of drop off of the corrections. Is the value respected by DNG Profile editor when it creates a profile?
Thanks for your time and attention, -Bruce.

1. For now DNG-only. Here's why:
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles_FAQ#PEOnlyDNG
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles_FAQ#WhyNameDNGPE
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles_FAQ#WhyPESeparate
2. Standalone for now. See above links for why.
3. Use the 'Preview Color Changes' option in the Options menu.
4. You can use 'Apply Raw Adjustments' in the Options menu to see your raw adjustments. This is __not__ recommended for building a general-purpose profile because you are then optimizing a profile with specific image adjustments in mind, rather than building a profile based more on the inherent camera characteristics.
5. True, that is a limitation of this implementation.
6. I am not sure what you mean. The Chart Wizard automatically optimizes the color patches in a test shot based on reference values for many physical charts, which is more practically useful than the numbers printed on the reference card that comes with the chart.
7. Make sure you avoid color casts in the bottom row. The PE is picky about making sure your gray patches are relatively neutral. It is an attempt to help you get a better profile.
8. Use 'Show Affected Colors' from the Options menu.
You may wish to read this page carefully and thoroughly:
documentation
It is the reference online documentation for the DNG Profile Editor and a few of the things you wish to do, such as preview all color changes, apply raw adjustments, and visualize the extent of each color adjustment, are all documented there.

What kind of DNG file for DNG profile editor ?

Can somebody help me??? I have a problem to use DNG profile:
I am user of Fujifilm S5Pro, which has RAF file (=raw). The ACR (start from version 3...) and DNG understand my RAF files very well. But DNG profile editor dose not want to open it, even if Adobe DNG Converter 4.5 converts it to DNG file. My workflow is:
Launch Adobe DNG Converter.exe, => convert RAF to DNG (tryed different settings);
Launch DNG profile editor, => trying to open DNG file => have error???
May be I'm doing in a wrong way? Please advise me.

I tried to do the same on other PC with Vista (fully English). Also update DNG converter up to 4.6. And no success... :-(.
Every time I have the same error: "DNG Profile Editor could not open the selected image. Note that the selected image must be a valid DNG color image."
I could not understand... where is a bug.
Moreover, I took NEF from Nikon D80 and CR2 from Canon 20D and converted them to DNGs by converter 4.6. DNG Profile Editor did not want to open them on both Windows Vista and XP, and made the same error.
Do I really do wrong things? I'm completely lost
Thanks in advance,
Slava

Camera Calibration in ACR & DNG Profile Editor

I am having the hardest time figuring out how to use the camera profiles generated with DNG Profile Editor in Camera Raw.
I am using Photoshop CS4 in Windows 7. I have generated the .dcp file with DNG Profile Editor and saved it in the folder: Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop CS4/Presets/Camera Profiles.
This is about as far as I've gotten. I have not been able use this profile in ACR under the Camera Calibration Tab. I have been lead to believe that is would show up automatically. I have not found any video tutorials related to ACR and installing Camera Profiles. They all seem to relate to Lightroom.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you would like to look or copy profiles manually (for example you have received a profile made by someone else; for Windows7 you should be able to see where the Profiles are stored by searching for *.dcp (meaning any file with the extension .dcp)
That will show you where the Adobe supplied profiles are located. You can copy your custom profiles to the sub-folder of your camera type in the Camera folder.The other folder you see is where the Adobe Standard profiles live.
If you cannot see the programdata folder (and that is the case by default) you can make all hidden files visible:
(this from Windows Help, just search for show hidden files)
Computer>Organize>Folder and search options>View. In Advanced settings check the radio button Show hidden files, folders, and drives and then OK
Now you should see the programdata folder visible under your system (C:) folder
I hope that helps.

Adobe DNG profile editor bug w/ GH2 files where aspect ratio is not 4:3

Hi,
posting here as Adobe DNG subforum is essentially dead
Panasonic GH2, select aspect ratio 3:2, get .RW2 raw file, convert it to .DNG using Adobe DNG converter (6.4.0.121 beta), try to open w/ Adobe DNG profile editor (1.0.0.39 beta 2) -> error message "DNG Profile Editor could not open the selected image. Note that the selected image must be a valid DNG color image".
XRite software has no issues to process the same .DNG file (converted from the original .RW2 w/ 3:2 aspect ratio).

