Do you Shoot 40D and use Camera Raw?

[Noel_Carboni]

If you shoot raw images with your 40D and use Camera Raw to convert them, I have something that may interest you...

I'm looking for a few folks who would like to test a new camera profile I've developed, which provides several things:

1. It delivers color much more consistent overall with that which the camera delivers in its JPEGs. This allows you to anticipate how the camera will respond for both JPEG and Raw shooting. I find this simplifies things, and produces better looking images with Camera Raw defaults - meaning less tweaking of the sliders.

2. Notwithstanding the above, I've corrected several of what I consider are weak points in both the Adobe profiles and in Canon's in-camera color handling. Red colors, for example, are not as blazingly brilliant - which helps you avoid blowing them out. Take a photo of some red flowers some time to see just what I mean. And Camera Raw does a great job of avoiding the "Canon fuzzy reds" issue, especially when used with this profile.

3. I've chosen to build a radically different tone curve into the profile than most profiles use, meaning several of the Camera Raw sliders have to be set to other than factory defaults to use the profile (Exposure is set to -0.25, Blacks are set to 0, and Brightness is set to 0). The advantage of this is that the converted images contain more dynamic range than a conversion using an Adobe stock profile; more even than the camera delivers in its JPEGs. I roll off the highlights instead of clipping.

In a nutshell, after installing this profile and resetting your Camera Raw defaults, you'll have a more pleasing starting point and a more direct path to a conversion that looks just the way you want it.

For the moment I have a profile for a Canon 40D only. If response to this is good, and I suspect it will be, then I will develop profiles for other models. It will work in both Photoshop CS3 and CS4, and it may well work with LightRoom as well, though I don't have LightRoom and don't know whether the profiles are interchangeable.

Please eMail me at NCarboni@att.net if you'd like a copy of this 40D profile and I will send it to you along with instructions for installation.

-Noel

[Noel_Carboni]

Thanks to those who have responded.

Just wanted to pass along some sample results from my own testing...

This image was converted with my new "40D JPEG Color Match" profile. Note the color tones in this image match those in the out-of-camera JPEG image that follows after. Note also that the histogram shows some room on both sides - more than enough dynamic range to show a white bird in sunshine against a dark background.




The 40D delivered this image as an out-of-camera JPEG. The whitest parts are *just* at borderline overexposure.




Adobe Camera Raw, set to defaults with the ACR 4.4 profile, delivered the following image. Note the reduced dynamic range - even as compared to the Canon JPEG, and that the green tones are decidedly more yellowish.



-Noel

[Noel_Carboni]

Hello everyone,

Thanks to the folks who have agreed to test my profile.

My offer to provide a free copy is now over. As it does add value to the Adobe Camera Raw converter, I have to decided to market this profile online for a very modest price, with the changes the beta testers have identified. I'll let everyone know when I have the online sales page ready.

Thank you!

-Noel