Latest wildlife and nature photography blogs for Thursday 9 September 2010

Our monthly weather review is a little late this month, my apologies. We asked for rain in the south and we certainly got it, perhaps a little too much. But it still remained cloudy. Towards the end of the month high winds developed; low pressure fuelled by heat and humidity gave rise to heavy rain and gales across much of the southeast. Despite this and strange as it may seem, the Bank Holiday was very pleasant, with some warm sunshine.

Looking ahead, we now change seasons to autumn. Will it bring us some good weather? I do hope so. Again, 2010 is producing odd weather patterns and turning the average recorded weather for each month, on its head.

Mean maximum temperature                26.3° degrees

Mean minimum temperature                10.2° degrees

We have just added a new video to the website. We have made our portfolio available for viewing in video format. Sit back, relax and watch some stunning wildlife and nature images.

If you see a picture you would like to own, please do contact us; they are available as prints framed or unframed and make great gifts, or treat yourself.

Government budget cuts have already started to have an impact on our countryside. Well that is according to organisations like the RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). A current campaign promoted on their website, is urging people to lobby their MP to protect funding for DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and its conservation projects. Decisions about where the axe will fall for government departments, is not due until the 20 October 2010, but the possibility of cuts to DEFRA budget are worrying wildlife groups.

Budget cuts will no doubt affect conservation projects funding in the future and organisations like the RSPB are right to lobby our government, to ensure that our countryside is protected. One group of people very passionate about our countryside that always seem to be left out, when these issues are being discussed, are the people who shoot live quarry.

If you are wondering why we who care so much about nature and wildlife are defending shooters, maybe you don’t understand the role shooting plays in our rural life in this country. We have photographed many times on estates, managed for farming and shooting. You too have benefited from land managed for shooting. Visit a nature reserve, gaze out past the boundary fence, the chances are you’re looking at an environment managed for shooting.

Looking at the figures is an eye opener. Shooting is contributing 2.7 million work days on conservation per year; this is equivalent to 12,000 full time jobs. Shooting estates manage two-thirds of the rural land area. Without shooting our countryside would be a different place. Its economy would suffer as 30,000 rural jobs depend on shooting. Without land being managed for shooting farming mono cultures would take over.

Shooting actively manages two million hectares of land for conservation. This is greater than all our wildlife organisations put together. We owe our shooting estates much more than we think. Long may they continue to contribute to our countryside, without them we would be looking at a different landscape. We will continue to work with, help and support the best shooting estates, because they are so important to our wild and rural life.

Until next time.

Stop press, new feature on the website. Now available on the website is a short video trailer of our talk on Kenya’s Masai Mara.

Click on the link and you will see and hear a 2 minute extract from our talk. This will give you an idea of what the full length; 40 minute talk is all about.

We hope you enjoy the video, if you would like more details about this or any of our other talks, please do get in touch. We look forward to hearing from you.

Time seems to have flown by recently; we are nearly at the end of August and autumn is approaching.

Nature is preparing for the change of the seasons too. Fruits are ripening on the trees and blackberries bushes are in full fruit. Green spiky conkers cases have formed on the Horse Chestnut trees and hopefully they will have bright chestnut coloured conkers inside. Many Horse Chestnut trees in the south are suffering from leaf miner damage; this may be unsightly and causes damage to the leaves, but there has been no evidence it causes damage to the tree.

Don’t forget fungi. It pops up everywhere, in our lawns, on tree trunks, in parks and woodland. Fungi foraging is great fun, with their different shapes and colours they make good pictures. But do be careful, some fungi are very poisonous; if you touch them don’t forget to wash your hands.

Autumn months are when you can help wildlife prepare for the coming winter. If you have room, why not build a log pile, in a shady part of your garden. Toads and hedgehogs are attracted to the piles, using them as a home for the winter. Next year the dead wood may sprout fungi, giving you your own woodland display.

Autumn brings the colourful displays. Leaves change colour and the countryside is ablaze with displays of red and gold.

Don’t forget to keep feeding the birds. They will need extra energy to see them through the winter. Remember the snow and bitter cold last winter.

Have fun this autumn, taking in all that nature has to offer and do your bit to help our bio-diversity.

When you create a talk, there is always material you wish you could include, but time limits mean it has to be set aside. The act of taking a photograph is all about what to include and what to leave out, so you would think that it would be easy for us to choose a few pictures to illustrate a talk. The problem is when we get started on our favourite subjects, wildlife and photography; we do tend to get a bit over ambitious. Our first draft would have filled a 6 part talk, let alone one that could be given in an evening. Material we wanted to include had to be consigned to the "if we had more time" pile.

But what about all those beautiful pictures, that didn’t make it; all had a story to tell. We thought it is a shame people would not get to see them. We came up with an idea. Why not produce a book to accompany the talks, giving people the chance to see the all those excluded pictures.

Rather than just a book of pictures we decided that it had to tell a story. So along with the pictures we have added text that explains a little about the Mara ecosystems. It will give the reader an insight into the animals that live there and how they interact with each other.

