"We have been actively working on improving color rendering for digital raw photographs. Our new color rendering package contains the following components:
* the DNG 1.2 specification, which expands and formalizes the concept of a color profile for raw (i.e., scene-referred) image data captured by digital sensors,
* Adobe Standard camera profiles that significantly improve color rendering, especially in reds, yellows, and oranges,
* Camera Matching profiles that match the camera manufacturers' color appearance,
* DNG Profile Editor, a free software utility for editing camera profiles"
I've played with this for two nights now (I've whined about ceaseless rain elsewhere on NPN). I have some preliminary notes. Because I use exclusively Olympus cameras, my results may not be representative:
- Aperture 2.1.1's RAW converter remains superior to Adobe's standard camera profiles for the E-500 and E-3. While the reds and shadows are improved from the old profiles used in Adobe DNG Converter. Aperture still looks better to my eye, side-by-side on a calibrated monitor. Apple really does seem to care about the quality of its RAW conversion tools. YMMV.
- If someone has one of those standard color boards, it would be interesting to shoot the board under adjusted WB and sample actual color values post-RAW conversion using PS.
- It is interesting to look at the differences (camera profiles are essentially long XML files; you can use Unix tools to compare the two files).
- The DNG Profile Editor has real potential, especially for those who have new cameras for which there is no published RAW converter. You can use the tool to make any existing profile work with almost ay camera.
- It's very easy to whack a camera profile and create "unexpected results".
I'm admittedly a raw (sorry) amateur at all this. I'd like to hear what some of the more professional photographers have to say, especially those who are better grounded in sensor technology.
Discussion
1 replieshttp://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles
"We have been actively working on improving color rendering for digital raw photographs. Our new color rendering package contains the following components:
* the DNG 1.2 specification, which expands and formalizes the concept of a color profile for raw (i.e., scene-referred) image data captured by digital sensors,
* Adobe Standard camera profiles that significantly improve color rendering, especially in reds, yellows, and oranges,
* Camera Matching profiles that match the camera manufacturers' color appearance,
* DNG Profile Editor, a free software utility for editing camera profiles"
- Aperture 2.1.1's RAW converter remains superior to Adobe's standard camera profiles for the E-500 and E-3. While the reds and shadows are improved from the old profiles used in Adobe DNG Converter. Aperture still looks better to my eye, side-by-side on a calibrated monitor. Apple really does seem to care about the quality of its RAW conversion tools. YMMV.
- If someone has one of those standard color boards, it would be interesting to shoot the board under adjusted WB and sample actual color values post-RAW conversion using PS.
- It is interesting to look at the differences (camera profiles are essentially long XML files; you can use Unix tools to compare the two files).
- The DNG Profile Editor has real potential, especially for those who have new cameras for which there is no published RAW converter. You can use the tool to make any existing profile work with almost ay camera.
- It's very easy to whack a camera profile and create "unexpected results".
I'm admittedly a raw (sorry) amateur at all this. I'd like to hear what some of the more professional photographers have to say, especially those who are better grounded in sensor technology.