Month: September 2009

Im still experimenting with this camera profiling kit and have done some work on the strong reds.

My initial analysis was that some saturation was increased using the profile I built and in the case of reds was causing some clipping. All files were coverted to 16 bit and the Adobe 1998 colour space.

When I tried the conversion into the larger pro photo colour space I got a big surprise, it looks like the profile has found a lot of colour detail outside the Adobe 1998 colour space (see the diagram above, the dots represent colour in the file and the solid object is the Adobe 1998 colour space).

In the Pro Photo Colour space there is no clipping, just extended colour…

When I use the standard Adobe camera profile and convert to Pro Photo the colour just about creeps out of the Adobe 1998 colour space so it looks like the custom profile really is getting some extra range out of the camera.

In order to get the advantage of this extended range it looks like I may need to convert and retouch in the Pro Photo colour space, I can always convert to Aobe 1998 with perceptual rendering if clients request.

This could be very useful for me helping clients who do copy work, will need to experiment some more…

Very excited today to get my hands on one of the new products from x-rite called the colorchecker passport.

This allows you to build custom colour profiles for cameras. Its simple to use – just shoot a frame with the checker in and then use this to build a custom profile that can then be used in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom.
Initial test look good, blues are more accurate (see the blue pot above), as are other colours like the teracotta pots, though reds look a little high. (Click on the image above to see a larger version).

I have given up on camera profiles in the past as the chart I used (a previous x-rite product called the SG) had a sheen on the colour tiles that made lighting/positioning the chart very difficult. The matt surface of the new product makes placement and readings much easier.

The charts are encased in a hard plastic shell that acts as its own stand and looks to be very well made, a bit of a bargin for about £80 inc VAT.

More testing to be done but Im happy with the initial results and look forward to using it on a commercial shoot next month.

You can read more here:
http://shop.colourconfidence.com/product.php?xProd=2686″

(Ellie the cat muscled in on the shot without prompting)
Stephen