South Maui Sunset with Lightroom "Adobe Standard" Adobe Standard Camera Calibration preset.
One of the lesser known features in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is Camera Calibration in the Develop module. Different camera sensors render color differently. Camera Calibration was developed to enable photographers to adjust the white balance, hue and saturation to “calibrate” the image so it matches more closely with what they intended when it was originally captured.
It’s an adjustment that can be done using other controls in Lightroom, but I tend to try different Color Calibration presets right off the bat to see if they get me closer to how I want to image to end up looking. If so, it gives me a different starting point for developing my image and saves me a lot of time.
South Maui Sunset with Lightroom "Camera Vivid" Camera Calibration preset.
Several presets are shipped with the product. If you shoot RAW, you’re presented with more choices of presets than if you don’t. They include ACR 3.1, ACR 4.4, Adobe Standard, Camera D2X Mode 1, Camera D2X Mode 2, Camera D2X Mode 3, Camera Landscape, Camera Neutral, Camera Portrait, Standard and Camera Vivid. Depending on what camera model you use and how you exposed your image, you’ll need to play around with them to see what they do for you.
One of the things I did a while ago was to create User Presets out of the different Camera Calibration presets, so I could simply mouse over the presets and get a preview of what the image will look like when I apply them.
To create these, choose a Camera Calibration present, then go to the Presets panel and press the “+” sign to create a new one, uncheck everything except calibration, name it with the name of the Camera Calibration preset and press Create. Then move on to the next Camera Calibration preset and do the same, and the next, until they’re all done.
You’ll find yourself using these more and more when you first enter the Develop module, and they may even inspire you to take the image in a direction you hadn’t thought of.
Try it and tell me what you think.
South Maui Sunset