Eric - just make it easier for you to reproduce the bug - here is the original .RW2 file (certainly ignore the quality of colorchecker shot in terms of how the target is lit, etc - it was not to make a profile actually - it was to illustrate the bug in question) = http://www.box.net/shared/f419prmuo2 ... and I am uploading the converted .DNG file too just in case = http://www.box.net/shared/gy5o9zzi57

DNG Profile Editor not working with new Profiles from LR 3.6?

I'm noticing that DNG Profile Editor is not really able to work with profiles from newly supported cameras, like the X10. Apparently the profile spec has been updated. Has DNG Profile Editor been abandoned or will it be updated to work with the new spec? I really hope it is!

Thanks. I am looking forward to editing the v4 profiles for the D700 - I just want to change a few colors in the existing profiles. I think the existing v4 profiles do an excellent job of matching the Nikon colors, but I don't like a few of the Nikon colors. Some colors have too much Red, but Red is too Orange.
I have selected a number of images that have colors I want to change. I selected the Camera Neutral (v0) and Camera Portrait (v0) and using the latest DNG Profile Editor I select the 18 colors from the Color Checker Chart. I then use the images that have the colors I want to change and determine which of the 18 points I selected from the Color Checker are close. I then edit those points - only 6 points. I only need to change the Hue by 5 units or less. I don't change any of the other selected points of the Color Checker, but feel that by selecting them I locked in the exisiting colors. Hope this is a good aproach.
I wish Nikon would do something equivalent to the DNG Profile Editor for their Picture Control profiles so they could be edited and loaded into the camera.

Camera Profiles and DNG Profile Editor beta 2 now available

Hi everyone,
Beta 2 of the camera profiles and DNG Profile Editor are now available. Please visit here and enjoy:
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles
I hope to have more detailed release notes/changes for you soon. You are welcome to ask questions, but please note that it may take a while for me to respond.
Eric

Eric,
I followed very carefully your instructions for installing the new beta2 profiles and deleting the beta1 profiles, but have the same problems as many others. I'd like to provide a bit more information. I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium and have installed Photoshop CS4, updated with ACR5.1 and Lightroom 2.1 final release. As others have described, the default for all of my images was set to one of the Camera profiles (Canon faithful beta1), but now the profile name in Lightroom is blank. I tried looking at the other profiles and it does indeed appear that the beta2 profile is being used, but if I then reset the image it now shows ACR4.4, whereas the image had been imported with the camera profile as default. Also, if I open an image in ACR5.1 that was specified to use the same camera profile, it now shows ACR4.4 and it is not using the beta2 profile of what I had been using, I can see this by selecting the other profiles. Going back to Lightoom, I guess I could select all my images and select the Canon faithful beta2 profile, but then the mark shows up bottom right of the image showing that they have all been edited/modified, is there anyway to get all my images using the profile I was using but the beta2 version, without this happening and how about new imports?
Thanks, David.

How to make dual illuminant profile in DNG profile editor?

I have just started working with the DNG Profile Editor. In another discussion I commented on the clarity of the instructions provided by the tutorial. I had no difficulty creating a single illuminant profile using the X-Rite color checker passport. But when it came to producing a dual illuminant profile, following the instructions exactly, I was stymied.
1. Open dng image of Color Checker photographed in 6500K illumination.
2. Open dng image of Color Checker photographed in 2850K illumination.
3. Select Chart tab in editor.
At this point one is instructed to "Click the 6500 K-lit ColorChecker image window to select it."
But the 2850K lit image (last loaded) has replaced the 6500K image window (at step 2) and I can find no way to reopen the 6500 K lit image window in order to proceed to the next step.
As a matter of interest, why do these instructions suggest setting the pop-up window in the Chart Pane to "6500K only" and then create color table with first image. Thereafter select second image, set pop-up window to "2850K only" and create color table. I seems to me that, having loaded two images (even if I can only see the second image loaded) one should choose "both color tables" and then create color table. In fact I have tried this and it does produce a profile, but I have no way of determining if it is a correct dual illuminant profile.
Please help.

