Passport Color Checker on Feb 8 ONLY
- Thread starter Butlerkid
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BlackRockArt
Well-known member
This is a nice tool for video calibration too.
thanks for the heads up. No immediate need but some day I suspect it will be useful.
I make a custom color profile for each camera body and then use that when processing my raw images. Saves a lot of time trying to dial in accurate colors.....at least for me.
eaj101
Well-known member
Thanks. Good idea. Ordered 
how often do you need 100% accurate colors. I mostly shoot natural light and adjust color to taste, i.e., what looks good to me.
When photographing wildlife, I want the colors to be as accurate as possible. And it can greatly simplify post processing. Shots taken in golden light reflect that golden light, brightly colored birds are presented with life-like colors.
Adjusting to what looks good afterwards works, but the eye/mind can't accurately remember nuances in colors.
It's a personal choice.........
eaj101
Well-known member
I shoot natural light but find the normal adjustments (cool/warm, green/magenta) pretty inadequate to get colors right.
I'll try the color checker though placing it next to a sleeping lion might be a once in the lifetime challenge
LOL! I have found over the years that I only have to create one profile - in sunny light conditions. That one profile is good for all my wildlife shooting, whether it be sunrise, mid day, sunset, or at night. I don't shoot under flourescent, incandescent, or other lighting that requires me to have several profiles.I'll try the color checker though placing it next to a sleeping lion might be a once in the lifetime challenge
Sleeping lion isn't a problem - Wait till it wakes up.I'll try the color checker though placing it next to a sleeping lion might be a once in the lifetime challenge
I'll try it soon. As I understand it, you are adjusting the camera's response to color, not color temperature
and they wake up very quickly if a meal comes close
In South Africa we have very different light in different parts of the country - from the red dry desert to lush green Kwazulu Natal. Me thinks I will need more than one profile.
(edited to correct typing error)
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It is the same process as calibrating a monitor. A calibrated monitor will accurately display the colors in a file. A custom camera profile will ensure that the camera captures accurate colors in the raw file which is the source file.
Not really. It's not the colors of the subjects, it is the color and quality of the LIGHT. As long as you are shooting in daylight - and you create the profile using day light - one profile should be fine.
I realise that - thats why I said different light - not color. The color is also different in these parts - but it's the light that is so vastly different
I think the point is calibrate the sensor's response (sensitivity by color) and then adjust the color temp and color balance in LR/ACR
My understanding of the color checker passport, is that you need a camera profile for each type of light you shoot in. So a profile for early morning light won't be entirely accurate for a mid-day shots. A profile for a sunny day may not be accurate for an overcast day.
I have a color checker passport, but I mainly use it for accurate WB when shooting in-doors or when the light will remain constistant. For example, today I am photographing 94 JROTC cadets (portraits). I will ensure that I include the color checker passport in at least one shot, held under the cadet's chin or next to their face. I then use that image to set a custom white balance which I copy to every image. That way all portraits will have the same accurate white balance and colors.
I've always felt that setting profiles for outdoors was less than accurate as the light changes throughout the day. But then, I've never tried it either.
I have a color checker passport, but I mainly use it for accurate WB when shooting in-doors or when the light will remain constistant. For example, today I am photographing 94 JROTC cadets (portraits). I will ensure that I include the color checker passport in at least one shot, held under the cadet's chin or next to their face. I then use that image to set a custom white balance which I copy to every image. That way all portraits will have the same accurate white balance and colors.
I've always felt that setting profiles for outdoors was less than accurate as the light changes throughout the day. But then, I've never tried it either.
Not necessary if you use a custom color profile and want accurate color. The custom color profile ensures accurate color temp/balance. One generally doesn't tweak the monitor after doing a color calibration. Same is true with calibrating the color from your camera. You can, of course, always override the custom profile and tweak colors to your liking - just like you can with any profile one might use.
