Camera Color Profiles for Duplication?

[jcbenner]

I am getting OK colors in the camera duplication of Kodachrome slides, but some aspects of the color are off in subtle ways that are not simply an adjustment to white balance (yellow-blue) or tint (green-magenta). Has anybody developed any camera calibration methodology for Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw?   I'm using Lightroom 2.6 for RAW conversion and a Canon 1Ds Mark III for duplication with a 100mm macro and a strobe for illumination.

 I tried duplicating a Kodachrome IT-8 scanner target and then eyeballing changes to the R, G, and B channels using the "camera calibration" tab in Lightroom. Here is an example before and after tweaks:



here is the same target with the same white balance but with increased saturation in the R, G, and B channels using "camera calibration" in Lightroom



Here is an example image from a Kodachrome 25 original, colors are nearly perfect except that the yellow lettering and flowers are much too pale. I would like to develop a camera profile that can give more accurate colors without having to make extensive solor adjustments that are unique to each image. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[peterkrogh]

JC (name?),
I've been meaning to try some tests with a photograph of a greytag color checker, and the DNG profile editor. If you don't already have the photo, you can't make one, since Kodachrome processing is now gone.  Not sure how effective it would be, since the film will have faded at different rates over time. (And film formulas will also have changed over time).

IT does seem like there would be a way to automate this eventually - some kind of colorimeter reading that would apply a correction to the scan. At this moment, I think you need to do this by hand, if you want it to be as good as it can be. (BTW, one thing I like about scanning is the ability to make the scan look *better* than the original (such as by opening up shadows ). Of course, this *requires* human intervention to decide how much ocrrection to apply.
Peter

[jcbenner]

Thank you for the reply Peter.

I was thinking about shooting a GMB ColorChecker as well.  I have not shot a roll of film in 5 years, but I think Kodachrome can still be processed by Dwaynes till 12/30/2010. The 12/31/2009 date was for mailers (I think)?

I agree about film formulas changing over time, I can see that with different batches of Kodachrome within the same year.

John (sorry I forgot to sign the last post)