The Camera Calibration Section in Lightroom Classic Develop
Earlier today I saw this posted question in a group on FB:
"Hey everyone. New member, just getting back into photography after a long several year break. I'm trying to figure out how to select the appropriate camera profile in lightroom classic. Under the camera calibration section I select profile, but I don't have the profile for my camera. I checked in the application support folder and the profile exists, so I don't know what else to do. I'm looking for the nikon D3 profile."
It prompted this response that I thought others might be interested in. (I've edited the response to include further details and explanation.)
Sadly, I cannot answer the specific question regarding this person's specific camera, but it's worth looking at this section of the develop module.
Process Version
I've, frankly, not paid much attention to the Camera Calibration section in Lr, except to be sure I'm using the current Process Version. Lr defaults to the current Process Version, at the time of import. If you have images imported during the days of Process Version 3, e.g., your develop tools will be limited to what was available at that time. Change the Version to the latest and you'll be able to use the current set of develop tools. Do keep in mind that if you've already edited an image, and like the result, you may want to make a virtual copy to work on, as changing the Process Version will sometimes change the way the image looks.
Profile
Lr seems to default to Adobe Standard Profile, unless you have changed that in your import preset. I only recently became aware of the real differences available in the Profiles, so, I'm interpreting here. There is the default Adobe Standard, and all the profiles available from your camera. Caveat: I've also read that these profiles do not come directly from the camera, or even the manufacturer, but from 3rd party providers to Adobe. I can't confirm which is actually the case. But, in looking at the various profiles provided with the importation of images from different cameras, I do see a marked difference among some of them and the Adobe Standard Profile. It's someone's version of what the image would look like if you shot JPG and set your camera's Picture Style (Canon menu). The RAW image, of course, is just that, and changes are only applied once it enters Lr.
Here is a RAW image rendered in Adobe Standard:
Same RAW image rendered in Camera Landscape:
Camera Portrait:
Camera Standard:
And Camera Vivid:
The differences are subtle for the Canon choices. Other cameras offer other choices. A Fujifilm X-T2 will offer 14 Profile choices, including 8 monochrome versions.
And finally, if the Profile says "Embedded", you can't change it, it's baked in. That happens after the file has been edited outside of Lr and saved with a Profile, such as sRGB, AdobeRGB, etc.
The truth, as I see it, there is no "right" choice. You pick a Profile you like and use it as a starting point for your own editing. There's more than one way to get to where you want to be. This is just part of the journey, if you choose to use it.
"The f-Stops Here"
The f-Stops Here is Hygienic Art's 6th edition of the annual juried photograph show. The Hygienic is a hub for art in southeastern Connecticut. I'm pleased to have three works included in this show, that will run until November 18, 2017. For the first time the show was themed, it was 'Metamorphosis'. I would like to offer and briefly discuss one of the images:
I named it The Rising. The metamorphic aspect is that of ghosts, or souls, rising from their graves, to rise to heaven, to haunt, to be reborn, or just a Halloween jaunt.
The image itself is a composite showing an old cemetery, and a part of an image from the facade of The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City, there are so many really great things there to see. Of my three images in the show, this consumed the most time in post production, going through several iterations of coloring, and de-coloring, before arriving at a final monochrome.
You can see this, and my other two images from the f-Stops Here, in the Current & Recent Exhibitions gallery on the web page.
Happy Halloween
2Days, 2 Posts
OK, this is not likely to continue, though I really should post more often. I got more good news today.
Some months ago I had sent a PDF to Lenswork Publishing. If you follow photography, and especially black & white photography, you may have some familiarity with Lenswork Magazine. It's one of the premiere photographic publications. On their Lenswork Online service, members have opportunities to access various resources. One of the things they do is publish members' PDFs. If you're not familiar with PDFs, they are like E-Books. The idea is to put out the one's the publishers think are among the best submitted.
All that to let you know how gratified I am that ESP was just added. If you are not a Lenswork member, you can access the PDF at this link.
73rd Annual Connecticut Artists Juried Exhibition
Sunday was receiving for the annual exhibition. Last year I was fortunate to get one image in, and it was purchased, a real shock as these things are not known for generating sales. The gallery manager was excited to tell me who had bought it, Wally Lamb. Mr. Lamb is a well known author in this area, I admit to knowing nothing about his notoriety elsewhere. That Mr. Lamb would choose to have Vertigo in his life was gratifying to me.
For 2017 I again submitted two images (they max you out at two) and was really pleased to find that both were accepted.
In the Pig Palace is a moody piece. The image of a sink, part of a window and the pipe and faucet. I captured this in Glen Ellen, California at Jack London State Park. It's in a round brick building that London called the pig palace. It was used for the care, feeding and, I assume, ultimate dispatching of his pigs.
Room 101, a title derived from George Orwell's 1984 is the image of a cell in the Eastern State Penitentiary. It's located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The prison has been closed and was abandoned. Now it is being preserved as a museum, of sorts. It's not being refurbished, but some areas are being cleaned up, this cell was not. The story of the penitentiary is an interesting one and I would commend to you its history. It was controversial from the start, the idea being isolation in these cells with only the light from heaven, each cell had a skylight, the Bible and work to instill repentance for the crimes committed. It put me in mind of Orwell's use of Room 101 the 'torture chamber' in 1984. "You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. It's the worst thing in the world. Orwell was referring to one's own worst fears.
If you should be in the area, you might drop by the museum to see the exhibit, it is on view January 22 through March 17, 2017. The opening is Sunday, January 22nd from 1-3 pm in the Converse Art Gallery, in the Slater Museum in Norwich, CT.
Meet me at no special place, and I'll be there at no particular time. — Terker, Pyle, Robinson
Going through FB this morning, as usual [sigh]. A FB friend, photographer, and workshop instructor that I studied with in 2014, Sean Kernan, posted a link to a piece one of his recent students wrote. It was a part of the class I remember well, a writing assignment on the first day of Creativity for the Photographer, at Maine Media Workshops. Scary. Find a person you don't know, observe that person, and using those observations write the beginning of a fictional story about them. Who? Me?
The class was in a building less than a mile down the hill from the campus in Rockport, Maine. Being nervous, I went down early to look around. I'm sorry now that I didn't get a picture of the woman I met that morning. The character is based on her, but the assignment we got later that day was not to get a photograph but to create a literary picture of an imaginary character.
I followed Sean's link to Patricia Christakos' blog and the story she wrote. The memory of doing the same assignment inspired me to emulate her action. And so, this is what I had written: