No matter how I set the white balance in my Nikon cameras — be it preset or custom — when I opened my images in either Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) or Lightroom (which are, in essence, the same thing) the White Balance number would be way off. The image didn’t look bad, but the Kelvin number wasn’t right. For example, with the flash setting used on my D3 — which Nikon tells me is set at 5400 — ACR would open the image at 6150 Kelvin.

"As Shot" Kelvin Reading in ACR

So, I began to wonder — If ACR was wrong on this fundamental setting, what else was it missing?

Followed by — Why was this happening?

And, finally — What am I going to do about it?

At the same time, the proponents of Nikon’s own software, NX and then NX2 were proclaiming that no one could render a .nef (Nikon’s RAW format) image more accurately than Nikon could. And, they were right.

Out of the camera, NX2 gave me a better starting point than the Adobe software. But, with a bit of adjustment, I was able to get good results with either of the Adobe programs. But, let’s not denigrate the importance of an accurate starting point.

If the idea is to get it as close to “right” in the camera as possible, then the idea should be to get it into the our post production software as close to right as is possible — and for my Nikon images, until recently, that meant using NX2. Said another way, what good is it to work hard to get a perfect exposure in the camera if the post processing software ignores the effort and opens the image to its own specifications?

For Nikon users, the solution might be to use NX2. I am a big fan of NX2; when appropriate I use it. But, because I often go beyond its scope , most of my work is done in the Adobe programs.

And, that’s where the ColorChecker Passport comes in. For the first time, I think I can do that.

The ColorChecker Passport allows me to use the Adobe programs confident that my starting point will be dead on accurate — not just for Nikon cameras in general, but for my individual Nikon cameras. And, not for generic lighting situations but for the actual lighting conditions under which the images were shot. Said another way, Passport makes sure that the image as captured in the camera is the starting point in my Adobe post production software.

Camera Profiles Control the Software’s Starting Point

There is nothing sinister here. No matter the camera, Adobe (and all other post production software developers) want us to have an accurate starting point.

So, the developers create individual “profiles” so as to read the data from each camera manufacturer in the most accurate way possible. For all of us, no matter what camera we shoot, the key is how good that profile is — how accurately it reads and depicts the image as it imports it.

Their task is challenging, especially in a world without a standard RAW format and one in which some camera manufacturers want to compete with Adobe on the software front; in those cases, there have been allegations that the manufacturers have held back information making it impossible for Adobe to get a profile 100% right.

Finally, no matter how bright the software engineers — there are factors for which they cannot account. All cameras are, to some extent, different. A “standard” profile cannot account for the idiosyncrasies in my particular D3 or your Canon. And, my D3 will be different from my friend’s.

Despite the difficulty, the profiles are really pretty good. A tweak here and a tweak there and we can take our properly captured image and get it looking pretty good — the starting points are close enough that it does not take much work to get things right.

But, there is an insidious problem with a profile that is very good but not perfect. We end up making the small adjustments with no standard of reference — we proceed by eye and, therefore, can miss the mark.

Adobe’s Built In Profiles

Most of us have probably not spent much time thinking about the built in profiles. In fact, had I not wanted to know why the WB was off on my .nefs, I would have never done the research that ultimately led to this article.

For a long time, I never knew the profiles existed. They are tucked away behind a tab in ACR, in an area I never really used, called “Camera Calibration” — the one shown here with the camera icon. Duh! So, that’s what that was for. Here’s a copy showing, in red, the icon to push to get to the section; notice it shows the standard Adobe profile, also in red; in the second image is the drop down list, itself.

Most of us probably have ACR 4.4 and Adobe Standard. The “D2x” and “Camera … ” profiles were downloaded and installed, a while back, from an Adobe site. They are attempts to more specifically replicate the output of Nikon cameras — with the latter set corresponding to the Nikon “picture control” modes that one can pre-set in the camera.

What you say, only Nikon profiles? No, but this is what you see on a .nef. If I had opened a .CR2, a Canon RAW image I would have seen different options.

