X-Rite has new "kit" for color balancing.....

[Terry]

Thanks LJ,
I actually downloaded the brochure. You and I have the same understanding of it. From the previous post when we were using the word profile differently, I got confused.

On the brochure on the enhanced card the colors are for using the Hue/Sat/Luminance and correspond to the sliders in LR.

I watched Seth's video....I just couldn't tell if it was as automatic as he led us to believe or if the film was edited with some steps cut out.

I just got an email back from Amazon that their ship date was in November. So, I ordered from Xrite and we will see what their timeframe is.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

According to Eric Chan from the ACR/LR team the software uses a different engine to that of the DNG Profile Editor and the results making a profile are going to be different. According to some people over at LL making a profile with the new software is less accurate than using the DNG Profile Editor. To be honest making a profile using the adobe software takes a few seconds and is dead easy, not sure why anyone would need this software to be honest.

I'll give it a check though using my example from above a bit later and post the results.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I just like the packaging more than anything. Right now I have a big CC card and a very tiny handheld one but they are not protect very well either and just like this case setup better.

 

[LJL]

Guy,
I think that may be one of the more attractive things about this "kit". The fact that one can carry and easily protect a decent sized ColorChecker, plus a good Gray Card, and now an added Enhanced settings for Hue, Saturation and Luminance, makes it a very practical tool. The added software to automate the slider settings for LR is the other bonus, but for folks not using LR, taking just the various targets along and remembering to pop them into a set-up shot whenever you are in changing light conditions will do a lot for getting a better color calibrated workflow for many.

As Ben mentions, the new automation software is not going to replace the more sophisticated profiling software, but my bet is that it will get a lot more use from folks using LR, and that will help. The nice thing is that one can easily achieve somewhat more repeatable slider settings more easily, and they will be calibrated to the light conditions under which they were taken. So, knowing to move Saturation 2-6 points, and Hue a couple and Luminance a couple more is great, if the original light of the shot matches what you determined the first time out. But if you suddenly hit some mixed light or the color temp changes, you can still get the same sort of relative adjustments, but now made to go with the new light calibration.

The key is going to be the discipline to actually take the device along and actually use it whenever shooting. For specific shoots, that may not be so hard. For folks that are shooting casually, getting the cards out and popping a capture shot every time they are shooting in varying light may take a bit more effort. Most folks will just trust the camera AWB setting and then struggle with fine-tuning later, but lacking a good reference to use to get that fine-tuning.

LJ