Using color checker

[Goldilocks]

I have watercolors that I want to replicate into fine art prints. I have been shooting raw in Nikon Adobe Color Space with a combination of in camera flash and available light. I have a small Munsell color checker that I shoot with the artwork (same frame, next to artwork) which includes the neutral grey and part of the colors.  I know to use the second white rgb 200 value for white balance. I am having difficulty finding a method to replicate the rgb values in the color checker.  Can someone help me find an affordable method to replicate my watercolors? I am not in a position to spend more money and need to work with the tools that are available to me.

 I have a Nikon D5000 camera, Nikon NX Viewer (it can edit nikon's raw file), Adobe DNG Converter, Photoshop CS2 and Lighroom 1.4 available to use. I do NOT have access to use my Nikon D5000 raw files directly with Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, they must be converted to DNG. I have a great printer (Epson 3800), but a not so great monitor. (My monitor is an Acer LCD. While I calibrate every so often with a borrowed Spyder, I have found the light yellows on my monitor are never accurate and tend to be of a red hue. When I work visually, I try to mentally accomodate for this).

For now, I would be happy if I can edit to get the neutral RGB values correct. And have the best color control possible in the final print.  Which editing software(s)/method will give me the best results.

Suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks,
Linda

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Some ideas...

You can download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.0 Beta, it will expire when LR 3.0 is released. You can use it with Adobe DNG Profile Editor Beta, downloadable here:

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles

or with Color Checker Passport software available here:

http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_product_overv...ort&id=1257

These tools are free, both would work with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. It can be downloaded for a month so you could test. Either way you may consider using "Linear Tone Curve" under the "Tone Curve Tab" in LR. Generally an "S" curve is applied which enhances contrast, this may be less optimal for reproduction.

On the PC, Picture Window Pro is a very useful program which can adjust colors to match an CC-card.

It's available here: http://dl-c.com/content/view/47/74/ this can also be downloaded as free trial for 30 days.

Best regards
Erik

I have watercolors that I want to replicate into fine art prints. I have been shooting raw in Nikon Adobe Color Space with a combination of in camera flash and available light. I have a small Munsell color checker that I shoot with the artwork (same frame, next to artwork) which includes the neutral grey and part of the colors.  I know to use the second white rgb 200 value for white balance. I am having difficulty finding a method to replicate the rgb values in the color checker.  Can someone help me find an affordable method to replicate my watercolors? I am not in a position to spend more money and need to work with the tools that are available to me.

 I have a Nikon D5000 camera, Nikon NX Viewer (it can edit nikon's raw file), Adobe DNG Converter, Photoshop CS2 and Lighroom 1.4 available to use. I do NOT have access to use my Nikon D5000 raw files directly with Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, they must be converted to DNG. I have a great printer (Epson 3800), but a not so great monitor. (My monitor is an Acer LCD. While I calibrate every so often with a borrowed Spyder, I have found the light yellows on my monitor are never accurate and tend to be of a red hue. When I work visually, I try to mentally accomodate for this).

For now, I would be happy if I can edit to get the neutral RGB values correct. And have the best color control possible in the final print.  Which editing software(s)/method will give me the best results.

Suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks,
Linda

[Thomas Krüger]

Don't mix different light sources. As an alternative you can also do reproductions outside in the shadow, for example at the northern side of a house.
If you have the Munsell color checker get the software ColorChecker Passport 1.0.1 from http://blog.xritephoto.com/?p=1208 to create a color profile from a DNG file.
The fine tuning must be done with test prints.

Last autumn we did a couple of reproductions for a painter, and after some test runs the fine art prints matched the paintings. And we sold quite a lot of reproductions.
http://oriettabiggi.com/#/content/02/