The day has finally come. Capture One users can finally use the XRite ColorChecker to create camera profiles and get proper true-to-life colors in our photos. The necessity for a proper color workflow is imperative for anything you plan on printing, or duplicating in any way (Especially when working with brands).
First off, a disclaimer. As of the 8th of January 2019 this current version of the ColorChecker software, 1.2, is in public beta so you may experience a hiccup or two but so far I have yet to experience any. The video that XRite released is a little light on the details for how to use the ColorChecker, but you can watch that here. (Dear XRite, simply saying "use the recommended settings" does not tell people how to do something!)
In order to make an ICC profile for the specific lighting setup of a shoot, let's say a product shoot, get all of your settings and lighting dialed in, and then take a photo of the ColorChecker before continuing with your photoshoot. Once done, import your files into Capture One and select the file with the ColorChecker. Next, set the ICC profile to "No Color Correction" under Base Characteristics -> ICC Profile -> Effects. You may have to hit "Show All" to see this.
How to choose No Color Correction ICC Profile in Capture One
In the dialogue box directly below ICC Profile, set your curve to "Linear Response" and you are ready to export! When exporting, you want to be sure to use a 16 Bit Uncompressed TIFF File, with the ICC Profile set to "Embed Camera Profile". Now quit Capture One and open the ColorChecker Passport software. On the top right, click the button called ICC, and then drag and drop the TIFF file you created into the program and press "Create Profile". If you are using windows, there is currently a bug where files large than 150MB will not work so you may need to crop your photo for this. After the software has made the ICC profile, it will automatically open to the proper folder so you can easily save it there. Re-Open Capture One and you will find your new ICC profile under the "Other" drop-down. If you are tethering, continue shooting, if you're in post-production, you can now copy-paste these settings to every image and get to work!
I've had one of these a few years, Was religious in using it for a couple of months and then I forgot I had it.
oops.
I just click a neutral zone and go from there.
Ditto...less interested in accurate color for the most part it's about pleasing color. But most of the time I just WB off teeth or eyes and go from there.
This is about so much more than while balance. It's about how the camera renders colors - it's the same reason a Nikon & Canon set to the same WB in the same image won't look the same.
Yes I get it....important if you are shooting for assignments where that accuracy is important.
Actually, it's about pleasing colors. It's one of those times when you can't see the difference unless you compare them but when you do... Oh man!
Actually if you have shoots from 2 different cameras (you took assistant with his own equipment) and would like to match photos this piece of equipment could also be useful ;)
With not everyone using teeth whiteners, many teeth are various shades of brown and yellow. I would not suggest doing a white balance from teeth. The images would end up being various cool tones, depending on the color of the teeth.
This device does not provide color "accuracy." It provides color "consistency."
For me, consistency is always a good place to start when processing several photos from a single shoot, no matter where it eventually ends up.
Generally, the WB patch is all that I tend to use anymore.
but say you are shooting for a fashion client and the fabric colors need to be dead accurate for catalog or e-comm? Just white balancing isnt going to help much with that. And what if the clients post firm or printer asks for the color card photos so you're working off the same profile based on the various lighting setups throughout the day? If it's a creative project you will color grade to personal liking that's different, but a large majority of photographers using capture one are shooting commercial assignments where not shooting color cards throughout the day will ensure you do not get any further assignments from the agency or production company.
Finally!!! Thanks for the info, downloading now! :)
Found the link to the public beta software in the video: https://xritephoto.com/CameraICC
Wouldn't it be totally sweet if C1 supported standard DNG workflows and profiles, we could have been easily creating and using those profiles without third-party software for years… (And don't start with that whole "DNG is evil" argument, all the FUD around that is demonstrably false.)
Hmm, I am not saying that dng is evil but to correct you in terms of standards it is the ICC profiles that are the standard and dng is a adobe product. ICC stands for International Color Consortium and was and is the color standard that color management both on windows (CMM) and Mac (Colorsync) is based on. It is also the language that rips and prepress systems are using when you are talking about professional color systems both for offset and inkjet printing in all its forms also including how the different displays are working to display the color you are looking at when you are doing color corrections. So if anything we should ask Adobe to skip silly proprietary systems that no other software understands and ingrate with a standard color system that has worked for years before the invention of dng profiles. But possibly they would not make so much money if they acted like that.
About those "silly proprietary systems that no other software understands", DNG is an open, documented system everybody with basic levels of technical literacy can understand and implement, as opposed to a new closed esoteric raw format that slightly mutates with every camera for little good reason.
The part about ICC is true, nonetheless DNG does not stand behind an insurmountable wall except a huge mountain of FUD spread by people who quite frankly should know better.
Sorry I was not discussing the dng format at all, I am addressing the situation of camera profiling and not a universal raw format where there has already been discussed in area like OpenRaw but has been less successful.
The remark of silly formats refers to the dng camera profile that is not being used by any other raw converter then adobe apps (to my knowledge).
I know the area of camera formats are sensitive for some but I really have no opinion about that other then concerns my own file processing. I was talking about dng color profile as used by the software this post was about and for example basiccolor Input. And since all existing Color management apps that has been in professional use is based on ICC profiles there is really only a way of trying to get users to stay in the adobe users and create an infrastructure where others apps are slowly being muscled out by Adobe. My personal opinion is that adobe has tried to create an environment where all user will stick to be their users and not use other apps that might have a better/other quality, this is of course their prerogative for their commercial success but that does not mean that their technology being better but there is an existing technology that is being used and works very well and is really not an area that overloaded by FUD as long as you understand the basic of color profiling.
Those are related when you're looking at integrating existing tools into a new workflow. Between that and the availability of tools that convert a DCP profile to ICC, it's a bit of a bummer that PhaseOne didn't go that extra metre.
Hmmm, So after this article reminded me I had a ColourChecker Passport in a drawer somewhere, I dug it out.
Set up a quick scene and ran a calibration export from LR to create a profile for the Z7.
Yesterday I was shooting some red beverage, did my usual global tweaks and added 'feeling' to the shots before sending them to the client to preview.
Now I just applied the Z7 profile onto a few shots from yesterday and the red is much truer to the product.
Well, blow me down. I might just have to use it a bit more. Or at least until I forget I have it again ;)
Has anyone else had problems with this? I have tried it with a 5D Mk III and a 7D Mk II. After creating the profiles and applying them, the skin tones and other color look great but I completely lose the blacks. See examples below. Nothing I can do will bring the blacks back. Any thoughts?
I have yet to try this out but how does it look on terms of shadow detail, it is possible that the curve is linear and simply trying to achieve more shadow detail but how does it look, is it simply a flat result rather then a detail increase?
I have not had time to try it yet so I am curios about your results
This is potentially a superb app. But, it doesn't work with C1. At least not for me. There are no blue shadow warnings in a file with the profile applied. Moreover, it is NOT possible to achieve a true black (R,G,B, - 0,0,0) with it. You can move as many sliders as you like to the left, but the best I get is 0,0,12, and the blacks look awful. In Lightroom it's a fully integrated plugin. You don't have to do anything in settings. You just highlight a file with a ColorChecker in it and export it. Fantastic. Way ahead of C1 on this occasion. This app would be gold for me if it worked properly, but it's rubbish with my C1/Windows 10 combo.