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DNG Profiles:Editor

From Adobe Labs


DNG Profile Editor Tutorials and Documentation

This page is maintained by the Camera Raw engineering team.

Last updated: July 28, 2008

Click here to return to the Camera Profiles Resources & Notes page.


Overview

This page contains tutorials and documentation to help photographers get started with using the DNG Profile Editor.

The DNG Profile Editor is a software program designed and implemented by Adobe. Its purpose is to enable photographers to edit camera profiles and it is being offered as a free download to the photographic community. Please note that while we welcome all photographers to try the DNG Profile Editor, this tool is intended for advanced users.

Image:pe_overview.jpg

The Recipe Editor Window inside the DNG Profile Editor

Here is a quick conceptual overview of how the DNG Profile Editor works. First, you choose an existing base profile, which serves as a starting point for your adjustments. Next, you use the DNG Profile Editor's tools to create color and tone adjustments. Your changes are stored in documents called profile recipes, which you can save to disk and re-open at a later time to resume your work. When you are satisfied with your recipe, you export a camera profile from the DNG Profile Editor. This profile can then be loaded into Camera Raw or Lightroom (or any DNG-compatible raw conversion software) to process your images.


Contents


Tutorials


Tutorial 1: Getting Started

  1. Launch the DNG Profile Editor.

  2. Choose File -> Open DNG Image.... Select a DNG raw file from the dialog box and click Open.

  3. (Optional) If the image is not already white-balanced, you can perform a click-WB using a context click (i.e., right-click or control-click) on a neutral area of the image. The white balance of the image (i.e., temperature and tint values) is displayed in the image window's title bar.

  4. Create a new color adjustment (i.e., color control point) by clicking on an area of the image. The adjustment appears in the Color List Box on the right side of the Color Tables pane, as well as on the Color Wheel (see illustration below).

    Image:pe_new_color_adjustment.jpg

  5. Adjust the selected color via the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders. You will see the image preview update in real-time. You will also see an arrow in the Color Wheel drawn to indicate how the color is being modified.

    Image:pe_hsl_adjust.jpg

  6. Repeat the previous two steps as many times as desired. In the Color List Box, use the checkbox on the left of an adjustment to enable/disable that adjustment. Use the dash button on the right side of an adjustment to delete that adjustment.

    Image:pe_list_box_toggles.jpg

  7. Hint: color control points are easiest to use in two ways: (1) to change specific colors and (2) to lock down specific colors to prevent them from changing. Example: consider a portrait of a man wearing a red sweater. Let's say you want to tweak the sweater's deep saturated reds without affecting the skin tones. This is easy to accomplish in two steps (which may be performed in either order, with identical results):

    • Click on the man's face (i.e., a skin-tone area) to create a color control point. Do not make any adjustments to this control point. This effectively "locks down" this color and prevents it from changing.
    • Click on the red sweater to add a second color control point. Use the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders to make the desired adjustments (see example below). Note that your adjustments affect the sweater but not the skin tones.
  8. Choose File -> Save Recipe. This saves your work so that you can refine your color adjustments later if needed. Note that this step does not create a camera profile. It just saves your list of color adjustments to a document (i.e., recipe). Creating the actual profile itself will be done in the next step.

  9. Choose File -> Export profile.... This exports a camera profile to disk. You can install this profile into the CameraProfiles directory and it will then be ready for use in Camera Raw and Lightroom (note that quitting and restarting Photoshop / Lightroom is required to load the new profile).

Tutorial 2: Share Color Adjustments Across Multiple Profiles

This tutorial describes how to share color adjustments across multiple profiles. This is useful, say, for defining a visual style (e.g., a portrait-optimized profile) that can be shared across two or more cameras. You will need DNG images from two different camera models (a Canon EOS 5D and a Nikon D200 are used as examples below).

  1. Launch the DNG Profile Editor.

  2. Choose File -> Open Recipe... and select the recipe (which has a .dcpr extension) that you saved from the previous tutorial.

  3. Choose File -> Open DNG Image... and open a DNG image for a Canon EOS 5D.

  4. Similarly, open a Nikon D200 image. Note that you can open multiple DNG images simultaneously.

  5. The color adjustments in your recipe are being applied to both image previews. You can now use this recipe to export two profiles, one for the Canon EOS 5D and one for the Nikon D200, as follows.

