DNG Profile Editor - questions about

0) Thank to Eric Chan for your work on this. Until now I used the Camera Calibration process through Photoshop and Camera Calibration table. But I see this as a big progress.
1) Will it stay only DNG editor or it will be also for raw pictures without a necessity to convert them to dng?
2) Will it be only stand alone aplication or as well a part of the LR?
3) Now I can switched off and on one color change (by the left mark in the Color List Box). Could it be possible to switch off and on the whole Color List Box to see all done changes?
4) I have red your comment that this tool doesn't work with lightness, only hue and saturation. But if I want to work on a specific picture (i.e. a man wearing a red sweater), it will be fine to have it in the brightness close to an end picture. Will it be possible to open a picture not only with WB, but also with exposure, blacks and other basic development setting?
5) Under the eye drop tool, I can see numbers of "initial" or "starting" color. But I can't see the numbers of changed color. It would be fine if I know the new numbers to see how close I am to them. It would be fine if the number over the color List Box will be also for starting color and also for end colors.
And one little proposal: if the color will not change, show in Color List Box only the starting (left) half of a color. Than I can simply see that I didn't set a new color or the color stay exactly the same (it is only a question if exactly the same or very close to the same).
6) It could be, that I will not use the exact color checker table for what you did process on the tab Chart. But many of color checker are delivered with exact numbers and picture on a cd, so it will be fine if I could open this "master" picture of a checker producer in a right panel under the Color List Box and simply take from it the end colors. First go to the main picture on left, choose the "initial color" and then simply go to this "master" picture in right and take the "end color". What do you think about this?
7) If I work on the tab Chart, I get the error window "not neutral gray patches, row 4 culumn 1". But if I move the circle to row 4 culumn 2 it works fine. Is there any difference or problem?
8) And last: how far is acting the shift of color. It will not work only for the one color but close surroundings will be also efeccted. How smal or large is the surroundings? E.g. if we take 360 degres for hue.
Tom

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.

Similar Messages

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • **-Camera Profiles and DNG Profile Editor FAQ-**

    A page containing answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Camera Profiles and the DNG Profile Editor can be found
    here

    New FAQ entries:
    What changed between beta 1 and beta 2?
    Is it safe to delete beta 1 profiles? What will happen if I do?
    I now have the beta 2 profiles and want to delete the older beta 1 profiles. How do I do this?
    Please read carefully.

  • 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.

  • DNG profile editor

    A couple of questions about DNG Profile Editor:
    1-I know Lab values on my ColorChecker (measured with an EyeOne 2° D50). I shooted it with a Nikon D80 and I want to tweak one of the new Camera Raw profiles to match those values or to go closer. I see that changing the base profile (popup menu in Color Tables Pane) the image appearence changes a lot but the Lab numbers readout doesn't. I followed the tutorial on the Adobe site but I can't figure out how to make the camera calibration without having a numeric value, before and after, to look at. The tutorial tells that you may 'adjust the selected color via the Hue, Saturation and Lightness slider and you will see the preview in real-time'. That's true but does it means that is a sort of 'visual calibration'? Is there a way to tweak colors by the Lab numbers in order to have the best match from original Lab values in input (on the target) and Lab values in output (in a ProPhoto rendered image)?
    2- When I create a Color Table from my ColorChecker it appears that in the Color Tables colors are already (and automatically) changed. Does it work like the ACR Calibration Scripts that way? And is it possible to change the reference Lab values (ColorCheckers are different in color values) as it was with a simple ACR script's editing?
    Giuseppe Andretta

