Lightroom Profiles: Does anyone here use the Profile feature? Adobe says they are not presets but color profiles which can be used as a starting point if desired. You will have to look...

Black Elk Peak

Does anyone here use the Profile feature? Adobe says they are not presets but color profiles which can be used as a starting point if desired. You will have to look at it since it would take too long to explain. I have started playing around with them. It is almost information overload for this old geezer.

Thanks for any input.

GrandmaG Loc: Flat Rock, MI

Black Elk Peak wrote:

Does anyone here use the Profile feature? Adobe says they are not presets but color profiles which can be used as a starting point if desired. You will have to look at it since it would take too long to explain. I have started playing around with them. It is almost information overload for this old geezer.

Thanks for any input.

Same here, I forget about them, too. When I remember, I can generally find a profile that I like.

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Presets and profiles are similar insofar as they can both be 'altered' later on.There seems to be an industry now of creating these - before it was a few 'Labs' like Topaz.

If you batch process images or supply images to someone who prefers a certain 'look' or standard balance, they can be useful. If you take many subjects in different lights and locations, Not so much. I think some people find them inspirational only when 'by chance' it lifts 'the mundane, up to something so so'. A while ago, one would PP a single image at a time, Now that you can take hundreds in an hour, Batch processing is the only way to keep up. That means that your images all have to fall into a certain parameters.

Try them by all means - but the rest of LR processing will give you similar adjustments and more control over the image.

have fun

Black Elk Peak

G Brown wrote:

Presets and profiles are similar insofar as they c... (show quote)

Yeah. I don't believe I will pursue the profiles much longer. If I do tweak a RAW/JPEG file, it is minor adjustments to bring it more as "the eye sees it". To this day, nothing can replicate the human eye. The ultra modern cameras of today can come very close. Tap the highlights/shadows/blacks/whites/exposure; maybe do a little HSL and I am done.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Black Elk Peak wrote:

Does anyone here use the Profile feature? Adobe says they are not presets but color profiles which can be used as a starting point if desired. You will have to look at it since it would take too long to explain. I have started playing around with them. It is almost information overload for this old geezer.

Thanks for any input.

I use them all the time, but only as a starting point for further processing.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

rgrenaderphoto wrote:

I use them all the time, but only as a starting point for further processing.

Agree

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Black Elk Peak wrote:

Does anyone here use the Profile feature? Adobe says they are not presets but color profiles which can be used as a starting point if desired. You will have to look at it since it would take too long to explain. I have started playing around with them. It is almost information overload for this old geezer.

Thanks for any input.

I make my own when the level of color accuracy requires it. I use an Xrite ColorChecker Passport, which is a combination of a color target and software that automatically generates a color-neutral profile. That is my starting point in such situations.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

I do use them as a starting point or if I’m stuck. What I like about them is that as you scroll over the little thumbnails you can see what the changes look like on your bigger image. I just recently got turned on to them.

jak86094

Black Elk Peak wrote:

Does anyone here use the Profile feature? Adobe says they are not presets but color profiles which can be used as a starting point if desired. You will have to look at it since it would take too long to explain. I have started playing around with them. It is almost information overload for this old geezer.

Thanks for any input.

Yes, I use a Profile. When I first started using Lightroom I opened several of my photos and tried all of the Profiles before deciding which I though most accurately produced what I remembered the actual scenes or subjects looked like. That has been my default. I try really hard to not overprocess images, so my default Profile does not apply extreme color adjustments. I seldom change from the default because my typical workflow is kind of based on that being the Profile. You might think of it that way and see if it helps.

jak

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

Gene51 wrote:

I make my own when the level of color accuracy requires it. I use an Xrite ColorChecker Passport, which is a combination of a color target and software that automatically generates a color-neutral profile. That is my starting point in such situations.

While I never considered it a Profile in that sense. I also always carry an Xrite ColorChecker Passport and insert it in the scene whenever the time and situation permits. I always wish I could have handed a leopard the passport and asked him to hold it up because I have never gotten his coat to appear as I remember it. It just didn't happen to occur to me!

I ran an unintended experiment a few years back. At a family gathering with five cameras active (D70s, D300s, D7100, D810 and a Canon Rebel XSi). We started with a shot of the Passport. I applied a passport generated profile to all and basically you couldn't tell which camera was which from the results. Several generations of sensor here with 100s of shots.

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

rgrenaderphoto wrote:

I use them all the time, but only as a starting point for further processing.

Likewise. Prior to LR introducing Profiles, I got much the same results, but now I get to them faster.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

lsimpkins wrote:

Likewise. Prior to LR introducing Profiles, I got much the same results, but now I get to them faster.

LR has had camera calibration and the ability to create a custom profile since the beta in 2006. What are you referring to?

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/6104063725/adobelightroom

lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania

Gene51 wrote:

LR has had camera calibration and the ability to create a custom profile since the beta in 2006. What are you referring to?

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/6104063725/adobelightroom

Gene, I am referring to the Profiles available in the Basic Panel of the Development Module, not specific or custom camera calibration profiles. Adobe added Profile selections (at least for my use of DNG out of camera) of Adobe Color, Landscape, Portrait, and Vivid (plus numerous Artistic, B&W, Modern, and Vintage) in addition to the Adobe Standard and Embedded that have been there for many previous versions. Unlike Presets, Profiles apply their adjustments, but leave all the sliders in their unadjusted position. Perhaps folks in the Canon or Nikon universe have had some of these options previously, but for those of us who use native DNG raw files, they are relatively new.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

lsimpkins wrote:

Gene, I am referring to the Profiles available in ... (show quote)

Ah - I see. You are referring to when they moved the profiles from the Camera Calibration area to the top and added a profile browser tab. I am pretty sure these are the same in function, but they've added some pre-built profiles in addition to letting you create your own.

It's really all the same, and present since LR 1.0, just a much better, more accessible implementation.

This may help clear up any confusion:

https://theblog.adobe.com/april-lightroom-adobe-camera-raw-releases-new-profiles?red=a

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Black Elk Peak wrote:

Does anyone here use the Profile feature? Adobe says they are not presets but color profiles which can be used as a starting point if desired. You will have to look at it since it would take too long to explain. I have started playing around with them. It is almost information overload for this old geezer.

Thanks for any input.

No. I like to create my own "look" my way.