Canon 5D ACR Calibration
Written on 18 August 2007 (by John Nevill @ 5:38 pm)Having used Adobe’s Lightroom for about 6 months now, I thought it worthwhile investing in a Gretag ColorChecker and calibrating Adobe Camera Raw for my dSLRs.
There’s plenty of information on the net regarding the benefits of such calibration. Most discuss the merits and take you through the labourious process of measuring and adjusting. However, I came across a web site run by Rags Gardner which offers free Adobe scripts that takes the tedium out of the process,. Well almost! It’s still quite an iterative balancing act.
Anyhow here’s what I did:
I intially used a Canon EF 24-70 f2.8L lens. The Canon 5D was set to f5.6 at 1/200sec at ISO 100. The target although central, filled aproximately 1/2 the frame, so as not to introduce any vignetting issues.
I used midday sun (WB at ~5000k) with the target set against a neutral background and took multiple exposure at +1/3rd stop intervals. I repeated this 3 times to ensure consistency.
The capture process was then repeated a couple of days later using a EF70-200 f2.8L IS lens.
I then followed Rags’ instructions and set about creating the calibration files. I zeroed all ACR settings and used a linear response curve. I used D50 Lab values and ran the script with a 4/6 pass (new script v.621) across six images.
All data was entered into a spreadsheet and I then tweaked the calibration settings to yeild the best results using Rags’ Macbeth colour checker script.
Here’s the before calibration image (shown in sRGB):
and here’s the after calibration image (shown in sRGB):
And finally, the all important settings (revised using Rag’s v6.21 script – 20th Sept 2007).
Note: these settings are for ProPhotoRGB output not AdobeRGB.
If you want to apply these to all 5D RAWs, either download the 5D LR template and import it or make the adjustments and add them as a preset and sync!
Enjoy!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Hello,
I am completely new to Digital and i bought a 5D. I also use LR and found this preset quite good. What happens to the Adobe RGB settings or have you calculated that. As I say I am totally new to all this having used Contax 645 before and Velvia.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Noel,
The default working colourspace for LR is ProPhotoRGB, so if you do everything in LR then these settings are good. If you output to CS3 or similar app then all you have to do is make sure these also use ProPhotoRGB colourspace.
If you don’t then you will see a marginal colour shift and the calibration will not be accurate.
Hope this helps.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:15 am
John
thanks for this info. I have to really take time to study all this stuff. Question, Is it absolutley necessary to have CS3 .. I have bought the LLVJ on Lightroom and they moved back and forward between LR and CS .. I am about to upgrade my PC, Monitor and printer to try and begin printing myself .. any inof you can give me would be helpful .. I have an Epson 2100 and it seems that this printer has very limited paper type options .. whereas M Rechmann in his videos seems to have a hundred different paper profiles
January 10th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Noel,
No CS3 is not essential, 99% of your image workflow can be achieved in LR. CS3 just expands creativity.
I use an Epson 2100 (same as 2200 but European), Great printer. Superb colours, although a little slow compared to the latest offerings.
I use a Lyson continuous ink system and lyson paper with mine and it drives down the cost of use immensely. Although the initial outlay is ~£150.
BTW, LR does an excellent job on printing as you can save your setups as presets.
January 20th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Hello John
thanks for your reply. I was away working abroad for a week .. another question .. how can I add paper profiles to LR.. I also have a 2100 and when I open the print screen either on Photoshop Elements or lightroom there seems to be no way to add profiles to whats embedded in the Print Screen
any comments on that
I will move up to Epson 3800 soon having sold some of my Contax 35mm stuff
regards and thanks again
Noel Greene
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Noel,
You need to add your icc profiles to the C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color folder, then they will appear in the LR / PSE print dialogues. For LR you also need to add them in by selecting the print module, then profile and then other, and check the ones you want to use.
BTW, once you’re happy with the layout and printer settings, save it as a preset in LR and it rertains all settings including those you set in the printer’s dialogue.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Hi, I’ve been using this for a while and I like it. Ever since lightroom 2.2 acr 5.2 it starts to produce to yellow pictures. Do you have an update?
/Fredric
May 8th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
With regards to exporting to CS3 or CS4 from LR What if you use a printing lab that excepts sRGB? As you said there is going to be a color shift because so why should we go through the hassle of calibration? How can we ensure that our color management will be the same through out the workflow from LR to CS4?
May 24th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I’d suggest working in ProPhoto right through the LR to CS3 process and convert to sRGB at final stage. However, I gave up using LR about 6 months ago, I prefer Silkypix and C1 Pro, IMO both of these give better outputs.