I calibrated the Nikon D700 with 28-200mm lens. Because I always tend to forget some step, I made these instructions that I would like to share:

First phase: prepare, setup and shoot:

1) Get a Macbeth colorchecking card (which can be purchased here).
2) Wait for a sunny day.
3) Place the card about perpendicalur to the rays of the sun (or make sure the rays from the sun make the same angle with the card as the rays from the card to the camera). I use a music standard to position the card.
4) Make sure the camera is in RAW mode.
5) Set the camera to spot metering mode.
6) Set the aperture to a common one, f8 or f10 or make multiple pictures with different apertures (permutations will boom, though !).
7) Meter on spot 22, column 4, row 4, lock it with exposure lock (if you don’t do this right, it will influence the saturation when you use the color profile later on, I found out ).
8 ) Make sure that any exposure correction is off !
9) Frame the card, focus and take picture with the sun on your back.
10) Repeat from step 6 with different apertures if you want to compare the results later on.

The raw file can be downloaded here.

Second phase: convert to dng.

1) Open the file(s) in Lightroom
2) Set mode to Library
3) Convert with menu: Library->Convert Photo to DNG…

These are the settings I used:

The resulting .dng file can be downloaded here.

Third phase: create profile(s)

1) Install  Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor, which can be downloaded here.
2) Open DNG Profile Editor.exe in folder C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Profile Editor
3) Open one of the .dng files created in phase 2 with menu: File->Open DNG Image (Ctrl+O)
4) In the right panel,  select the tab named ‘Color Tables’.
5) On that tab, select Base Profile: Camera Neutral(Nikon D700), you can use any profile, but this one gives me the most flexibility. It’s indeed neutral, with low contrast an low saturation. You can always increase those in Lightroom.

6) In the right panel, select the tab named ‘Chart’
7) Place the markers in the center of the corner spots.

8 ) In the right panel, click the button named ‘Create Color Table…’ and press that annoying ‘OK’ button.
9) Save the just created profile with menu: File->Export Nikon D700 profile…, press Save and press that annoying ‘OK’ button.
10) Repeat from step 3 if you want to create multiple profiles.
11) When closing the DNG Profile Editor Program, Don’t Save the Unsaved Profile Recipe.

The resulting profile can be downloaded here.

Note if you want to use the downloadable profile, you’ll have to place it in C:\Documents and Settings\Tom\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles (substitute my name with yours !)

Fourth phase: using profile(s)

1) Open Lightroom
2) Goto Develop mode
3) Select a photo
4) In the right panel, scroll down to the ‘Camera Calibration’ section.
5) Select one of the profiles just created.
6) Make sure all the sliders are set to 0, if you used them for an older calibration method   !
7) You can compare it with the base profile, by selecting the profile ‘Camera Neutral’ here, there should only be some color differences !

Here is a remarkable improvement using the calibration profile.
I shot this picture when it was very misty, with hardly no color.
When the standard ‘Camera Neutral’ profile is used, there is an ugly color cast (green and red):

Now, with the calibrated profile, the color cast is gone:

And here is a comparison of the photo of the colorcheckercard used for calibration:

For the above one the standard ‘Camera Neutral’ profile is used in Lightroom.
Below is the same photo, but now the created profile has been used in Lightroom.

If you look carefully, you can see some difference in the dark blue and red patch.

Enjoy !

For my birthday my wife gave me a SB800 flash. Because  I thought the results could be better I figured it might be worthwhile to also make a calibration for the combination D200 + SB800 (+ 18-200mm DX lens + UV filter). The blog stats shows a big interest in the calibration posts, so share with me:

I used the same method as for the calibration without flash, so you still need a Macbeth Colorchecker card, which can be purchased here:

http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=820

This approach was used:

http://www.rags-int-inc.com/PhotoTechStuff/ColorCalibration/

I used the latest version (6.4), thanks Rags & Thomas !

You need to download the ZIP file on that page, and extract the files into the scripts directory (..\Presets\Scripts) of Photoshop.

Then read the ACR_Calibrator_CC24_UG.pdf  in that directory carefully.

