Pls apologize for this very basic question.
Is there any real benefit in using well designed profiles vs fine tone/color tuning in LR/CO (or others) starting from the canned profiles? I have already purchased the Lumariver Profile Designer and I am trying to get the best out of it.
I think there are many more or less subtle benefits that adds up. I think most photographers are quite hard to convince of the meaning of profiling your camera, and that's why camera profiling has stayed a niche mostly related to reproduction work. There's this idea that no matter which colors the camera start out with you can with post-processing adjustments in the raw converter get the colors to where you want, combined with that many do so heavy post-processing that there's not much left of the original color.
I don't think that it's that easy, the original color will shine through in one way or another. But even if you don't think it does there's the argument that why not start off with something you like, and something that's not way different between cameras and raw converters. Quite useful if you have more than one camera to be able to match them so you can carry your own look between different cameras more easily. I still see today that many switch from say LR to CO because of the colors, and well, you can fix that with a profile, you don't need to change raw converter... And why not start off with something that's actually neutral and realistic so you have a sane baseline. To me that's very important, I don't want a distorted starting point which someone else have designed, I actually want to know how my post-processing modify colors. I just don't get it why a modern camera shouldn't produce natural colors (and those working with product, architecture and other color-critical applications often say the same).
Say 10 years ago, camera sensor color filters responses differed a lot more than they do today. The hardware was often more saturated natively (with limited signal-to-noise ratio that was a wise design choice) and harder for a profile to control. Today camera hardware is more similar and matters less while profiles can control more of the final outcome. Knowing that you have the tools to control the color regardless of camera brand or model or raw converter at least I think is valuable.
Others may like it that their brand makes the look, a view not the least common in medium format community where there's a lot of prestige in the way colors are rendered and it's almost an insult if you claim you can improve on that
. There's string quite strong mythology around colors of certain brands. But actually, it's not so much about improving a look, it's about being in control of the color and make profiles that are aligned with your own taste, rather than adapting the taste to someone else. That said, it's not easy to make any crazy look with Lumariver Profile Designer, it's anchored in neutrality and realism and you work from there. So it helps if one at least has some interest in maintaining some of that.
To all this you can say -- "I don't care, I'm happy with canned looks the manufacturers and raw converters provide", and many do, and I'm fine with that. I'm not trying to convince everyone.
I see quite different approaches using Lumariver Profile Designer too. You have one group that runs the auto mode and are happy with the default neutral & realistic profile it produces, and you have another group that spends hours and hours fine-tuning and creating their look of their own, and come up with things that are very different from how I design my profiles, and I love to see that the software is not locking in people in "my" preferred look either. For those that spend time with the software and tuning profiles for different cameras there's the added benefit that you gain a feel and understanding of how colors work, what you like and not, how cameras differ (they do a little still) etc.
So there's some sort of answer. If my company actually had any marketing people they would have stopped this project before it started
, there really isn't a one-liner slogan that everyone will understand and appreciate. Or maybe there is... if so I haven't figured it out.