The profiles in the dark blue frames are those that I created using the Passport; we will get to them, later.

The bottom line is that the Camera Profile is the starting point for all of our post-production work. The more accurate it is, the better our outcome will be.

So, the question is: How do we get accurate profiles.

For me, the answer is X-rite’s ColorChecker Passport.

Creating Our Own Profiles with Xrite’s ColorChecker Passport

In a sea filled with gimmick devices and promises of color correction panaceas, the X-rite ColorChecker Passport is the real deal. It is an easy to use, fairly priced hardware/software solution that allows us create and load custom camera profiles into ACR and Lightroom.

It’s elegance is in its simplicity.

It proves one of my core philosophical underpinnings “Less is more”.

With the Passport, anyone — no matter how unschooled in color theory or unsophisticated in the intricacies of ACR — can quickly create a profile/starting point that will make post-production adjustments easy and accurate.

What’s in the Box?

A small, unobtrusive, carry it in your pocket or around your neck, device containing three targets and a software disk. That’s it. The elegance is in the integration of the two components.

There are three “targets”.

The one on the bottom left is the 24 patch “Color Classic”. It’s used by the software to create the profile.

The one above it is the “Color Enhancement” target; it can be used to induce creative color shifts; for example there are several shades of gray that can be used to warm or cool white balance. It can also be used to make sure we are not losing shadow details or clipping highlights.

To the right of the double target image, we see the Passport opened to show a gray card that can be used as a target to custom set one’s white balance.

Putting it to Work

Photoshop, Bridge and Elements

Step 1: Load the software. Depending on which Adobe programs you have and how you invoke ACR, the installer will do one or both of the following:

For Photoshop, Bridge, and Elements — all of which use versions of ACR, X-rite installs a stand alone application. Whereas Lightroom is a one stop  shop, these other programs invoke another step, the use of the ColorChecker Passport application. It’s one more step but still magic.

For Lightroom, it installs a plug-in/preset that will find the target in an image and create a profile. It works behind the scenes and is absolutely amazing.

Step 2: Take a reference image with the target in it. This is pretty simple. If taking a picture of a person, have them hold it. If it’s a product shot, I use the built in easel function to put the targets in the picture.

A couple of things to watch for: Make sure the light hits the target in the same way that it is lighting the subject and that the target is evenly lit. And, make sure the target image is around 10% of the picture. If it gets much smaller than that, the software may have a hard time finding it.

Step 3: Open the image. As I mentioned, there are two ways to do this depending on whether you start in Lightroom or Bridge/CS4. Whichever way you create the profile, it will be stored in the same place and work in all Adobe programs that process RAW images. I’ll do it both ways for you.

I’ll start with the independent application route — the route I take because I’ve pretty much abandoned Lightroom and usually start in Bridge.

First, I opened the image in ACR — AND DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO IT — NO ADJUSTMENTS, NOTHING.

Angy Torres and the Target

Here’s the reference shot I took during a session with Page Parkes model Angy Torres. Angy’s make up was done by MUA Tree Vaello.

(I’ll have a lot more on these two later and in future articles. Both are superb at what they do and were kind enough to help me get the images for this review. Unfortunately, these images are dumbed down for use on the web; the lower resolution does not do justice to Angy’s beauty and Tree’s fine make up.)

The next step was to save the image as a .dng file. This is Adobe’s universal RAW file — a format into which we can convert all of our RAW images, without regard to our camera brand. The advantage of .dng is that Adobe guarantees that all of it’s future products will be able to process .dng images. There are no guarantees that the same can be said for their ability to support the .nef’s I took years ago. It is a good, safe format and I should use it more.

Having done nothing to process this image, I hit the “Save Image” button in the lower left corner of the window (circled in red). The “Save Options” dialogue box opens.

Nothing hard here — the critical thing is to make sure to save it as a .dng — in the File Extension drop down menu. I gave it a distinct name and put it on my desktop because I was going to immediately use it in the stand alone application.

