camera out. This could be in post or the use of filters and other tools while in the field.

Today I am going to talk about camera color profiles and how to set one up in Lightroom 4. Camera color profiles are different than white balance. Custom camera color profiles will help get the most accurate color when processing your raw image. To find the camera profile section in Lightroom 4, head over to the develop module and scroll down to the “camera calibration” section. There you will find the a heading labeled, “Process”. As of this writing it should be the 2012 process. Then right below that you will see the heading “Profile”. Most likely this will be on Adobe Standard. Click the drop down menu to see several other options. You should see profiles for landscape, portrait, etc… Below that you will have 4 sliders. One for shadows, red, green, and blue. By checking out the different profiles and messing with the sliders, you will notice the range of colors you have at your fingertips. This just makes finding accurate color more difficult. To acquire accurate colors in your images, a custom profile is necessary.

Each camera and each camera lens will render colors differently. This is based on the sensor, the elements and coatings in the lens, and other technical things I don’t understand. It’s best to profile each lens and camera combination. I profile each lens with my camera in two lighting conditions. One for daylight and one for shade. If you are a studio or event photographer, you may want several combinations for the different light sources you may encounter.

To make a profile is simple. I use the ColorChecker Passport. You simply set it up in the lighting conditions you want to profile, and take a picture of it. Once you install the software plugin for lightroom, you simply go to export, name your profile, and viola you’re done. Lightroom will then have to be restarted to apply the profiles. Then head down to the camera calibration section and select your camera profile. The differences will sometimes be subtle, but you will notice a difference.

The sample images below look very similar but I want you to focus on the blues in both images. Both images are the exact same, with the exact same exposure, and color balance. The only difference is that one has a custom profile and the other has the default adobe setting. With the color profile applied, you will see a richer deep blue. Most of the colors seem a bit deeper. It may be hard to see but trust me it makes a difference. To learn more about custom profiles and how they can work for you, Check out this post and webinar done by Joe Brady.

Custom Camera Color ProfileAdobe Standard camera Profile

With Custom Camera Color ProfileWith Adobe Standard Camera Profile

To capture accurate colors, a custom camera color profile is a must. From here you can edit your images with confidence that your colors are true to the scene.

Camera Color Profiles

The process is fast and easy. All you do is take a image in the center, then shift the lens one way, followed by shifting the lens the other way. Photographing each time you shift. This works for landscape as well as portrait orientation. Combine the three images in Photoshop and voila. Photoshop will actually stitch the image so easily you’ll barely have to do any cropping. If you combine this with a the tilt ability of the lens, you’ll have a masterful panorama without any distortion or loss of image quality. To learn more about the advantages of tilt shift lenses check out Darwin wWiggett’s post here.

This weeks post image was made at Esch Road Beach in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I first found the proper tilt to render the scene sharp, then I took three images, one in the center of the shift range, one to the right, and the last one to the left of the shift range. I then combined the three images in Photoshop. I didn’t have to make sure everything was level, I didn’t have to find the nodal point on my lens, and I didn’t have to worry about the proper amount of image overlap. I was able to capture the moment without really thinking about it. The only downside is that tilt shift lenses aren’t cheap. Canon makes a couple but probably the most popular is the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II Ultra Wide Tilt-Shift Lens. Just announced is the Rokinon TSL24M-C 24mm f/3.5 Tilt Shift Lens for Canon. Rokinon has been getting good reviews and although I haven’t tried any of their lenses, I have heard from some of my fellow photogs and they are happy with them.

My panoramic workflow has just become so much easier because of the tilt shift lens. If you are serious about making panoramic images I would consider renting and trying out a tilt shift.

The Easiest Way to Make a Panorama is…

So what does MTF stand for? Modulation Transfer Function. Oh.. ok… What does modulation transfer function mean? Ideally a lens would perfectly transmit all the light through the glass of the lens. We all know the world isn’t perfect and either are lenses. A lens contains several elements and therefore losses will occur within the lens. When these losses are measured, in terms of contrast, it is called the modulation of contrast. Basically the chart measures how much contrast is lost as the light travels through the lens to the camera’s sensor.

Many of us looked at a MTF chart, seen below, with great confusion. We now know the chart measures loss of contrast. First lets tackle the colors. Normally a MTF chart will contain two colors. One black and one colored. In this case it’s blue. The black is referring to the lens at it’s widest aperture. The blue line refers to an aperture of f8. Almost all lenses will have a higher rating at f8 than wide open so the colors on the chart should most often have a better rating.

What is a good rating? 1 is the best. Anything around .8 is really good, .6 is ok, and anything under that is suspect in terms of image quality. The numbers on the bottom of the cart is referring to millimeters. Zero is the dead center of the lens. As the numbers increase, it represents the millimeters away from the center of the lens. So in this chart the outside edges of the lens, right around 20mm, falls off in quality.

We now know how to read the chart, what the numbers mean, and what the colors represent, but why are there so many lines? Each line represents something different, but to keep it simple we are normally concerned with the “thick lines”. This measures the actual contrast/sharpness of the lens. The thin lines represents image resolution, while the dotted lines represents the out of focus areas of the lens. Again the thick lines are most important.

