How to build custom camera profiles using a ColorChecker Passport

[erics1959]

I seem to be losing a step somewhere. If your shooting Nikon raw NEF's where and when did it get converted to a DNG . NX doesn't allow the option to convert an image to DNG.

[ModifiedPhoto]

@erics1959 The DNG is an Adobe file format. It is a universal "digital negative" format that saves the raw camera data in it and is handled just like a NEF or other camera raw file. The original raw file can even be entirely saved within the DNG as well at the expense of file size. You'll need to export the DNG file from Photoshop or Lightroom.

[erics1959]

@ModifiedPhoto I know what a DNG file is .....its a universal standard adobe is trying to get everbody else to convert to. what I asked was at which step in the video was the NEF file you created shooting your Nikon in Raw converted to DNG .

You can't assume everbodys camera automatically creates a DNG ......so you have the additional step of converting the camera mfg's raw format to a adobe DNG format BEFORE you can use this color / white balance checker. thats the missing step

[ModifiedPhoto]

@erics1959 If you use the ColorChecker Passport software, you do NOT have to convert the file to a DNG. But I prefer the Adobe profile editor over the included software.

As for the video, I exported the file in advance of the video to a DNG file using the Export command in Lightroom. If you do not have Lightroom or a recent version of Photoshop, you can still get a free DNG converter from Adobe.

[ModifiedPhoto]

adobe.com/products/dng/

[Taber15]

Great video, been researching the passport for a while and this video was what I needed to push me to buy one. Just one thing, I believe you could be having trouble with auto detection of the passport as it's upside down. I've created a fair few test profiles and auto detection has not failed me once.

Thanks again for taking the time over this video.

[ModifiedPhoto]

Yea I'm not quite sure why I've had as much trouble with auto detection, but I am OK with that as I would rather just export a DNG and run it through the Adobe Profile Editor or the CC Passport software manually anyhow. It gives me an image to go back to and look at if I want to see what the conditions were when I created the profile itself.