Step 4: Create the profile in the ColorChecker Passport application. I opened the application and got the following warning screen. Bad me. I hadn’t calibrated my monitors within 30 days.

So, I stopped, pulled out the colorMunki, and made sure the monitors were just right.

This warning is beneficial. What’s the use of being so careful with the camera and creating spot on profiles if the monitor is off? A strong starting point demands an accurate monitor.

Here’s the working window of the application:

Nothing could be easier to use. The full instruction set is on the left. I dragged my .dng to the center and clicked create a profile

And, here I had a lucky moment — at least lucky for teaching purposes. I got the following window telling me that the target was not taking up 10% of the image and that I’d have to help the software find it.

(Now that I’ve got the hang of this, I make sure my target takes up more of the image space. But, the cure is simple, as seen here.)

To help the software find the target, you take the crop tool and put a green dot at each corner of the Classic  target — which in this case is the upper target. Line up the corners so that the little green boxes are inside each of the color patches.

Don’t make the mistake I did the first time I tried this. Use only the Color Classic target, not both.

Having isolated the target, push the “Create Profile button. You’ll get a dialogue box asking you to name the profile. The default is “Nikon D3.dcp” for a D3. I don’t use that name. I change it to something much more specific with a date and lighting scheme involved. If not, every profile would have the same name and I’d not know which to use or how to manage them. Hit save and the profile will be created and stored.

One final thing  – if the application within which you are going to use the profile is open, you must close and re-open it. When you re-launch the program, be it Photoshop, Bridge, Lightroom, or Elements, the profile will be in the list shown above.

Don’t be put off by the length of the step by step, written description of the process.

I made this profile in a couple of minutes. It is fast and very easy.

Lightroom

Using the passport in Lightroom is equally easy and a bit faster. The advantage here is that you never leave Lightroom.

Step 1: Open your image in Lightroom’s “Develop” module. And, then the magic begins. Without us having to do a thing, the Passport software finds the target and creates a profile.

Step 2: Go to File>Export in the menu bar. The following window will come up:

Name the profile, hit the “Export” button and you’re done. The profile is created and stored with all of the other profiles.

Once more, you have to remember to close Lightroom and then reopen it so that it can load the new profile.

Using the Custom Profile and Target Shot

OK, so we’ve created a profile. Now what?

Well, lots of things.

I take the target shot right back into ACR and use it create the baseline set of color corrections I will use for all of the shots taken that session with that camera and lighting pattern. Once I have things the way I want them, I will batch process all of the shots to my chosen standard.

1. Select the Custom Profile

2. Correct the White Balance:

Important Point: The custom profile we created with the Passport does not change our WB value. We have to do that on our own — for good reason. There is some creative judgment to be exercised here and the Color Enhancement target gives us the tool needed to experiment and dial in our preferred, fine tuned White Balance.

Shame on me. I don’t custom white balance before each shoot UNLESS I am in some very odd mixed light situation — like a church or football stadium. And, in those cases, I don’t shoot a target, I use my Sekonic C500R color meter and dial in a specific Kelvin number — which, unfortunately,  Adobe will partially ignore. Most of the time I use a preset — for Angy’s shoot, I used the Nikon flash setting. Outdoors, I prefer Cloudy.

How does the Passport help here? On the Enhancement target, It gives me a series of gray patches one neutral, some warmer and  some cooler to use in setting the proper White Balance.

Take a look at this shot from ACR.

Notice I’ve taken the WB tool from the top and placed it on one of the gray patches(bottom target, 3rd in from the left, upper/middle row). Now, look at the Kelvin degrees on the right. An image that was imported at 6150 has been corrected to a proper 5400. All with one click.

Why am I so cavalier about White Balance? Because I shoot RAW. When I shoot RAW the camera captures all of the data to hit the sensor — it throws nothing out. In post-production I can change anything and everything to get the exposure and color where I want it to be. All I need is an accurate starting point in ACR and I’m good to go. The Passport gives me that starting point.

