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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Canon 1D, Tone Curves and Me
G.J. McCarthy, Photographer
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Paris | TX | USA | Posted: 1:23 PM on 11.05.03 |
->> Call me crazy, but I'm trying to make the most of the biggest purchase I've ever made (well, unless bail counts) ...
Is there a way to create a personalized tone curve for my 1D if I'm only shooting JPEGs? I'd like to give my camera a "look," if that makes any sense ... one that suits my pre-press style and ix-nays the mild green cast I'm getting.
I fiddled with the Canon software last night, and yes, did RTFM, but am still a little confused ...
So how do I create a .tcd? Is that what I should be doing, or am I on the wrong path? If the answer is terribly complex, an email or phone call would be fine. If you prefer the latter, email me for a number.
Thanks in advance,
- gerry - |
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Robert G. Stevens, Photographer
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Halifax | NS | Canada | Posted: 1:52 PM on 11.05.03 |
->> Gerry:
Here is how I did it:
1-Set camera to raw mode.
2-Find a test scene and balance the camera with a grey card.
3-Shoot the test scene, including the grey card in the picture.
4-Open the Canon acquire software, select your test image and then select the tone curve button.
5-Play with the tone curves and select save tcd file. Acquire the image into photoshop to see what it looks like. Continue this process until you get the scene looking like you want and the grey card looking neutral. A test for the grey card looking neutral is to open curves and click on the grey card in the scene with the neutral (middle) eye dropper. If this causes little change, your camera no longer has a color cast to it.
6- With the camera tethered via firewire, save this tone curve to the camera using the camera settings button in the acquire software.
7-Once saved to the camera, go into the camera and select this set of preferences. Until you save one to the camera, there will not be any list of preference to pick.
Bottom line, you need the camera tethered via firewire and shooting in RAW to update the tone curve. Once you have the curve set, it will be applied to your jpegs and you can shoot jpeg only.
I managed to find my original test shots. Here are the before and after shots:
http://www.sportsshooter.com/robsteve/1dtonecurves/
Regards,
Robert |
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Nick Doan, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Scottsdale | AZ | USA | Posted: 2:39 PM on 11.05.03 |
->> Can you just use another person's tone curve, or is it advisable to do it all on your own?
I've never set the tone curve, I just set the White Point in Photoshop Levels, and this seems to take care of it. But, there are a few times that I do seem to have some sort of a color cast... Of course, if I can jsut download someone else's that might work for me too. :) |
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Robert G. Stevens, Photographer
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Halifax | NS | Canada | Posted: 2:47 PM on 11.05.03 |
->> Nick:
I once saw an article on how they made the D2000/DCS-520. It showed that they set the tone curve by shooting a grey card and later a color checker card. This was done for each individual camera. In these cameras, you were warned that saved color balance profiles were specific to the body.
I suspect each sensor has its own tone curve and Canon just doesn't spend the time fine tuning it like Kodak did with the D2000.
It really is not that difficult to do using the Canon software. One thing that sucks about the Canon software is that you do not see changes on the images as you move the curves. You have to adjust the curves and then apply them to see the result.
Robert |
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Nick Doan, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Scottsdale | AZ | USA | Posted: 2:59 PM on 11.05.03 |
| ->> Thanks Robert. I'll have to set my Tone Curve, your sample images really do make me wonder how much better my colors could be. |
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John Berry, Photographer
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Culpeper | VA | USA | Posted: 6:27 PM on 11.05.03 |
| ->> I've been thinking about doing this with my 1D also. Does it make any difference what kind of lighting is used for the test shots, as long as a grey card is in the shot? Would I need a different tone curve for shooting outdoors in daylight vs say indoors at a High School gym? |
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Chris Nowling, Photographer
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Santa Barbara | CA | USA | Posted: 12:02 PM on 11.13.03 |
->> Has anyone tried Robert's method of personalizing a tone curve for the 1D?
Robert--Did this correct the green shift issue with JPEGs and give you more accurate colors in RAW straight out of the camera all with the same curve? |
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G.J. McCarthy, Photographer
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Paris | TX | USA | Posted: 12:35 PM on 11.13.03 |
->> Chris:
I've done Robert's method but am still in the "tweaking" phase.
I made my test shot outside using a gray card to custom white balance. I then played with the tone curve via firewire until I got the look I wanted (less green and much warmer). The end product looks great ... that is, if I custom white balance everything. Unfortunately, I usually only do that indoors, shooting everything outside on the open shade setting; all other WB settings on my camera still have some green, albeit a lot less than I started with. I will be playing around with my settings until I can get open shade to my liking, but hopefully not to the detriment of other WB settings.
Best of luck.
- g - |
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Nick Doan, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Scottsdale | AZ | USA | Posted: 1:13 PM on 11.13.03 |
->> I sitll ahven't done this yet...but I shot a basketball game last night. I used my 10D with a 300 for portraits of the players and coaches, and shot everything else with my 70-200 on my 1D. The 10D was set to Adobe RGB with all the standard settings (hmm I wonder if that last firmware update changed those), the 1D was set to Matrix 4. The 10D's color were much more saturated, and the reds were bursting...made the shots by the 1D look flat and slightly green.
I definitely need to do some tweaking here... |
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Chris Nowling, Photographer
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Santa Barbara | CA | USA | Posted: 2:10 PM on 11.13.03 |
->> Nick,
I figured something out after reading tons of posts on robgalbraith.com. If you shoot Matrix 4 on a 1d, when you open in PS, you need to discard the embedded profile (when asked) and then assign ARGB once the file is opened. If you are in ARGB working color space and convert when prompted (instead of discarding) you will get flat, desaturated, even more green colors.
According to the color gods on robgalbraith.com, even when you shoot in matrix 4, the embedded profile is still sRGB. Canon DSLR's do not assign ARGB even though you think you are. So if you convert to ARGB when prompted by PS, you are taking the sRGB color space embedded in the file (a smaller space) and expanding it to a larger one in ARGB.
So discard when prompted and then ASSIGN PROFILE Adobe RGB. Make sure you don't convert.
It is a little confusing and I hope my poor attempt at describing this has not confused you further.
Anyway, I made a droplet in PS and now it is all automated for me and I notice a definite improvement in my colors when shooting matrix 4. |
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