Posted by Jay Defigh on April 20, 2009 at 11:22 PM
It seems like each camera has it's own color rendition with certain tones and conditions, not unlike the way different films behave relative to one another. This goes beyond simple white balance adjustments. With the advent of camera specific profiles, is it possible to replicate exactly the color rendition of virtually any dslr out there? Or are these profiles at best crude approximations?
I don't have the full version of software to test, and I'm interested in hearing from people who shoot with Camera X but use profiles for Camera Y, Z, etc. Especially those who have owned both cameras and can tell if the PP profiles are a match or not.
For example, say you shoot with a Nikon D200 but want to replicate Fuji skin tones perfectly. Will choosing Fujifilm S5 give you those skin tones or is more adjusting necessary after the fact? Or say you like how the D80 handles skies on overcast days, etc., etc.
Thanks very much.
Posted by David Bostedo on April 21, 2009 at 10:34 AM
Jay - I don't believe those profiles work the way you are thinking they do. If you take a shot from camera X and use the profile for camera Y, you'll probably get very weird color. It won't look anything like a shot from camera Y converted with a profile for camera Y.
The reason is that every camera captures the scene in a unique way in terms of the color filtering on the sensor and the way the individual R, G, and B sensor pixels are de-mosaiced to create an RGB image on your computer. When you set a profile in most tools, all you're telling it is what type of sensor did the capturing, so it can convert the data in such a way that gives you a good image. If you take sensor data (a raw file) and convert it with a different cameras profile, the assumptions about how to handle the data are completely thrown out of whack.
In order to accomplish what you're talking about, all cameras would have to capture identical color information. Then it would be up to the software to render it in different ways. But that's not possible. As you said, each camera captures its own set of information.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on April 21, 2009 at 12:12 PM
To put it another way, it would be like using a profile for a Canon printer with 6 inks on matte paper to print something from an Epson printer with 8 inks using a glossy paper. You could do it, but it would look wierd. But it might be an interesting wierd...
Posted by Peter Langman on April 21, 2009 at 2:58 PM
If you go to Adobe Labs ( https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs%5Fdngprofileeditor ) you can download for free the dng pro file editor. With this you take your raw image convert to a dng then open in the editor and create your own color profile that you can use in photoshop, lightroom. with it you can make custom profiles to suit your needs.
Thank you for the clarification guys. I appreciate having access to your expertise. I'll check out the DNG editor.-- not sure if it works with Elements, though.
Discussion
4 repliesI don't have the full version of software to test, and I'm interested in hearing from people who shoot with Camera X but use profiles for Camera Y, Z, etc. Especially those who have owned both cameras and can tell if the PP profiles are a match or not.
For example, say you shoot with a Nikon D200 but want to replicate Fuji skin tones perfectly. Will choosing Fujifilm S5 give you those skin tones or is more adjusting necessary after the fact? Or say you like how the D80 handles skies on overcast days, etc., etc.
Thanks very much.
The reason is that every camera captures the scene in a unique way in terms of the color filtering on the sensor and the way the individual R, G, and B sensor pixels are de-mosaiced to create an RGB image on your computer. When you set a profile in most tools, all you're telling it is what type of sensor did the capturing, so it can convert the data in such a way that gives you a good image. If you take sensor data (a raw file) and convert it with a different cameras profile, the assumptions about how to handle the data are completely thrown out of whack.
In order to accomplish what you're talking about, all cameras would have to capture identical color information. Then it would be up to the software to render it in different ways. But that's not possible. As you said, each camera captures its own set of information.