  6. Click the Canon EOS 5D image window so that it's selected. Then choose File -> Export Canon EOS 5D profile....

  7. Click the Nikon D200 image window so that it's selected. Then choose File -> Export Nikon D200 profile....

  8. You now have two profiles based on the same color adjustments. As with the previous tutorial, these profiles are ready to be installed and used with both Camera Raw and Lightroom.

Tutorial 3: Using Base Profiles

This tutorial explains how to use an existing camera profile as a starting point. This feature is very handy if you have an existing profile that you like in most respects, but just want to make small tweaks to it. It is important to understand that all color adjustments made in the DNG Profile Editor are defined relative to a base profile.

The key step is to use the Base Profile menu in the Color Tables pane to define a starting point for your tweaks. Details follows:

  1. Launch the DNG Profile Editor.

  2. Choose File -> Open DNG Image.... Select a DNG raw file from the dialog box and click Open.

  3. Select Choose External Profile... from the Base Profile popup menu. In the Open dialog box, select a DNG camera profile (e.g., one of the new Adobe Standard profiles) and click Open. The chosen profile is now listed in the Base Profile popup menu.

    Image:pe_base_profile.jpg

  4. All color and tone adjustments will now be defined relative to your selected base profile. Follow the steps described in Tutorial 1 to perform color adjustments.

  5. When done, choose File -> Export profile... to save your modified profile.

Tutorial 4: Infrared-Modified Cameras and Unusual Lighting

Infrared-modified cameras and extreme lighting conditions can cause an image's white balance to fall below Camera Raw and Lightroom's temperature limit of 2000 K. This tutorial explains how to use the White Balance Calibration feature to bring the white balance values into the standard range for these special cases.

  1. Launch the DNG Profile Editor.

  2. Choose File -> Open DNG Image.... Select a DNG raw file from the dialog box and click Open. This should be an image whose white balance temperature value is being clipped to 2000 K.

  3. Select the Color Matrices tab in the recipe editor window.

    Image:pe_wb_cal.jpg

  4. Adjust the White Balance Calibration sliders until the color temperature and tint values (shown in the image window's title bar) fall into the standard range. For infrared images, you will usually need to drag the Temperature slider to the left. An example is shown in the illustration above (note that the exact values required will depend on your camera).

  5. Follow the steps in Tutorial 1 to save your recipe and export your profile.

Tutorial 5: Automatic Adjustments Using a ColorChecker

This tutorial explains how to use a 24-patch ColorChecker Chart to create an initial set of color adjustments automatically. This is useful for getting different cameras to produce a similar color response under fixed lighting conditions.

This feature can be used instead of the calibration scripts you may have used with earlier versions of Camera Raw.

Image:pe_cc24.jpg

You will need a ColorChecker Chart (24 patches).

  1. Photograph the ColorChecker Chart, taking care to illuminant the chart evenly and to minimize color casts.

  2. Launch the DNG Profile Editor.

  3. Choose File -> Open DNG Image.... Select the DNG raw file of the ColorChecker from the dialog box and click Open.

  4. Select the Chart tab in the recipe editor window.

    Image:pe_chart.jpg

  5. Use the mouse to position the four colored circles in the image at the centers of the four corner patches of the chart. The colors of the circles should correspond to the colors of the patches.

    Image:pe_cc24_circles.jpg

  6. Leave the popup menu set at Both color tables. (The next tutorial explains how to use this setting for more advanced applications.)

  7. Click the Create Color Table... button. The DNG Profile Editor automatically builds a set of 18 color adjustments (one for each color patch in the first three rows of the chart). You can accept these adjustments as-is or use them as a starting point for further tweaks.

    Image:pe_overview.jpg

  8. Follow the steps in Tutorial 1 to save your recipe and export your profile.

Tutorial 6: Dual-Illuminant Automatic Adjustments Using a ColorChecker

Most digital camera sensors respond differently under different illuminants (e.g., switching from daylight to tungsten). DNG camera profiles address these differences by allowing color adjustments to be specified separately for two different illuminants (usually Illuminants A and D65).