    Eric,
    Before starting, I want to say that I had cataract surgery last month. The vision improvement was almost instantaneous and dramatic. I can now state that color differences in individuals can be much greater than expected. It is hard to express how big the difference is in my own vision, let alone between two other individuals. Any color assessment tools must accommodate numeric as well as visual comparisons. That said, the healing process has also affected how much time I can spend comfortably in front of my screen. I hope my comments will be taken constructively.
    As others have commented, I also feel that the CC24 Lab target values being used should be documented. Published values from Gretag, Lindbloom, Babbage, and others disagree. Without the target numbers it is difficult to determine accurately the calibration result.
    My first attempt seemed to go smoothly, but when I verified the results with ReadColors.jsx (my script) the numbers degraded slightly. I was using the Gretag target values, so these may not be what Adobe is using. Also, I had already calibrated ACR for my D3. The doc seemed to imply that the ACR tabs would all default to zero and that was what displayed in the Color Matrices panel. But that was not what showed in the ACR panel. So I tried again, setting all ACR sliders to zero. This calibration attempt was a disaster, numerically and visually. Now I am confused. What is the relationship between these and what are the recommended user actions? In each case, I exported the DNG profile and selected it subsequently in ACR to re-open the image.
    Next, I played with the Color Tables panel. I set a watchpoint on the blue patch. As long as I hold the eyedropper over the blue patch the Lab (and other numbers) track. But as soon as I move the mouse to the sliders, the numbers disappear. If I move the hue and saturation sliders the image and the patch sample both change. And, yes a little arrow shows in the color wheel. But after moving the eyedropper back, none of the numbers have changed. The lightness slider is even more bizarre. Obviously no arrow (z-axis) but the image brightens and darkens (OK), without any corresponding change in the patch sample (watchpoint) on the right (not OK). And again, no change in the numbers at all. It would be very helpful if the target values were shown here and if the currently selected watchpoint that would track the numeric changes. It would also be nice if the watchpoint could show the target color as well as the initial and changed image patch colors.
    I dont understand the purpose of the Tone Curves. I understand gamma and Adobe linear, but these do not correlate to the ACR tone curves. And again the image changes but the numbers do not. Since we cannot set watchpoints in the neutral patches it is very difficult to assess any changes the user might make.
    Next, I used the Chart panel to Create Color Table. When I return to the Color Tables panel, there are the 18 color (no neutral) watchpoints. I can see that blue has changed in the watch point and the arrow in the color wheel. But the numbers are still the same as before. Scrolling through the watch points I can also see that the hue and saturation sliders have changed. But the lightness slider did not change in any of the color patches. I anticipated that this would be the major improvement over the ACR sliders. Is this just not in the calibration algorithms yet?
    This is a good start, but until I know what the target values are and what I should be doing about the existing ACR slider settings, I am at a stopping point.
    Cheers, Rags :-)

  • 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

  • Converting LUTs to Camera Profiles in the DNG Profile Editor

    Hi,
    I've just started using the DNG Profile Editor, and can't seem to get the process right.
    I have some film LUTs that I'd like to convert to camera profiles for my 5D Mk II.
    Here's how I'm trying to do it, maybe someone can help me figure out what I'm doing wrong.
    This is what I tried first:
    1. Take a Color Chart into Photoshop, apply the LUT via Color Lookup adjustment layer.
    2. Save out as 16bit TIFF
    3. Open as Camera Raw, then save out as DNG
    4. Open the adjusted color chart into DNG Profile Editor, run it through the color chart section to create a recipe of color adjustments.
    5. Export out as Camera Profile
    But when I open up a 5D image in Lightroom, the profile doesn't show up in the list, so I realised maybe it needs to be saved specifically as a 5D profile, but I can't figure out how.
    If I:
    1. Do steps 1-4 as above
    2. Open a 5D DNG file so that I can set a 5D profile as the base profile
    3. Load the recipe
    The color adjustments appear on the color wheel, but nothing happens to the 5D image, no colour change at all.
    Exporting it (which does say 'Export as 5D profile') does then give me a profile that shows up in Lightroom, but it doesn't do anything to the image...
    What's the correct way of doing this?
    Thanks!
    S

    I don’t know claim to know anything about the internals of DNG Camera Profiles, but I’m pretty sure you cannot take a RGB-file (TIF/JPG) DNG and make a raw-file DNG Profile for use with your camera raws, which sounds like what you’re trying to do.
    Despite looking like it might work in DNGPE, starting with an RGB-file recipe (rather than a RAW-file recipe) will only lock the specific colors on the color wheel, rather than create a raw-capable camera profile.