I got the following values that can be used in Lightroom (in the Camera Calibration panel):

Shadows Tint: 0

Red Hue: -21

Red Saturation +32

Green Hue: -4

Green Saturation: -4

Blue Hue: +3

Blue Saturation: +10

These are averages of 5 different calibrations with 2 different apertures.
f6.3 was used because with low light I usually use a low aperture to preserve as much existing light.
I also used f11, because an average aperture usually gives the best quality.
The values didn’t differ much and I want an average that can be used everytime I use the flash light.

Before:

After:

Notice that the effect is quite subtle in the ’skin’ colors, but more pronounced in the lips.
Yes, I know, this isn’t probably the best photo to show the effect, because there’s little red.
But hey, I just got the flash !

Here’s a post about a calibration with daylight (without flash).

Here is a post about the new calibration method in Lightroom 2 by using profiles (with & without flash).

Before:

After:

You need a Macbeth Colorchecker card, which can be purchased here:

http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=820

This approach was used:

http://www.rags-int-inc.com/PhotoTechStuff/ColorCalibration/

Which lead to the following values in Lightroom:

Shadows Tint: 0

Red Hue: -13

Red Saturation +18

Green Hue: +6

Green Saturation: +9

Blue Hue: +6

Blue Saturation: -15

These values are averages of about 10 different calibrations.

This is for a D70 with a 28-200mm 1:3.5-5.6G lens.

An alternative approach can be found here:

http://fors.net/chromoholics/support/?w=GettingStarted

I preferred the first one, because there are more options in the script (number of runs) and because the explanation is more extensive (choose linear curve etc. in ACR)

Before and after. If you prefer red instead of orange.

You need a Macbeth Colorchecker card, which can be purchased here:

http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=820

This approach was used, thanks to Rags & Thomas:

http://www.rags-int-inc.com/PhotoTechStuff/ColorCalibration/

Which lead to the following values in Lightroom:

Shadows Tint: 0

Red Hue: -18

Red Saturation +25

Green Hue: -11

Green Saturation: -25

Blue Hue: +2

Blue Saturation: -18

These values are averages of about 10 different calibrations.

This is for a D200 with a 18-200mm DX lens.

An alternative approach can be found here:

http://fors.net/chromoholics/support/?w=GettingStarted

I preferred the first one, because there are more options in the script (number of runs) and because the explanation is more extensive (choose linear curve etc. in ACR)

Here is a post about a calibration for D200 with SB800 flash.

Here is a post about the new calibration method in Lightroom 2 by using profiles (with & without flash).

It’s getting better, getting so much better…

I purchased an upgrade to Lightroom 2, which now (finally) includes a fancy way of camera calibration. On the luminous landscape I came across a tutorial for using the (beta) Profile Editor of Adobe.
The camera profiles that are part of the download are already a huge improvement over the standard raw profiles. Especially the neutral profile is so much better in the shadows. I nearly always used the ‘Fill Light’ extensively to reveal shadow detail.
This is now nicely done by the camera profile and if you apply it when importing pictures, the result will match what you saw on the LCD much better. The effect looks much more analog to me.

Two images I took for the previous calibration were transformed into a dng files and then used in the profile editor. As base profile I used the D200 neutral profile. I also experimented with the landscape profile, but I found that the characteristics of the landscape profile can also be matched by using the neutral profile plus a curve that adds more contrast. I color calibrated the base profile with the image of the color checker card. I did this twice, both with the same lense (18-200mm), but one without and one with the SB800 flash light (I will also make one with the build-in flash).
The effect of the profiles over the previous calibration method is much more subtle.

Here is a comparison:

This one is without calibration:

This one is with the calibration using the calibration panel in lightroom:

Compare the reds of the dress.

This one is done with the calibration profile:

Look at the skin color ! It’s more natural (less purple) and the dress is still red, not orange. But it is slightly less saturated. In order to match the look of the other pictures, the ‘Fill Light’ was reduced in this picture, to compensate for the effect that the calibration profile has in the shadows.

The example with SB800 flash:

Without calibration:

With calibration, using the calibration panel:

Calibrated by using profile:

Note that this time I didn’t compensate the effect of the profile in the shadows, because I liked the effect too much.
And as a bonus, you can see it for yourself
The color of the lips are kind of in between the other pictures.

The profiles can be downloaded here. You will have to put them in the same directory as the other profiles (search for *.dcp on the C: drive).

Enjoy !