The right way to make profiles and use them?
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 4:39 pm
Hi,
I have some questions about the better way to make and use profiles. I hope I can be clear in what exactly I need:
I've noticed that the center target in the calibration chart is actually a gray, with 127,127,127 RGB values. However, sometimes when you take a photo of the target and read the values in the photoshop, you can see that because of not having a perfect exposure (or the print quality or whatever) the centeral box is not the closest one to the 127,127,127 RGB but maybe another patch is a better choise. Now, wouldn't it be better to use the patch with the closest RGB value to 127,127,127 as the primary selection for profiling? Also, I see sometims that the darker patches show more visible noise. Is it better to manually fine tune the profile using those parts or right away after selecting the primary section, hit the auto optimize?
In practice, when you're going to use an already made profile, is it a better idea to use directly the matching profile on the image or to load the profile AND auto optimize (or even select some small parts and manually optimize) it for the each image for better results?
With RAW images, Neat Image at best is the SECOND program ever touching the data (sure, the first one is the RAW converter), so how important are the effects of WB adjustment on the overall output? Is it a good idea to load a ready made profile (with no specific WB adjustments) and just optimize it (auto or manual) and apply it to the image? And what about 8 and 16 bits outputs? Should one use a separate profile for 16 bits and 8 bits files?
And at the end, how really important is to have a top notch profile?!! It seems to be a strange question but actually I have once tested to see what happens if I use a WRONG profile (in my case a Sony DSC-75 profile for a Canon 10D image) and the results were pretty good!!! Or was it just a pure chance?
Best Regards
Arash
I have some questions about the better way to make and use profiles. I hope I can be clear in what exactly I need:
I've noticed that the center target in the calibration chart is actually a gray, with 127,127,127 RGB values. However, sometimes when you take a photo of the target and read the values in the photoshop, you can see that because of not having a perfect exposure (or the print quality or whatever) the centeral box is not the closest one to the 127,127,127 RGB but maybe another patch is a better choise. Now, wouldn't it be better to use the patch with the closest RGB value to 127,127,127 as the primary selection for profiling? Also, I see sometims that the darker patches show more visible noise. Is it better to manually fine tune the profile using those parts or right away after selecting the primary section, hit the auto optimize?
In practice, when you're going to use an already made profile, is it a better idea to use directly the matching profile on the image or to load the profile AND auto optimize (or even select some small parts and manually optimize) it for the each image for better results?
With RAW images, Neat Image at best is the SECOND program ever touching the data (sure, the first one is the RAW converter), so how important are the effects of WB adjustment on the overall output? Is it a good idea to load a ready made profile (with no specific WB adjustments) and just optimize it (auto or manual) and apply it to the image? And what about 8 and 16 bits outputs? Should one use a separate profile for 16 bits and 8 bits files?
And at the end, how really important is to have a top notch profile?!! It seems to be a strange question but actually I have once tested to see what happens if I use a WRONG profile (in my case a Sony DSC-75 profile for a Canon 10D image) and the results were pretty good!!! Or was it just a pure chance?
Best Regards
Arash