Re: Profiling digital cameras
Re: Profiling digital cameras
- Subject: Re: Profiling digital cameras
- From: Igor <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 19:03:37 +0100
This topic of camera profiles has been covered before. And there have
been extensive discussions about it's (presumed) merits. So I can not
help but repeating myself. But I'll do that anyway because the topic
keeps coming up every time.....
Jack Bingham wrote:
What we need is a clear understanding of what a camera
profile does. It does characterize how a camera responds to a
particular set
of colors
under a specific lighting condition
Well put. And about the only thing a camera profile can do right.
But the main purpose of the whole profiling-scheme, and everything about
ICC for that matter, is to make colors predictable along the workflow.
Basicly it's all about making the same colors appear on the screen as
there were in the original. And then the same colors in print as there
were on the screen. Right?
So it always involves a comparison: between one point and the next in
the workflow.
The colors captured by a camera should therefor be compared to the
original, in this case: what THE EYE SEES. Because these are the two
points in the workflow that the camera profile relates to.
The thing that everyone keeps forgetting is that there's nothing to
compare the colors AS WE SEE THEM with. Simply because the colors that
we see cannot be captured. They are inevitably in a state of flux,
resulting from the character of our eyesight. Keyword here is -dare I
mention it again?- 'colorconstancy'.
Colorconstancy is this curious and extremely powerfull feature of our
eyesight to disregard the influence of lighting environment in the
quality of a color. Making colors AS WE SEE THEM unrecordable. It also
means our eyesight has NO fixed whitepoint.
Many words have been said about this, and many more words will most
probably be said. And I'm aware that many will disagree, BUT:
A good camera profile, as compared to a good scanner profile, cannot,
will not exist.
It makes sense to use a camera profile as a 'reference', as a starting
point in the color workflow. It also makes sense to use a camera profile
to compare one image with another. But never expect it to be able to
match the captured image to what we actually see.
OK, I'm off my high horse again......
Igor Asselbergs
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