Am I managing color correctly in Photolab 6 DCP

I’m pretty new to colour management I have calibrated monitors before but now I want end to end Camera to Monitor Calibration is this the correct way to do it using Photolab 6, ColorChecker Camera Calibration and X-Rite iprofiler pro…

  1. Firstly I calibrate my monitor (in my case a Dell XPS15) using the X-Rite iprofiler and use that profile to manage my colour in windows and any other photo software.

  2. Secondly I create my camera DCP profile by…

  • photographing a Calobrite ColorChecker Passport noting the Camera Body, Lens and Lighting Colour e.g daylight, overcast etc

  • load the RAW file of the Colorchecker Passport taken with my camera into Photolab 6 then select “No corrections” as my profile then export as a DNG

  • take the DNG and drop it into Colorchecker Camera Calibration tool and create a DCP profile for that Camera / Lens / Lighting Combo

  1. To use the DCP profile…
  • load a photo taken under the same conditions as above Camera / Lens / Lighting Combo into Photolab 6

  • apply standard DXO Optical Corrections only (maybe also noise reduction)

  • under Color Rendering load the above DCP profile

  • then to adjust for monitor calibration load the monitor calibration for my Dell monitor into the Soft Proofing ICC Profile

Is this the correct way? Have I missed anything? Any help greatly appreciated!!

Many thanks

Andrew

Not sure about calibrating your camera as DxO has already done that for you and you can use their internal calibration data by selecting different options in the Color Rendering section.

As you have calibrated your monitor and specified the profile in Windows, PL6 knows about this profile and will use it. What you need to do is turn Soft Proofing on and select the profile of the device you will be exporting your photo to, eg, sRGB for web or general viewing, other profiles for printing or further work on other software. It all depends what you intend to do with your output as to how you Soft Proof.

Hope this helps.

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Every sensor is different. A lot of people (studio folk, for instance) spent the time calibrating their own camera with their own lights, to make sure they produce correct color.

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Thanks Keith that’s given me a few things to think about. Cheers Andrew