Zoom lenses should have at least two MTF charts. One for the wide part of the zoom and one for the telephoto part of the lens. Lets look at an example of an awesome MTF chart. As you can see, this is the MTF chart for the Canon 500mm f4 IS II. The MTF chart without the extenders attached, is nearly perfect. This indicates an excellent lens wide open as well as stopped down to f8.

Each lens should have a MTF chart attached to it on the manufactures website. With that being said don’t compare different manufacturers. For instance comparing a Canon lens MTF with a Tamron lens MTF. Manufacturers have different testing procedures and standards. My suggestion would be to pick out a manufacturer you want to buy from, then compare the MTF’s to narrow down your lens selection within that specific manufacturer.

I hope this article helps in understanding and reading MTF’s. I encourage you to use them, especially when deciding on your next lens purchase.

How to Read a MTF Chart

In order for me to make wonderful images, I need to be as comfortable as possible. This means I have to have a stable body temperature, be well rested, mostly dry, and food in my stomach. I basically have to be “mostly comfortable”. Now I use the term mostly, because it’s inevitable that we will run into cold or hot temperatures. We’ll get rained on, we’ll be wading in rivers or lakes, laying in mud, fingers will feel like they are freezing off, or the hunger bug will strike. To help battle these conditions, here is a list of camping gear that will keep us “mostly comfortable” in the backcountry.

1) Number one for me has to be sleep. I only sleep about 6 hours a night anyways, but if I don’t get that, I turn into Mr. cranky pants. In order for me to get a good nights sleep in the backcountry, I have to have my Big Ag. Insul. Q-Core Pad. This is the most comfortable backpacking sleeping pad I’ve tried. It’s 3.5 inches thick, It packs up to the size of a water bottle, it has an R value of 5, it’s worth it’s weight in gold, and did I say it’s comfortable? This will keep you in a deep slumber and not drive your hips or shoulders into the ground!

2) After sleep, I need to have food and water. If I don’t, it usually leads to headaches and me being unmotivated. To do this I use a MSR WhisperLite Universal Stove. This stove can use most any kind of fuel. The most common are the little propane fuel bottles and white gas. The fact it can use different fuels is great because when traveling by air, you have to leave your fuel at home. This requires you to get fuel at your destination and leaves you at the mercy of the local camping or hardware store. It can even use unleaded gasoline!

For a water filtration system I use the Platypus GravityWorks Filter. This filter is awesome because it filters and stores large amounts of water in a relatively short amount of time. It comes with 2-4 liter bags. One for dirty water and the other for filtered water. Once you filter your first batch of water, you then can fill the dirty water reservoir again and head back to camp. This gives you 8 liters of water for your campsite. I also carry a Platypus Hoser 3.0L Reservoir for my backpack. When I fill that up and head back to camp,  I have an amazing, eleven liters of water!

3) Warmth and overall comfort. This means using quality outerwear, like the Arcteryx Theta AR Jacket which will block the wind and keep you dry, even in the most extreme of weather conditions. A lightweight quality sleeping bag like the Sierra Designs Arrow Rock 15 Degree 600 Fill Down Sleeping Bag , will keep warm and toasty during the chilly nights. A good pair of Mountain Hardwear Mens Mesa Convertible Pant, will keep you warm in the early morning hours, and then you can zip off the legs for a comfortable afternoon hike!

All of these little conveniences will allow us to stay in nature longer, all the while being comfortable! I think camping gear is often overlooked. We sometimes spend thousands of dollars on a camera body or lens, but we don’t have the things to provide us with food, water, warmth, and sleep. Not only will this keep us happier, it will allow us to immerse ourselves in the places we need to be to make wonderful nature imagery!

Camping Gear

Petit Jean was Arkansas’s first state park!  In my research I noticed they had some pretty cool waterfalls to go along with it’s rich history of native Americans and french explorers. To get to the waterfalls requires a bit of hiking on the well established trails. It is always great fun, wonderful exercise, and somewhat spiritual for me when I am alone in the wilderness exploring new locations.

I photographed the waterfalls for a while and as dusk approached I made my way out of the woods. I arrived to my car just as the sun was about to set, so I hopped in and headed for a lookout I noticed on my way into Petit Jean State Park. I got there just in time, and as I was photographing I was approached by a curious lady that was enjoying the sunset herself. I didn’t even notice her until she spoke to me. Being somewhat startled, I asked her to repeat her question. Beautiful isn’t it? She asked. Yes it is! I replied. From there she started to tell me about her husband and how much he loves sunsets. That conversation lead to other life stories. I didn’t want to be rude, but I didn’t want to miss the sunset either, so I put my remote shutter release at my side and secretly snapped some images while we watched the sun sink below the horizon. When the sun was gone I started to pack up my things, said goodbye, and left the curious lady as she absorbed the remaining beauty of that day.

Every image I make has a story. I do enjoy making images for others to enjoy but I also love making images, that in time, will hold wonderful stories of my adventures. I can go through every image I made, and I can feel the cold chills, the stiff breezes, the smell of the ocean, the mist of a waterfall, the adrenaline of an animal staring me down, and the stories of the people I meet. The viewers of art often will relate to artwork in a different way than the artist. That’s fine, as long as they can relate, I have accomplished my goal.

This weeks post image is from the overlook in Petit Jean State Park in central Arkansas. For more information on Petit Jean State Park click here.

Petit Jean State Park