  • Adobe DNG Profile Editor

    Has there been any update to this beyond that in 2008 found on Adobe Labs? (I want to try using it to calibrate ACR for my camera with a shot of a MacBeth Color Chart.)
    To be more precise about this, I currently use ACR Calibrator to calibrate ACR for my Canon 1Ds II. I now see there is beta 3 of Adobe DNG Profile Editor but note that it utilises a small subset of the GMB Digital Colorchecker SG target chart.
    ACR Calibrator seems to produce quite different results from Adobe DNG Profile Editor.  I have followed the steps below when using the latter.
    Download DNG Profile Editor and drag to Applications
    Launch Photoshop and open the raw file of your macbeth target.
    In camera raw, place all settings to zero, curve to linear and turn off any sharpening etc. Click Save Image, choose dng as the file format and save it.
    Launch DNG Profile Editor.
    File / Open DNG File and choose the dng file you saved previously.
    Select the chart tab in DNG Profile Editor.
    Move the colored circles to the center of the matching colored corner square in your raw file
    Click Create Color Table.
    Choose File/Export <Camera> profile...  Give it a name and save.
    Exit DNG Profile Editor.
    Re-launch photoshop and open a raw file.  In Camera Raw, on the calibration tab, you should now see the profile you just saved.

    ssprengel wrote:
    I don't know of any other references or CC Passport numbers other than what Google can come up with.  Babelcolor has some standard-deviation of spectrum numbers for a sampling of 20 charts done in 2006 and also some worst-color vs average-color visual comparisons to get an idea of how variable charts or at least their measurements can be.  Somewhere it says the me4asurements were done of the standard and also the minichart, mixed together, I assume.  I don't know if there is a list of the raw data or not.
    To understand the source of the variation you really need to see multiple measurements with the same instrument, with different instruments, and of different charts from different manufacturing runs and different ages and measured in different temperatures and humidities, otherwise it's not easy to say whether the variations we're seeing between the CC standard and the CC passport in the article are within the normal variations or not or if they represent a significant difference not explained by normal variations.
    Yes, I know the Babelcolor data and I have already included them in the study.
    Obviously I do not have the opportunity to have the information to get an overview of the real things, but by analyzing various measurements I saw that Myers had to be the closest to official data of the CC Passport and instead is the more distant. Hence my doubts about the measurement.
    Thanks anyway.
    Marco

  • DNG Profil editor is always crashing on exit

    as the topic says. im using latest beta version.
    i7 2600k @4.2 Ghz
    240 GB Vertex 3 for catalog and preview
    16 GB ram
    win7 64 bit
    460 GTX 1GB
    ps: i hope the question fits in this forum...
    Problemsignatur:
    Problemereignisname: APPCRASH
    Anwendungsname: DNG Profile Editor.exe
    Anwendungsversion: 1.0.0.45
    Anwendungszeitstempel: 4cb71daa
    Fehlermodulname: DNG Profile Editor.exe
    Fehlermodulversion: 1.0.0.45
    Fehlermodulzeitstempel: 4cb71daa
    Ausnahmecode: c0000005
    Ausnahmeoffset: 00019b4b
    Betriebsystemversion: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
    Gebietsschema-ID: 1031
    Zusatzinformation 1: 0a9e
    Zusatzinformation 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
    Zusatzinformation 3: 0a9e
    Zusatzinformation 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

    Take your computer to an Apple store or service technician. You may have a hardware problem. This is not normal behavior.

