abc1234 wrote:
I finally bit the bullet and bought this. Its use is pretty straight forward except for one thing and I would appreciate help on this. You start off by making the calibration standard DNG. Restart LR and pull up that standard. Fine. Got that. Then you have the calibration shot from you shoot. Use the eyedropper on the appropriate gray patch. Easy enough.
Here comes my question. Or questions. What do you do next? Do you make another DNG and restart LR? What if the original DNG was shot under different lighting? Do you have DNG's for each shot? Synching the rest of the shots is easy but what is really the standard for the shoot? Unconfuse me please.
I finally bit the bullet and bought this. Its use... (
show quote)
Shoot a properly exposed target
Open the image in Lightroom, use the dropper on the middle gray patch to get the white balance correct
export to dng to profile the rest of the color spectrum - so you have proper color AND white balance.
restart LR
Now you have a color neutral color profile for your camera/lens/filter/light condition - any picture that you take in tat same light will be able to use the profile.
You select the dng, along with all the other images that were taken in the same light, then use Lr's Sync button in the Develop Module to select the Camera Calibration field, and no others. Finish by pressing Synchronize . . .
You are now done and all of the image will have the exact, neutral color and white balance.
This is a great video that explains, in thorough detail, how it works and why it is the best tool to do proper white and color balance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDtebpvATzcIn 51 yrs of doing photography, including Minolta and Spectracolor color balance and color temperature meters - I have yet to see a system work as consistently and accurately as this.
My surprise was when I did this for an event I was shooting where I was using 2 different cameras and my second shooter was using another camera from a different manufacturer. When all three cameras were properly calibrated, it looked like all the images were taken by one camera.
While you can twiddle the sliders in your raw converter, that is the most inefficient way I know of to get proper color and white balance. Better to calibrate to a common, recognized standard. It eliminates all the guesswork.
As far as multiple lighting situations are concerned, yes - you shoot a new target when the light changes - if color accuracy is important. If you are doing artistic or interpretive editorial work, it probably is overkill. But if you are shooting product or models for advert work, you had better get it 110% on the money - and the Colorchecker passport is the only dependable tool I know of that can do this. If you've got one that has been opened and unused, it is likely that the colors have drifted and it will no longer be accurate, and shouldn't be used.
The video is very informative - watch it.