Mark S Abeln
Forum Pro
The "right" result will be where each of the ColorChecker patches as photographed by the camera exactly match the actual values on the target itself, and not only that, but all other colors will match as well.
What you'll find in reality is that some patches in your photograph, after calibration, will match the target quite closely and others won't. This goes back to the 'figure of merit' problem I mentioned earlier. If you want a single overall value to measure calibration 'goodness' understand that this is not something that Color Science can deliver. Is having most colors completely accurate—with one way off—better than having all colors just OK with none really good? Or do you want good skin colors? Or do you want accurate colors that are not represented on the test chart?
But the actual target values have to measured under controlled conditions: the published values may not actually match your target, due to process changes, sample variation, and target deterioration.
Also, understand that color calibration typically attempts to provide colors as if they were photographed under standard conditions, for example 6500K color temperature in very bright lighting. But what if you want colors that will match how you saw them when you photographed the target? Good luck with the last one! It's possible to calibrate cameras that way, but I know of no one who does that.
Hehehe, I went down the same road myself!
That's a great start.
I'm not sure that is entirely true. Think of the old clanky piano sounds that you hear in old Westerns. It's distinctive, but not necessarily 'good'.
I think that you are 90% there with just the basic calibration you've done. Now there will be extremely discerning people who will want some key colors exact, and the only thing you can do in that situation is to force the colors to be correct. Understand that this may not work 100% perfectly, and there is indeed a great advantage to using high quality, low-noise gear with lots of lighting and great technique in order to do these corrections well. Fashion photographers do this sort of thing routinely.
A good calibration should make the colors at least 'rightish'. For sure, you can expect cameras to be already fairly well calibrated under daylight, flash, and incandescent, but it is under gas discharge and LED lamps where you really run into problems.
Hehe. Myself, I just learned to enjoy the results of the Adobe profiles (except when I was forced not to).A tool I have works much better for me than a tool I don't.
Yes, I think so.
I think that is the main purpose of profiling: making any camera give similar colors to any other.
Good luck! It is fascinating stuff, and there are true experts on this forum (not me) who really know how it all works.
