Some reflections on handling colours in raw converters

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

There is a lot of discussions going on about colour handling and raw converters. A part of it is Hasselblad X1D and possibly Fuji GFX buyers finding that their cameras are locked out from their favourite raw converter.

First point is that Eleanor Brown,a real world X1D owner and very good exhibition photographer, finds that colours in Phocus and Lightroom are very close on the X1D.

The rest of this post relates mostly to Lightrom…

In many cases, Lightroom offer several colour rendering options:

• Adobe Standard - this is probably Thomas Knolls preference mostly. Thomas Knoll is the original developer of PhotoShop and ACR, he is said to have last say on ACR.
• Embedded - This is the profile a camera maker using DNG would use for their cameras. Pentax 645Z and Leica S DNG files come with embedded profiles.
• Camera standard (etc) - that responds to different camera JPEG setting

Making our own profiles is easy. We can use any of the following tools:

• ColorChecker Passport software, DNG/DCP only
• Adobe DNG Profile Editor - allows for fine tuning DNG/DCP only
• Ander's Torger's DCamProf - command line based and flexible, supports both DCP and ICC
• basICColor input 5, a professional product, supports both ICC and DCP

Making a good calibration shot is not that easy. If DPReview or Imaging Resource posts shots of the ColorChecker those shots would be an optimal starting point.

A Pentax 645D image is enclosed, that a poster trick processed in Capture One compared with Adobe Standard and the embedded colour profile.

No conclusion, just some food for thought…

Best regards
Erik

[ced]

Some of those can't be called profiles but rather colour adjustments...

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I would agree, but they are implemented as profiles, I think. In my world, ideally, we would have a profile that implements correct colour translation and a look applied on top of that implementing nice/good/pleasant colour.

Best regards
Erik

Some of those can't be called profiles but rather colour adjustments...

[TonyW]

All renditions appear very close and it seems to me that any would make a satisfactory starting point for further raw editing.

Slightly off topic the Pentax 645 in Capture One while an interesting exercise in fooling with changing header data would be a concern if one was to believe this situation would remain viable in future versions of C1. 
BTW just saying I don't think you were advocating this

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Capture One doesn't support competing MFD devices. Now, some photographers love Capture One and that is quite OK. It may seem that C1 can process data from competing MFD with great results, either because they are very similar or Capture One does implement DNG correctly.

But, you are right, I am not advocating tricking Capture One to ingress those images, because C1 very clearly has no intention to support competing MFDs and any loophole found by photographers may be closed at any time of Phase One's choice. I don't think Phase One sees hidden benefit of competing raws trough an DNG/EXIF patch loophole.

Best regards
Erik

All renditions appear very close and it seems to me that any would make a satisfactory starting point for further raw editing.

Slightly off topic the Pentax 645 in Capture One while an interesting exercise in fooling with changing header data would be a concern if one was to believe this situation would remain viable in future versions of C1. 
BTW just saying I don't think you were advocating this

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Here are two quick raw conversions of the same photo converted in Lightroom and Phocus. Personally I am not happy with any of them, but it is just defaults processing. Both have white balance on the cornea (white area) of the left eye.

Best regards
Erik

[scyth]

Making our own profiles is easy. We can use any of the following tools:

• ColorChecker Passport software, DNG/DCP only
• Adobe DNG Profile Editor - allows for fine tuning DNG/DCP only
• Ander's Torger's DCamProf - command line based and flexible, supports both DCP and ICC
• basICColor input 5, a professional product, supports both ICC and DCP

also QPCard - now almost defunct

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi Scyth,

I considered mentioning QPCard, but I feel it is almost defunct. They promised Capture One ICC profile for a long time, but it seems next release never comes.

I would think that it is hard to earn money in profile making. Honestly, photographers are lazy and they also don't pay for engineering things. It is OK to buy an MFDB for 10k$US but spending 500$US on profiling software, I guess very few will do that.

For me, going the other way makes a bit of sense. Buy the tools that are good enough for your work and learn to make best use of them. The benefit of that is finding out how things really work…

Best regards
Erik

also QPCard - now almost defunct

[razrblck]

Never liked Adobe's default profiles, on any camera. They tend to make skin tones yellowy/orangey with greens in the shadows.