Accurate color for reproduction of Art

Question

Hi,
Which is the most exact way to assure accurate color reproduction of an Art piece - say a painting?
Using the DNG Profile Editor and uniform controlled lighting, there is still the matter of the tone curve in Profile Editor, do we use linear or base? Many times I have found Linear to produce a more real, if a little subdued result. But, which method has theory backing it up?
Regards,
Juan Dent

Answer 1

If you have, as Séan says, shot the image under controlled condition and have a profile generated in the same lighting, you are already really close to where you need to be. However, your question about the tone curve:
Using the DNG Profile Editor and uniform controlled lighting, there is still the matter of the tone curve in Profile Editor, do we use linear or base? Many times I have found Linear to produce a more real, if a little subdued result. But, which method has theory backing it up?
You need to zero every single develop setting (except white balance ;-) ), including contrast, blacks and brightness next to the tone curve to get what you want here. Note that this is generally not what you actually need. You probably need more contrast to make the image look to have the same impact as the original, so you will still have to tweak. As the poster above me notes, if you really want to reproduce art well, you need far better methods than a typical DSLR with a typical RAW converter can give you.