If you shoot .jpegs, you will probably want to use the Passport’s white balance target to set the camera before the shoot. And, there are several other things you will want to do with the targets before you get going. For example, you might want to use the target to check your exposure to ensure that you are not clipping the highlights or losing detail in the shadows. Why? Because, once you start shooting .jpegs, the camera is throwing out information in order to compress the images. With that information gone, you ability to make corrections in post-production is limited.

(For more on the advantages of shooting RAW, you might want to read part of this article I wrote a while back.)

3. Batch Process: I batch process all of the images taken in that session with that camera and same lighting pattern to set the exposure and color profile. Note I said in that session. If I change the lighting, I shoot a new target. On the same set, that’s probably a little anal. But, I did take Angy onto another set, one in which I used my Profoto 600BR and a Ringflash in a mixed lighting situation and shot new targets.

4. Did all of this make a difference? Yes, definitely. But, the difference was subtle as one would hope it would be. The Adobe profiles were close. But, as they say, “Close only counts in horse shoes.” I definitely got a better starting point using the custom profile. Clicking between Adobe’s and mine, I could see a clear shift in color and tone. Said another way, slight color casts were removed and Angy looked like Angy. I could ask for nothing more.

Some Final Thoughts on the ColorChecker Passport:

There are other functions the Passport will help us:

One that I’ve not tried is the “Dual Illuminant Profile”. The idea is to combine two targets from different light sources to create one more general target. For example, if you are moving from rooms with tungsten lighting to outdoor daylight, you take a target shot in each area and the software will allow you to combine them into one profile. I’m a bit skeptical about the value of this and until I try it I won’t recommend it. In that situation, I’d take individual target shots and make individual profiles. In post-production I’d sort my shots and process all of those shot in daylight with my custom daylight profile and those shot under tungsten with that profile. But, to be fair to the Passport, until I try the Dual Illuminant I can’t really say anything about its value.

The main targets in the Passport are “consumable” and require careful treatment. These are better protected, more rugged versions of our old Greytag Macbeth cards — those expensive bigger versions of the Classic that required very special care. In order to get the right colors and surfaces, they are printed on special paper. Put an oily fingerprint on them and the color and reflectivity change. That’s why it’s important to handle them by their plastic edges and store them closed, safe in their plastic clam shell. The way the Passport is engineered, it’s easy to protect the targets.

There is one thing in the software I’d like changed — and from what I understand, a change is on its way. I’d like to be able to manage the profiles — discard the older ones after I’ve used them — so as not to clog or confuse the drop down menu. To do that, today, on a Mac I have to go to User>Library>Application Support>Adobe>CameraRaw>Camera Profiles and manually remove the profiles I no longer need. Until the profiles are easy deleted, I think it’s wise to give them very distinct names and to date them. That way, there will be no confusion as to which to use.

These quibbles aside, I really like the Passport and will use it on all of my shoots wherever they may take place. It’s nice to actually get something that works the way it is supposed to work — a product that helps us get the most out of our images. And, one that does not require and advanced degree to understand and use.

I like it so much I’m going to get another one so I can leave one in the studio and have one with my everyday “carry camera”.

A Few Words About the Shoot

The creative team was model Angy Torres, MUA Tree Vaello, and assistant Tom Folger. Tree’s participation was made possible by her sponsor – La Mer skin products.

The mission was simple — get some shots for use in this article. In addition, we decided to get a few head shots for both Angy and Tree to use on their websites and in their books.

It was easy to work with Angy. She’s got a great sense of humor and “go with the flow” attitude — but, when needed, she could be fierce. She’s definitely on my A list. She can be reached  by contacting her agent Erik Bechtol.

We used two lighting set ups; the glamour lighting pattern described here and a Profoto Ringflash shot onto a metal door background. I shot a reference shot for each set up.

Here’s one of the head shots. After using the custom profile, there were no color corrections of any kind made.

But Wait There’s There Will Be More!!!

