By Rob Sheppard
Camera calibration is part of the right panel of Develop in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. In my work, I have not had a lot of use for it. I hear and read all about folks who do use it, but it always seems like it takes you away from the photograph into computer tech, yet I know some photographers love it. I had found that I did not like the standard calibration Adobe builds into Lightroom for my Olympus E-3, so I had been turning off Camera Calibration using the little switch at the left of the panel section title. That actually seemed to help my images and got rid of a color cast that I did not like, so I saved it as a user preset. Just as an aside, I don’t really like the Tone Curve coming in at Medium contrast for nature photos as a default for RAW, so changed that to Linear and included it with that no calibration preset.
Still, I thought there had to be more to calibration than I was giving it credit. Then I read an article on camera calibration by Kevin Ames that was quite well done. It explained how to use Adobe’s calibration software to create a camera calibration for Lightroom. So I decided I needed to do it. I got a Color Checker chart and shot a few images of it with my cameras (both Olympus and Canon). Back at the computer, I used Ames' instructions to use Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor camera calibration software and Adobe’s camera profiles (labs.adobe.com).
It all went well except one exposure of the chart could not be read properly by the software, so I redid it. I was impressed with how the profile was set up.
Sadly, I was not overly impressed with the results. Yes, there was a difference that you really could see, but I honestly could not say it was “better.” I think sometimes photographers who love technology will say something is better simply because the technology seems to do such a good job, when objectively, it is a different, not necessarily better, job.
So what does that mean? It means I am unlikely to use camera calibration in Lightroom. It could work for other photographers and give them outstanding results. I am guessing that it could be quite valuable for studio work where light is constant and colors have to be carefully managed for client work. I did that work years ago, but not today, so that isn’t a need.
To me, bottom line, is that camera calibration is not a necessity for photographers. I am sure it works for some, but I can tell you from experience that you don’t have to do it in order to get the best results from Adobe Lightroom 2. In some ways, I think it overcomplicates the process for most photographers and takes them away from their real goal of making better photographs (vs. making better profiles which may or may not lead to better photos).
I am never one who believes just because there is software or other photo tool available that it is necessarily worth using by all photographers. I am more interested in helping photographers have fun with Lightroom and succeed with it than having them follow some arbitrary procedure just because someone else likes it.
NOTE: Outdoor Photographer columnist and author Rob Sheppard teaches a number of outstanding online photo courses at BetterPhoto.com, including The Magic of F-stops: Choosing the Right Aperture and Storytelling Nature Photos.
BetterPhoto also offers many online Photoshop courses, including a class that provides training in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.
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