Capturing Autumn colour better

nopolariser-vs-polariserandprofile-web

Upper: unprofiled (Standard) raw conversion. Lower: using a tunsgten-light generated custom camera profile, combined with a polarising filter, gives a more vivid impression.

Most Alpha system users know that some – not all – cameras have a special JPEG mode for Autumn Colours. They’ll also know that if you shoot raw, with no JPEG in camera, only Sony software replicates this. The choice of picture looks or camera profiles in Lightroom and other programs ranges from none (one default) to good (a full basic range similar to Canon settings). However, you can go way beyond the default look your camera will produce from the Autumn colours we are seeing right now (UK) if you profile your camera using the X-Rite Color Checker Passport and the free downloadable software which goes with it. You can also use this software with any standard MacBeth Color Checker card.

You still need to create a .dng file from your original raw, as you also do for Adobe’s free camera profile generator. The X-Rite software creates much smaller profile files but they are no less effective.

Here’s my tip – normally, you calibrate by daylight and the Adobe Camera Profile (.dcp) includes automatic adjustment for tungsten. You can also take two test shots, one under each lighting condition. Experimenting with the X-Rite software, I found that if you only use tungsten to create your profile, all the daylight ‘landscape’ colours (especially green foliage and the sky) really pop out. The greatest change is in the sky blue, which can be very disappointing if you use Adobe Standard as your camera profile for raw conversion.

A7RIIprofiles

The zip file you can download from above contains some .dcp profiles for the A7R II which I’ve produced (the names are more or less self-explanatory). They should be unzipped and placed in the CameraProfiles folder of Camera Raw in Application Support>Adobe. You can find the software, instructions for PC and Mac, at:

http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=1257&Action=Support&SoftwareID=986

Using the stock Lightroom/ACR A7RII camera profiles you’ll find that the Landscape flavour tends, if anything, to make sky blue lighter. My tungsten-generated profile has most of the overall ‘snap’ of Landscape plus very much richer sky tones.

The second tip with Autumn/Fall colours is, of course, to use a polariser. I’d say this makes the single greatest difference to all Autumn colours even if you can’t see it clearly when composing. The individual leaves reflect light, and the polariser cuts through this to reveal the full colour. Because it also darkens the sky, the often fairly dark colours of Autumn trees come to life better. You don’t need to study the trees, just set the polariser for the best results with the sky. The leaves are at such random angles all positions tend to work equally well. It can however be worth trying a few different rotated positions of the polariser especially if there is also water in the shot. What deepens the sky may also reduce the strength of reflections in water. Experiment!

– David Kilpatrick

If you are considering buying a Color Checker, Color Checker Passport on Amazon can benefit this site.

 

Fujifilm discontinue press 800 colour neg stock

Fujifilm Professional is to discontinue one of its slower moving lines of film, from September 2009 production of Fujicolor Pro 800Z will cease. The company has a limited supply of the film in stock, enough to satisfy demand until approximatively November 2009.

Fujifilm’s Product Manager for Professional Film, Russ Gunn, explained the decision: “We have decided to remove all formats of Pro 800Z from our range due to low sales volume. By streamlining our selection of Professional film we can ensure our strong selling lines are protected.”

Gunn continued: “Sales of our colour negative and transparency films are doing very well and there has also been a recent upturn in sales of our instant films. We will continue to support photographers who appreciate the quality and flexibility of real film with a range of marketing activities including the Fujifilm Distinctions Awards, the Fujifilm Student Awards and our online resource for film users, Choose-film.com.”

For further details on the Fujifilm range of Professional film visit, www.fujifilm.co.uk/professional

Kodachrome reaches frame 39 – the end

LONDON UK, June 22, 2009 – Eastman Kodak Company announced today that it will retire KODACHROME colour film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.

Sales of KODACHROME Film, which became the world’s first commercially successful colour film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to other, newer KODAK films or to the digital imaging technologies that Kodak pioneered. Today, KODACHROME Film represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s total sales of still-picture films.

Continue reading »