ACRCalibrator vs colorchecker passport

[bwana]

I have been calibrating my screen since forever with iProfiler but am now diving deeper into the area of color science. Apparently, there are many links in the chain from a real live subject illuminated with a particular light to the accurate representation on a screen and from there to a print. The part I am learning about now is the import of images from the camera to the computer. Although I use lightroom, I have been trying capture one for my fuji files and the wildly different color interpretations (ok, not really wild) from the same raw image is striking. It seems each program has custom tuned 'profiles' for different cameras. Just the way they have profiles for adjusting lens distortion, it seems they have their own recipes for color interpretation. I do not really understand why this is. I DO understand they have different demosiaicizing algorithms and the numbers in each pixel of the raw file are 'convoluted' to guess the 'other two colors that are missing' from each pixel. What I assume this would generate is a 'linear profile' since sensors are linear devices.

This linear profile often appears flat to our 'sigmoid' eyes-brain instrument. So a sigmoid 'curve is applied to the image BEFORE it even shows up on the screen. Is this the profile that ACRcalibrator makes? And is this the same profile that colorchecker passport makes?

In lightroom, there are two parts in the develop panel that seem to touch on this - up high in the basics panel there is a field titled 'profile'. There is no 'FLAT' option. Sometimetimes I really want to see what the raw file has for highlight information before I start tweaking sliders so I would like the ability to look at the flat profile. And at the very bottom is the calibration panel with different versions in the dropdown. Nowhere in my baked tiffs is there an option to select which adobe version to use so I do not really understand what this thing does.

So In reading about how to calibrate the software for MY camera, I have come across ACRcalibrator and color checker passport. Normally, I just take a pic of the color checker passport grid thingee and then just use it in lightroom to set the whitepoint/blackpoint by using the eyedropper. Even that seems overkill since most processing I do is heavy handed 'human' interpretation to evoke the scene as I saw it at the time. So I do not really understand how what these two applications would add to my workflow. I would appreciate any feedback on your approaches to color grading in this part of the image import/editing process.

[Alan Goldhammer]

For camera calibration this THREAD may be of interest.  It's an alternative to the X-Rite software.

[bwana]

thank you for the link. ok, i see where it generates the profile but then there are additional options that even add to the confusion - Tuning? optimization? looks? A lot of this stuff is what I do on a 'per image basis'. I guess this is useful for those people in production where they do a fashion shoot under controlled lighting conditions where they have to edit thousands of images.

And it assumes a fundamental understanding that my questions highlight.

[howardm]

You really only generate one or a few camera profiles.  It's NOT a 'per shoot' or 'per image' thing.

Watch this (from the DigitalDog).........
http://www.digitaldog.net/files/DNG%20Camera%20profile%20video.mov

[Mark D Segal]

basICColor Input 5 is an excellent piece of software for making both scanner and camera profiles rather easily, with fine results.

[bwana]

thank you for digitaldog's link. very helpful.

but on basICColor Input 5. 500 euro.?!  no thank you.

[howardm]

if you already have a Passport chart (or even a regular CC24 as I recall), the XRite camera profile generator software is zero cost.  The Lumariver sw is very flexible and cheap for what it does and the author is a regular contributor here.

[digitaldog]

So In reading about how to calibrate the software for MY camera, I have come across ACRcalibrator and color checker passport. Normally, I just take a pic of the color checker passport grid thingee and then just use it in lightroom to set the whitepoint/blackpoint by using the eyedropper. Even that seems overkill since most processing I do is heavy handed 'human' interpretation to evoke the scene as I saw it at the time. So I do not really understand how what these two applications would add to my workflow. I would appreciate any feedback on your approaches to color grading in this part of the image import/editing process.

ALL it provides is a better subjective rendering of the raw, based on a camera profile that's more aligned with your specific sensor. This has pretty much nothing to do with the scene color which is Scene Referred and would look rather ugly on-screen.
See: http://www.color.org/ICC_white_paper_20_Digital_photography_color_management_basics.pdf

[bwana]

ok. so the dng profile is something used to adjust the colors based on the camera sensor and wavelength of light hitting the sensor. Different profiles would then obviously benefit different cameras whose sensors might respond to specific light frequencies differently. so maybe you can clear this up about LR

In lightroom, there are two parts in the develop panel that seem to touch on this - up high in the basics panel there is a field titled 'profile'. There is no 'FLAT' option. Sometimetimes I really want to see what the raw file has for highlight information before I start tweaking sliders so I would like the ability to look at the flat profile. And at the very bottom is the calibration panel with different versions in the dropdown. Nowhere in my baked tiffs is there an option to select which adobe version to use so I do not really understand what this thing does.

I assume the dng profile (capture profile, or whatever you want to call it) is what is used in the top panel. What does the bottom panel do with the different versions listed?