Create a custom colour profile for your camera

Adobe have made it simple to get good colours in your images during RAW conversion by including camera calibration profiles in Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) and Adobe Lightroom 2.

Initially Adobe released a selection of beta camera profiles that you installed with the existing ACR 3.3 and 4.4 profiles.  More recent releases of ACR and Lightroom have included the complete profile sets - you can use them straight away.

So, what is special about these profiles?

Firstly, Adobe’s profiles match the picture styles that are available with JPEG creation in many cameras.  This allows you to get closer to the vibrant look of the preview JPEG without having to fiddle too much with settings during RAW conversion.

Secondly, they released a little software tool that lets you create your own camera profiles using a standard 24 colour chart (like the x-rite ColorChecker).

You can create custom profiles for each of your cameras to get consistent colours from your workflow regardless of the camera body you use.  You can also create specific profiles for specific conditions, such as awkward lighting.

Click through for instructions on creating your own camera specific colour profiles.

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First step is to get yourself a copy of Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor, the most recent release is still in beta but freely available from the Adobe Labs website.

Secondly you need to buy or borrow a standard 24-patch ColorChecker chart.

Thirdly you need to take a photo of the chart, evenly lit (just use that big light in the sky, the sun).  Keep the chart a decent size in the frame!

When creating the photo, watch our for subtle reflections from nearby bright surfaces – these can mess up the calibration profile.

As the name suggests, the DNG Profile Editor needs a DNG file to work it’s magic, so convert the chart photo using your favourite convertor.  Don’t worry, you only need to convert your photo of the colour chart to DNG - you can continue using your camera’s proprietary format for your photos.

Once you have the DNG file, open it in the Adobe DNG Profile Editor.

On the top right, click the ‘Chart’ tab and position the four circles into the centre of the outer four colour boxes.

Make sure you have selected ‘Both color tables’ and then click ‘Create Color Table’.

Once it is finished, use file->Export <name of your camera> to save your newly created profile.  Give the profile a unique name – if you have multiple bodies of the same type, use the serial number.  Also, if the profile was for a specific scenario, make sure you are explicit in the profile name – you don’t want to load a profile for blue lights when the image was created in sunlight.

The editor should save them to the correct place but if you are unsure…

• Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

• XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

• Vista: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

You will need to restart Photoshop ACR or Lightroom to see the profile added to the calibration list.

Tomorrow I will show you how I set-up Lightroom 2 to use these profiles automatically.

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