I’ve been looking to add a make up artist to my team for quite a while. In Tree Vaello, I think I’ve found the perfect collaborator.

My first rule, no “high maintenance” people. Can’t deal with that. Tree is, as we’d say in California”mellow”. But that calm and cooperative demeanor hides the passion and fire of a true artist. Her work is amazing.

Truth be told, I’ve never worked that much with MUA’s.

So, I thought a cool article would be an interview with Tree as to what we, as photographers, need to do to get the most out of an MUA’s talents.

I’ll do it soon. Have some questions you want me to ask her? Send them in.

(Copyright: PrairieFire Productions/Stephen J. Herzberg — 2009)

But, it is a lot more.

This book is a travel guide that takes us down the path of the creation and manipulation of light, a creative journey with one of my favorite photographer/teachers, Joe McNally.

The trip starts out as we might expect, with 45 pages of straight out practical talk — what Joe calls “Nuts ‘n Bolts” — explaining things like why Joe almost always shoots in the  aperture priority and matrix metering modes. He explains lots of technical stuff in ways that make sense. Want to understand the difference between rear and front curtain flash, and when to use each? Read the book. Want to understand High Speed Sync or EV’s? Read the book. Want to understand what to take with you in the field? Read the book. In fact, this book is so practical that Joe teaches us how to hold a camera in a section called “Da Grip” (more on this later.)

Joe's Cover Shot

If all we focused on were the practical/technical parts of the book — it would be well worth our time and money.  But, this book is a lot more than tips and tutorials.

It is a story book, a series of well written, compelling vignettes that just happen to have very solid lessons tucked within them. And, it is a philosophical tome that gets us inside the head of a very creative man — one who has been called upon and challenged to get some very difficult shots, the things that many would not even attempt. A man who usually succeeds.

I say “usually succeeds” because one of the things I like most about Joe is his real world humility and self-effacing sense of humor. I first saw Joe in a dark classroom in San Antonio, at Imaging USA, a few years ago. In a barnyard full of strutting peacocks, Joe was every man sharing his successes and failures as he explained how he had gotten to where he was  -- and the stories behind some of his most famous images. Most of the truly successful people I know, be they photographers, teachers, film makers or lawyers, understand that we often learn more from our “failures” than we do from our successes. That day, Joe was generous in sharing his stumbles so that we might all learn his lessons without stumbling ourselves.

What triggered this memory was a passage in the book, on page 96, that speaks to the fears all creatives, be they writers, painters, or photographers, feel when faced with a blank page or a challenging assignment — and the joy we experience when we finally see a path to completion:

What a pleasant sensation. The little voice, the one that usually is whispering, ‘Don’t shoot it that way, numnuts! It sucks! They should have hired somebody good. You’ll be lucky to be shooting Santa portraits at the mall after you turn in this dreck’, is quieted and replaced by another. The tone of this voice is mildly astonished. “Wow, this isn’t going to be like putting my nuts in a vice-grip! I’m not going to be tortured and troubled on this particular photo jaunt. I won’t be besieged by all those doubts — most of which are certainties, proven repeatedly over time — that I don’t really know what I am doing. This is actually going to work!”

This book inspires me. It gives me the confidence to try different things — even if they don’t work, because some of them might. (I like Joe’s mantra “Let’s see what happens.”, which implores us to “break the rules”, and have written about it before.)

The Rod Stewart School of Writing: Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?

Joe teaches us by way of sharing a series of stories with us — the stories about how he captured the images in the book.

There are chapters in this portion of the book — organized in sections called One Light, Two or More, and Lotsa Lights. More than half the stories deal with one light set ups; this is not a book that reaches out to the equipment rich. Have one light? Joe will teach you how to do great things with it.

Each lesson starts with a “cover shot” — the story of which is the substance of the piece. The stories are told in an entertaining, distinct, fist person voice. Joe can write. Nothing boring in this book. Education and entertainment rolled into one? That’s my kind of text.

