A700 color calibration results with ACR Calibrator

I went to the local camera store and saw that they had color checker cards in stock for a decent price compared to B&H/Adorama so I picked one up to do a quick test with my A700. You can read all about the process here:

www.fors.net/chromoholics

Anyway, here are the averaged results I got from 2 different images taken in direct sunlight:

Shadow Tint: 0
Red Hue: -25
Red Saturation: +40
Green Hue: -30
Green Saturation: -20
Blue Hue: +11
Blue Saturation: -4

These settings are technically specific to MY A700 but you can try them to see if they work for your A700 as well since the variations in sensors shouldn't be that much...I hope. Just plug them into ACR or LR's calibration section under Develop settings. You can then create a preset in ACR or LR to be reused later.

I will post some real world photos tomorrow showing before and after. Reds are more affect than the other 2 colors.

i think this deserves a place in the knowledge base.

i'd love to have the same thing with a 7d or 5d. do you have one shao?

Oh forgot to say, these values are an average of 2 similar results taken at 5200 and 5500 degrees so its suitable for daylight only.

Hi,

I have found that in most cases, when the color target is 'properly lit' and an accurate exposure is made, the calibration values will not vary too much across the color temperature range. Although you can definitely find different calibration values in different lighting, you will generally have a limited range. It is this range that I use to 're-center' my calibration.

I use this re-centered calibration for a default under ANY lighting situation, and the adjust from there if I feel it is necessary (very rarely).

(Obviously if you enjoy having 3, 4, 6, 8 or more different calibrations you are more then welcome to perform the calibration at each lighting condition. If your going to go that far you should also calibrate at different temperatures because the CMOS sensor will have a different calibration depending on how cold or hot it is!   In reality, I don't feel the calibration should need to be adjusted so often, unless it is for creative purposes. Thus the whole reason for this post.)

I captured the same color checker in various lighting conditions from deep tungsten at 2700K to a cloudy 6800K. Below are the entire range of values across all lighting conditions:

Red Hue: -15 to -23
Red Sat: 20 to 38
Grn Hue: -24 to -47
Grn Sat: -20 to -34
Blu Hue: -2 to 9
Blu Sat: -5 to -17

If I take the 'average' of all the numbers in this range I come up with the following:

RH: -22
RS: 30
GH: -32
GS: -25
BH: 4
BS: -8

This calibration is what I use for my new 'default' and I find it works quite well. Obviously your milage may vary, but I just wanted to throw this out there incase people were worried they needed so many different calibrations for all kinds of different lighting conditions...

Thanks Cekari!

I'm new to the A700, but not new to digital photography. I have previously used a Canon 40D, XTi, 5D and a Nikon D300.

With the new camera this place looked like the best discussion forums around for the A700.

Edited by AdamJ - 09 June 2008 at 16:38

Ok, have done some test on both older and newer a700 shots and I say both Shao's and Adam's work very well for me.
Prefer Shao's in very strong sunlight and Adam's in the others sort of.

Thanks for sharing those, and as kefkafloyd said they rely help out.

I can only share m own settings with the already mentioned note that this is indeed a camera specific setting any may not work for others (results are quite similar to what Shao has provided)

camera profile 4.4
Shadow Tint: 0
Red Hue: -15
Red Saturation: +35
Green Hue: -15
Green Saturation: -15
Blue Hue: +14
Blue Saturation: -11

It is worth to notice that my saved settings include other sliders as well:

exposure: -0.3
blacks: 3
brightness: +11
Contrast: -30

those changes are made to get gray patches (and overall tone distribution) as close as possible to color checker chart since i find these important when preparing my own B%W prints; these changes will however result in flat images that will most likely not suit many :)