This tutorial is similar to the previous one but also explains how to take advantage of the dual-illuminant feature of DNG camera profiles. The result is a single profile that performs well under a wide range of illuminants instead of a single fixed illuminant.

You will need a ColorChecker Chart (24 patches).

  1. Photograph the ColorChecker Chart under a 6500 K illuminant (e.g., D65 simulator), taking care to illuminant the chart evenly and to minimize color casts.

  2. Photograph the ColorChecker Chart again, but this time under a 2850 K illuminant (e.g., standard tungsten bulb), taking care to illuminant the chart evenly and to minimize color casts.

  3. Launch the DNG Profile Editor.

  4. Choose File -> Open DNG Image.... Select the DNG raw file of the 6500 K-lit ColorChecker from the dialog box and click Open.

  5. Similarly, open the DNG image of the 2850 K-lit ColorChecker.

  6. Select the Chart tab in the recipe editor window.

  7. Click the 6500 K-lit ColorChecker image window to select it. Use the mouse to position the four colored circles in the image at the centers of the four corner patches of the chart. The colors of the circles should correspond to the colors of the patches.

  8. Set the popup menu in the Chart pane to 6500 K and click the Create Color Table... button.

    Image:pe_chart_color_table.jpg

  9. Repeat the previous two steps for the 2850 K image. Make sure to click the 2850 K image to select it and then select 2850 K from the popup menu before clicking the Create Color Table... button.

  10. The DNG Profile Editor automatically builds two sets of 18 color adjustments each (one set for illuminant A (2850 K), one set for D65 (6500 K). You can accept these adjustments as-is or use them as a starting point for further tweaks.

  11. Follow the steps in Tutorial 1 to save your recipe and export your profile. When using your exported profile, Camera Raw and Lightroom will automatically interpolate between the two sets of color adjustments based on the white balance of your image.


Concepts and Terminology



Recipe Editor Window Reference


Color Tables Pane

Use this pane to edit a profile's color tables. Most of your profile-editing work will likely occur in this pane.

Image:pe_overview.jpg

How to use:

Tone Curve Pane

Use this pane to edit the profile's tone curve.

Image:pe_tone_curve_pane.jpg

How to use:

Color Matrices Pane

DNG camera profiles contain both color tables and color lookup matrices; this pane is used for editing the latter. Tweaking the color matrices is not necessary in most cases. Instead, we recommend editing the color tables (via the Color Tables pane, see above) because it offers selective color adjustments for finer control, compared to the global color adjustments that result from editing color matrices.

The two main reasons for editing the color matrices are (1) to apply camera calibration settings created using an earlier version of Camera Raw (CR 4.4.1 and earlier) or Lightroom (LR 1.4.1 and earlier) and (2) to handle infrared-modified cameras and extreme lighting conditions.

Image:pe_color_matrices_pane.jpg

How to use:

Options Pane

Use this pane to specify profile metadata.

Image:pe_options_pane.jpg

How to use:

Note that some of the embed policy options may be disabled (i.e., grayed out). The general rule is that you may choose an embed policy that is at least as restrictive as the embed policy of the base profile (which is selected from the Color Tables pane). For example, if the base profile's embed policy is Allow Copying then you may choose Allow Copying, Embed If Used, or Embed Never from the Embed Policy popup menu; No Restrictions is disabled because it is less restrictive than the base profile's embed policy of Allow Copying.

Chart Pane

Use this pane to perform automatic color adjustments with the aid of a ColorChecker Chart. See Tutorial 5 and Tutorial 6 for more information.

Image:pe_chart_pane.jpg


Image Window Reference


Note that images opened and previewed in the DNG Profile Editor are read-only. The DNG Profile Editor is not an image editor; it does not write any data or save any changes to images themselves. Any preview changes observed in the DNG Profile Editor (e.g., white balance adjustments, color table adjustments, tone curve adjustments) are for preview purposes only and are not saved to the image.

Image:pe_image_window.jpg

How to use:


Menu Reference


File menu

Image:pe_file_menu.png

How to use:

Edit menu

Image:pe_edit_menu.png

How to use:

View menu

Image:pe_view_menu.png

How to use:

Options menu

Image:pe_options_menu.png

How to use:

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