And, they are practical. Many are accompanied by lighting diagrams. And, Joe uses each to apply some of the theory he set forth in the first 45 pages. On a shore covered with bright shells, one lesson stands out in my mind. It led me to a “revelation moment” — in three pages Joe gave me a new way of looking at outdoor flash photography, an approach I’d never really appreciated.

My Favorite Lesson: The Story of Cowboy Chris

The chapter is called Make the Available Light Unavailable, and it is the story of this image.

Final Version: Cowboy Chris by Joe McNally

We start out toward the end of the day, the sun has gone down but there is enough available light to make this image:

Available Light

Interesting subject and backdrop — but essentially a snap shot, the same shot anyone with a camera could have captured at that moment. The lighting is flat and without direction. There’s enough there to get the job done but the finished product simply records a moment in time. It lacks inspiration.

Most of us, who have been trained in the school of “additive flash” would go “Aha. I’ll throw in an off camera flash to clean up the light and add a bit of direction.” (I’ve written about additive flash, before, in my reviews of the Profoto 600BR in some old newsletters. In essence, we work with the ambient light which remains a prominent source in the image, but add light to supplement it.)

So, Joe did an “additive flash” shot:

Additive Flash

He put an SB900, with a warming gel, camera left, to replicate the setting sun. If you double click on these images, you’ll get a bigger sample. It will be easier to see that with the light coming from his right, the cowboy’s face and body take on some dimension, and the backdrop on that side has more character. A better image, but still not dramatic.

Now what? Many of us would stop there. We added light and we got a little bounce — but not enough to make this a great image. Most of us would probably fall back and bemoan the fact that we missed the “golden light moment” (which, in my mind, is any moment in which I’m having trouble with outdoor/ambient light. “Lighting looks bad? What do you expect, it’s not the golden moment.”)

Joe didn’t stop. And, I’m glad he didn’t. Because, in this chapter I learned a very valuable  lesson — and a new way to approach flat ambient light photography.

Joe’s philosophy — if you don’t like the ambient light, get rid of it. And, replace it with a light you like. So, he did.

No, he didn’t construct a giant gobo to block out all of the natural light sources.

Instead, he set his camera so that it would underexpose the image by 3 stops. This is the image he created. For most of us, this would be a disaster shot. For Joe it was the desired “starting point”. Almost none of the ambient light remained.

3 Stops Underexposed

How did he do this?

First, he put the camera in manual mode. Remember that Joe normally shoots using the matrix metering system and aperture priority. Had he left the camera in that mode, it would have fought him so as to properly expose the image — and it would probably have won.

The first two images had been shot at 1/80 second at f2.8. To go about 3 stops under, Joe shot at  1/125 at f5.6. Make sense? On the aperture side the difference between 2.8 and 5.6 is two stops. On the shutter speed side, the difference between 1/80 and 1/125 is a bit less than one stop.

Whatever the math, Joe had created a “dark room” within which to work.

So, he lit the scene, just like he were in his studio. The primary source of light became one SB900 speedlight, camera left, aimed to create the dramatic effect Joe was seeking.

The top image is the result.

Why do I love this lesson so much?

Because I am far more confident in my ability to light within my studio than I am in my ability to master bad outdoor light. The essence of that comfort is “control”. In the studio I can control the environment. I can put light where I want it and control both the quantity and quality of the light I’m using.

With this technique, either used exactly in this way, or in derivative fashion, I can take control, outdoors.

What a great lesson. And, Joe was able to teach it in two pages.

Conclusion:

I’ve found very few books that match The Hot Shoe Diaries’ ability to both entertain and educate. If you struggle staying awake reading other “how to” books, you might want to give his one a try.

Thanks, Joe, for opening up and sharing so much — your vulnerability, your creative visions, and your nuts and bolts. It is all deeply appreciated.

But Wait, There’s More: Da Grip

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsx3-FWfwk

(Copyright: PrairieFire Productions/Stephen J. Herzberg — 2009)