Color Profiling the M?

[Speedgraphic]

My M raws seem pretty cool SooC and sometimes I have to do a lot of tweaking to get pleasing skin tones, even whens using VSCO or Mastin Labs. Has anyone had success color profiling the M for LR or is this just the way the auto white balance responds to color?

 

[glenerrolrd]

I think the best way to profile the M is with the Passport Color Checker . You can google it and read the process . The result is a custom profile that can be included as an option in LR . (camera calibration). For me this works best by first creating a custom WB for the M using an Expo Disc. Then I shoot the Passport and create the profile . I try to do this in mid day sunlight to create a profile that will reflect the changing color of light through the day .

There is more to it than this especially of you expect to be shooting under mixed lighting ...but this covers most of my needs .

Once you have “calibrated “ files you can then experiment with Presets ...either your own or software like VSCO ,Alien Skin etc . I believe its important to start with a neutral (calibrated file thats white balanced ) before using the Film Emulators .

 

[Speedgraphic]

Cool! I have a Color Passport so it shouldn't be that challenging to figure out. Hopefully I can make my job a little easier with this.

 

[baudolino]

I agree with the Color Passport profile route in general but what I see mostly with my custom profiles is more saturated blues which are not always more attractive than the Adobe Standard profile. I have suggested to my Leica rep that they should make a set of extra profiles or LR development presets available for various "typical" situations, such as Landscape, Portrait, Vivid etc. These exist in LR for many other cameras and are often a good starting point for me when developing the raw files. Colin Walker (https://twitter.com/colorfidelity) has such presets available for the M9, for a small amount (and also for many other cameras, including Pentax K-1 of the more recent crop) but I don't think he's done a set for the M (or S) yet.

 

[glenerrolrd]

I agree with the Color Passport profile route in general but what I see mostly with my custom profiles is more saturated blues which are not always more attractive than the Adobe Standard profile. I have suggested to my Leica rep that they should make a set of extra profiles or LR development presets available for various "typical" situations, such as Landscape, Portrait, Vivid etc. These exist in LR for many other cameras and are often a good starting point for me when developing the raw files. Colin Walker (https://twitter.com/colorfidelity) has such presets available for the M9, for a small amount (and also for many other cameras, including Pentax K-1 of the more recent crop) but I don't think he's done a set for the M (or S) yet.

Generally I prefer to keep the camera profiles separate from the presets . If you can start with a consistent WB and color profile (by using a custom camera calibration ) ...then you can apply the presets to create the aesthetic that you prefer . The presets must assume you are starting with a neutral and linear file ....otherwise they would give inconsistent results .

 

[Charles2]

... creating a custom WB for the M using an Expo Disc. Then I shoot the Passport and create the profile . I try to do this in mid day sunlight to create a profile that will reflect the changing color of light through the day .

Does the final profile depend much on the particular lens?

 

[thompsonkirk]

Only a little bit, for example Leica a bit warmer, Zeiss a bit greener. But these differences are pretty easily handled in PP. Lighting conditions, etc., will probably make more difference and need more PP effort than changing lenses will.

I once made separate profiles for a number of Leica and Zeiss M lenses and found that the differences didn't seem to have been worth the trouble of the extra profiling. It's probably sufficient to profile one most commonly used or 'average' lens, unless you have others that noticeably distort WB.

Just recently I've had a problem concerning camera profiles with Color Checker and I1: No trouble making them, but he instructions say to put them in a user library that no longer exists in latest versions of OS X. Where do you put them on a Mac? I've made several guesses, but the profiles don't appear in the drop-down list of choices in LR/ACR.

A friend has just acquired new camera profiling software (German, don't remember the software name or company) that uses 120 patches instead of the smaller number on Color Checker. We're going to re-profile soon (hoping to get regular RX1rII, A7rII and Kolari mod's WB to match). We have to figure out where to put them on Mac hard drive.

I can report back on this in a week or so.

Kirk

 

[baudolino]

In Finder, Alt-Click Go to see Library. From there, go to Application Support, Adobe, CameraRaw, Camera Profiles. That's where the profiles that I made are saved on my Mac.

 

[erick.boileau]

I am using that one for Lightroom and capture one basICColor input 5