  • DNG Profile editor and white balance

    I am very happy to see the practical realization of the extentions announced in the DNG 1.2 specification. This is a great step forward to achieve wide acceptance of DNG.
    While reading the User's Guide, I found following statement (in the Tutorial 1):
    >3. (Optional) If the image is not already white-balanced, you can perform a click-WB using a context click
    Why would one white balance here? What effect does that have on the result? The profile describes, which HSV will be converted in which HSV; this has nothing to do with the WB of a particular image.

    The WB feature in the DNG Profile Editor (PE) is there because it is possible that you might open a DNG file in PE that has not already been white balanced. Imagine you photographed an image under tungsten lighting but had the in-camera WB manually set to daylight. If you didn't set the WB before converting the image to a DNG, it will appear very warm when you open it up in PE. So PE's WB feature is designed to save you time by letting you do a click-WB instead of having to go back to CR or LR to adjust the image's WB.
    PE is named "profile editor" because it only edits profiles. It is not an image editor. So you are correct, you do not really need an image to edit profiles, technically. However, unless you have an image open you have no way to evaluate how good your adjustments are.
    Typically the only reason to make a profile or edit a profile is if there's something about an existing profile that you're unhappy with. And you'd be unhappy because you'd have an example of a "problem" image, where the existing profile doesn't produce the result you want. That's the image you want to bring into the PE, so you can pick out the colors that are "wrong" and fix them.
    Then ideally you would open many more images in PE just to verify that your adjustments generalize well.

  • Creating profiles for special illuminants in DNG Profile Editor

    I have successfully used the DNG Profile Editor with images of the ColorChecker Passport to create simple dcp profiles for daylight and tungsten illumination.  I have obtained very satisfactory profiles using both a single image and the "both color tables" option, as well as two images (one tungsten and one daylight) and the "dual illuminant" method.
    Now I wish to construct separate profiles for use with unusual light sources: fluorescent lights and white LED lights.  Can some one tell me how this is best done using the DNG Profile Editor.
    Appreciate any suggestions.
    Mike.

    When there are two illuminants in a profile ACR will interpolate an effective profile based on how far the actual image WB is from one of the illuminants in the dual profile.  For example if the profile is using the 2650K (Tungsten) and 6500K (hazy sunight) as the two illuminants and your images is taken in direct sunlight with a WB of 5000K then the profile will be more the D65 profile but a little bit of the redder A profile mixed in.  This allows the dual profile to be used for any lighting with a Temperature between A and D65 that also has a Tint number close to or a little above zero.  An A/D65 dual profile fails for fluorescent lighting because the Tint number is quite a bit different than either the A or D65 Tint numbers.
    To your question, for a single illuminant profile, you should use the Both Color Tables option so that no matter what WB your photo has, the profile used will be the same.  This makes the illuminant A and D65 irrelevant because any interpolation between the two illuminants would result in the same profile numbers.
    However, I also think that the dual illuminant numbers are not necessarily hard-coded to A and D65, at least not when you use the CCPP plug-in for LR to create the profile, but are actually whatever your photos WB numbers are, so you can make dual-illuminant profiles for other pairs of lighting, such as fluorescent and daylight or fluorescent and incandescent, or even sunlight and shade, depending on what mixed lighting you have at your location and time of day.
    An easy way to test this would be to make a dual profile, one DNG being fluorescent and one being your blue LEDs (two sources far away from A or D65), then also create two single profiles, one for each of those same two lighting sources.  Test the dual-illuminant profile with the fluorescent CCPP image, and then switch the profile to the single illuminant fluorescent one and see if anything looks different.  Do the same test with the blue-LED CCPP image with dual and single blue-LED profiles. 
    If the look of the image is the same when using a dual profile where one end is the same as the single profile both tested with the actual CCPP image that was used to make the profile or one end of the profile, then the illuminant numbers in the dual profile change to whatever the DNGs illuminants were.  However, if the look changes between the dual profile and the single profile when applied to one of the dual-profiles image's WB then the illuminant numbers must be fixed to A and D65, and so any dual profiles are useless if the two illuminants do not match A and D65.
    If your experiment fails using the DNGPE, then try it using the CCPP software and the LR plug-in. 