2. HYPERLINK "/people/MadManChan2000"MadManChan2000,
Oct 21, 2013 9:09 AM in reply to blumesan
Note that the "Both color tables" option always creates a single-illuminant profile. The "Both color tables" option means that the computed color corrections will be applied to both color tables (i.e., the color table for the first calibration illuminant, which is usually Standard Light A, and also the color table for the second calibration illuminant, which is usually D65).
After playing around with the Profile Editor for a while, and examining the results with dcpTool, I now understand (I hope) what Eric is saying. In his language a single-illuminant profile is one created from a single dng image using the "both color tables" option (without regard to the illuminant used to capture that image.) When one does this (using Adobe Standard as the base profile) an examination of the resulting profile with dcpTool shows the following:
Two illluminants are identified: 17 (Std A) and 21 (D65).
Color Matrix 1 & 2; Forward Matrix 1 & 2; Hue Sat Delta Tables 1 & 2.
Which certainly gives the impression of a dual illuminant profile to novices like myself. My guess is that the PE software itself applies a default assumption of these two illuminants, corrects the image for each illuminant and constructs two color tables, one for each illluminant. When used, the profile will interpolate between the two tables based on the white balance of the image being edited.
If this is indeed correct it makes me wonder in what way does such a profile differ from a dual illuminant profile created from two dng images, each captured under a different illuminant (2800K & 6500K) as described in Tutorial #6 of the PE instructions. These instructions contain the following description of such a dual illuminant profile: "The result is a single profile that performs well under a wide range of illuminants instead of a single fixed illuminant." Which really make me scratch my head. Should one conclude from this that a single illuminant profile (created using the "both color tables" option) will perform less well under a range of illuminants? Will it perform well only under a narrow range of illuminants centered around the illuminant used to capture the single image?
As a footnote, it is worth remarking that I (and perhaps others) have been confused by examining profiles created by the XRite software when using only a single dng image. Examining such a profile with dcpTool one sees the following structure:
One illuminant only #23 (D50)
A single Color Matrix table.
A single Hue Sat Delta Table.
Thus one comes to expect this structure in a single illuminant profile.
I would be very happy to see Eric's comments..

DNG Profile Editor "base profile" question.

I'm profiling a Canon 5D3 with both the Adobe DNG Profile Editor and the Xrite ColorChecker software. It's been about 3 years since I last profiled a camera, so I'm re-doing the learning curve. My question now is how and why the DNG Profile editor depends on a "base profile?" Specifically, why does the DNG PE Chart Wizard generate different results depending on what base profile is used.
I see in the documentation that "all color adjustments made in the DNG Profile Editor are defined relative to a base profile." I understand that logic when making a custom profile via manual tweaks. You have to have a starting point. But I don't understand that logic when using the Chart Wizard. I expected the Chart Wizard to arrive at the same pre-defined target point regardless of the starting point. It does not seem to do that.
I discovered the difference by using an apparently bad workflow. I shot my colorchecker chart, converted the CR2 to DNG and brought it into Photoshop via ACR to inspect. That stored "Adobe Standard" as the base profile in the DNG.
Then I fed this DNG to the DNG PE Chart Wizard and generated a profile. I opened the image in ACR and applied "My Profile", which became the base profile in the DNG file. I thought I did something wrong, so I ran the same DNG through the Chart Wizard again and generated "My Second Profile." That version looked very strange, so I did it again and made "My Third Profile."
Now I have three profiles. My First Profile was made from Adobe Standard base. My Second Profile was made from My First Profile base. My Third Profile was made from My Second Profile base. Each iteration becomes more strange (bad), so this is clearly not the proper workflow. But what is? What base profile should be selected for Chart Wizard and why does it matter?
Being curious, I did the same exercise using the Xrite ColorChecker software. That software generates the same result, regardless of what base profile is stored in the DNG files. I'm not sure I like the results, but at least they are consistent.

DNG Profile Editor lets you define color edits (in the first tab) using a set of color control points. These control points in turn define a color lookup table used to perform the color correction when processing a (raw) image.
When you use a Base Profile, the resulting color table in the final profile is a combination of the base profile's color table, plus the color table defined by any edits that you've added in the first tab (using the Chart Wizard counts as adding edits to that first tab).
The reason you can get different and less smooth results if you apply the Chart Wizard iteratively is because you are applying lookup table after lookup table. The current color table-building method used by DNG PE has some limitations regarding smoothness of color profiles if two color control points are placed too closely (this can happen with the Chart Wizard, or if you specify two points manually that are close to each other). These problems can become more noticeable if you apply the DNG PE iteratively.

Using DNG profile editor

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for