Light from the sun is still the source of light regardless if the day is sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc. In my years of experience, the custom color profile I made in daylight provided very accurate colors for images taken at sunrise, sunset, mid day, cloudy, rainy, etc....conditions. ....... because the light source was the sun in each case.
Different light sources (sun, fluorescent, incandescent, etc) have different color temperatures. If you shoot understand fluorescent lights, then creating a custom color profile taken under fluorescent lighting would provide more accurate colors that a custom color profile taken in daylight conditions.
Just a bit of clarification, though., in case someone is new to it. The color checker doesn't do anything to the sensor or the camera or the raw file. It just makes a lightroom profile. You take a reference picture of the target which has colors accurately printed to match standard values. In lightroom you send that picture out to the colorchecker software and a profile comes back in the same section of lightroom where all the other profiles are. For example if a red square in the picture in lightroom doesn't match the standard red expected by the software it makes an adjustment to the profile so that red now matches the red of the target. Repeat for 24 or so colors of the target. It doesn't fix your white balance but there are grey squares in the target to use with the eyedropper tool if you want.
I do one for sun and shade with each camera, but don't automatically use it, sometimes another profile looks better to my eye. It's not a game changer unless you absolutely have to match colors especially using different cameras and lenses and lighting situations. When the bride's dress or skin has to be just right in all the images and different members of the team are shooting different cameras, or when the product logo has to be exactly the same every time, etc.
Here is a pretty good article that explains how and why to create camera and light profiles. For me it gives a better description than what is given in the Color-Checker Passport instruction manual.
https://www.keptlight.com/use-your-passport/
The author explains everything quite clearly and recommends that a reasonable approach to developing a profile collection includes (among others): Sunlight, Daylight, Shade, Overcast, Tungsten and Fluorescent. That's four different profiles for use outside. He also describes creating dual profiles and makes recommendations for those. Interestingly while he seems to think creating one profile of each type mentioned is sufficient, fluorescent lights are the exception. He recommends creating a new profile every time you shoot under fluorescent lights.
Regardless, if you think you need a color-checker passport, this is a good deal. Kudos to Karen for posting it.
https://www.keptlight.com/use-your-passport/
The author explains everything quite clearly and recommends that a reasonable approach to developing a profile collection includes (among others): Sunlight, Daylight, Shade, Overcast, Tungsten and Fluorescent. That's four different profiles for use outside. He also describes creating dual profiles and makes recommendations for those. Interestingly while he seems to think creating one profile of each type mentioned is sufficient, fluorescent lights are the exception. He recommends creating a new profile every time you shoot under fluorescent lights.
Regardless, if you think you need a color-checker passport, this is a good deal. Kudos to Karen for posting it.
Color temperature of light is not the same from dawn to dusk. Sunrise Kelvin is very different from Midday Kelvin, one profile definitely is not going to be accurate for all situations. But I don't believe it has to be 100% accurate anyway - Unless one is OCD and runs around with a grey card / color-checker all day long, which I have no intention of doing. It also isn't practical. And on occasion, changing it from the original, results in a more pleasing image anyway. Not everything has to be real. Especially white balance.
Surroundings can result in a color cast too.
I used to shoot art for galleries and museums - obviously very important getting those colors perfect - you can end up doing profiles more than once during a shoot.
Currently - I think I only have problems with my greens - but I may be VERY wrong - so I will fish out my color checker passport and build some profiles for nature.
To Karen and others - the comments in this thread spark some brain cells to life again. thanks . I forgot too much of what I knew before
Surroundings can result in a color cast too.
I used to shoot art for galleries and museums - obviously very important getting those colors perfect - you can end up doing profiles more than once during a shoot.
Currently - I think I only have problems with my greens - but I may be VERY wrong - so I will fish out my color checker passport and build some profiles for nature.
To Karen and others - the comments in this thread spark some brain cells to life again. thanks . I forgot too much of what I knew before
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Good article - thanks for sharing.