  • Colorchecker passport and the DNG profile editor

    I finally got around to getting a Colorchecker passport to use with the DNG profile editor.
    I was secretly hoping I could save time by shooting the chart on location and make an instant profile out of that - then the colors would be at least "close ballpark" so I would just have to apply white balance and then move on to more specific adjustments. But of course it wasn't that easy, it still takes a fair bit of color tweaking to get right in most circumstances.
    So I'm wondering if my energy would be better spent trying to perfect one good dual illuminant general profile. For this I would use 3000 K tungsten at one end and 5500 K studio flash at the other. Or would it be better to use overcast daylight? In either case it's obviously important to ensure the chart is absolutely evenly lit.
    And then I should probably have a separate profile for fluorescent tubes.
    I'm curious what other people's experiences with the colorchecker/DNG profile editor are? How are you using it?

    The color profile changes with the lighting, so a profile that was computed for daylight won’t be right for tungsten or fluorescent.  Keep in mind that a custom camera profile is the set of corrections on top of an existing Adobe profile that the DNG has assigned to it, perhaps Adobe Standard, and all Adobe profiles are dual-illuminant profiles, so it makes sense you’d want to also create a dual-illuminant profile for general purpose use that has the same two lighting scenarios as Adobe used:  2850K and 6500K.  The 6500K is the tricky one because full sun is warmer, closer to 5000K, and you need the right amount of haze to create 6500K sunlight, unless you are using standard D65 bulbs, indoors, which is likely what Adobe does.
    I use a dual-illuminant profile for general purpose use, but since the WB-Tint values of both the tungsten and daylight ends are close to zero, lighting that has a tint not close to zero needs a separate profile.  The common example is the greenish light from fluorescents, and I have several single-illuminant profiles for various artificial lighting scenarios with WB-Tint values that are relatively non-zero.  I also have ones for very red sunsets and very blue twilight.  If I had studio lighting I’d make a profile for that.  Sometimes I make a custom profile for a church or other venue that has significant non-neutral walls or ceilings, or where sunlight through the stained-glass windows shining on the walls are giving a significant color-cast including a non-zero tint value to the lighting.  If you know you’ll be doing some shots near a large amount of tall, green vegetation then a custom color profile can correct for the green tinge to the ambient lighting coming down from above mixing in with the sunlight. 
    Adding to the suggestion about wearing neutral clothing, I’d argue for dark neutral clothing because something lighter clothing will reflect environmental colors (sunlit vegetation or brick walls, etc, outdoors) and not be neutral. 
    Besides non-neutral clothing, try to avoid areas that have green grass or tree leaves or brick buildings that also color the light and reflect off the colorchecker.   For the sunlit shots, I put my colorchecker face up on the sidewalk or parking lot, to avoid coloration from the grass and far away from trees or buildings especially in the direction I’m pointing the camera, so the only lighting is direct sun and ambient blue-sky, possibly diffused by hazy clouds.  I point the camera down at the colorchecker, at a 45-degree angle and at a compass direction and not directly toward the sun, nor directly away from the sun.  I try to shoot the target that is face up on the ground perhaps at a 90-degree angle from the sun to minimize any residual glare from the colorchecker’s slightly non-matte surface.  Obviously directly away from the sun, the color-checker will have my shadow on it or I will be blocking the light from the sky near the sun.
    I use the same sort of process for the tungsten end, choosing a room with neutral walls and put the target relatively flat on the floor facing up, perhaps tipped up somewhat toward the light, but not so much as to have any glare from the lighting, either, in other words, not with the lighting directly behind the camera, but somewhat over to the side.

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