We are giving you an opportunity to own a copy. It’s not a bad read, even if self praise is always biased and the pictures are just brilliant. One tip, if you are going to attend one of our talks I would suggest that you hold fire from making a purchase as buying a copy directly from us will be cheaper. If you are going to miss our talks and would like a copy then click away.

Until next time.

A quick update. We have decided to produce a newsletter with all the latest news, our special offers, training, new pictures and much more. It’s free and will be sent to registered subscribers only. You won’t be bombard with emails as we intend to send out the newsletter quarterly. Get to hear about any discounts or special offers first before they are announced to the general public.

Signing up is easy; click on the green subscribe button below, or on any subscribe button you see on the website. You can also click News and Newsletter on the main menu bar at the top of any page.



You will receive an email to confirm your registration details. Click on the confirmation link and you will start receiving our newsletters.

Don’t miss an issue, sign up Today!

There always seems to be a lot of stories on the internet about the plight of wildlife abroad and we will admit that we also try to raise awareness about preserving iconic animals such as lions, cheetahs and elephants. But maybe we should be looking closer to home.

I have just read a news article about Pine martins. Evidence, (droppings) of these attractive mammals has been found in the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland. It was thought that they were confined to Scotland. Evidence now shows that pine martins are living in England all be it in small numbers, which is probably why they have not been seen. A full survey is to be conducted during August. For the full article visit www.wildlifeextra.com

We consider the news about the proposed Tanzania highway to be catastrophic; and don’t get me wrong, it is. The impact, if it happens will be major; affecting wildlife and people alike. But should we not be looking closer to home. Despite some of our UK flora and fauna being small, it is equally important.

We are just as guilty in the UK of placing importance on making progress with new building work, be it houses or roads. Or even more subtle things such as abolition of the set-a- side compensation scheme for farmers.

The statement you sometimes here is "it’s only so and so". It is all bio-diversity however big or small and we should be preserving it now, for future generations.

2010 has been declared by The United Nations, the International Year of Biodiversity. A statement on their website,  says "Take Action in 2010 and beyond, because biodiversity is life, biodiversity is our life".

We can all play a part, however small; helping your local wildlife group can make an impact. If housing or roads are being built near you and it has the potential to disturb or destroy wildlife; take a stance, let the authorities hear your voice. Together we can make a big difference.

Who wants a concrete world? I know some places already feel like that. By taking action before it is too late, we can save our treasured bio-diversity.

Well the rain did not arrive on 4 July in our area, so for us the warm and dry weather has continued.

The change this month has been the large amounts of cloud cover. The increase in cloud cover combined with the warm weather has meant muggy conditions. This has resulted in thunderstorms in some parts of the country. Some welcome rain, but not enough. A report from the Met Office states that Northern Ireland had the dullest July on record; coming after one of the driest June for decades.

Lets hope August brings less cloud, a bit more sun and some much needed rain.

Mean maximum temperature                30.5° degrees

Mean minimum temperature                11.8° degrees

We were doing our review of the month the other day and realised that we hadn’t posted many entries this month. Now let me assure you it’s not because we have lost interest, it’s just we have been working hard on other things. So we will take a slap on the wrist for not posting as regular as we would have liked, but plead extenuating circumstances.

The phone rings, somebody has done you great honour of booking you to talk to their group. You discuss requirements, put the date into the diary and get on with other things. Now; sometimes these dates are away in the future and when you make the booking, it seems as if you have plenty of time to organise everything. Then one day you are looking at the diary and you notice that what seemed like a long time way in the future, can now be counted in weeks.

I am not saying that this causes any panic. But we decided at the end of last year that Microsoft PowerPoint was alright to show images in a talk but could we do better. We made plans on how to improve our talks and the way our images were presented. We even researched the problems and possible solutions and came up with a plan. We could give people attending our talks, a better experience, when compared to using MS PowerPoint.

So research done, decision made, then as I suspect happens to lots of people, life sort of got in the way. It was only the wake up of the diary that prompted us to get busy.

So that is our excuse for not that many posts this month. We have been trying out the new software. Making sure it works and getting our talks together in the new format. So far all seems to be working well and the new style of presentation looks great and will give a whole new experience to people coming to our talks. Once we have got the new software beaten into shape and we are happy with the results we will be posting some video of the new talks here on the website. And we promise that we will try and do better in August, honest, fingers crossed.

Until next time.

I hope you have noticed that we have launched our new website. If you are reading this on our website then it should be obvious what has changed. If you read our blog through an RSS reader then I hope you will visit our website to see the new look.

You will notice that the design of the site is not that much different from the old version. We liked the old sites design so we decided to keep it and make a few changes. A few sections have received a total overhaul in design terms while the front page, looks very much the same until you scroll down.

Our aim is to make the website easier for people to use and to help us keep the content fresh. We have done a lot of work behind the scenes to enable us to update the site quicker and easier. This will mean that we can update the recent pictures section much quicker. It will keep the content fresh and up-to-date something that was difficult in the past.

As I have said, I hope you like the changes we have made please take a look around and if you have any comments be sure to email us.

Until next time.

The Big Butterfly Count takes place from 24 July to 1 August. If you enjoy seeing these varied and beautiful creatures, do your bit to help them and take part in the survey. You don’t have to go far; you can monitor your garden.

The UK butterfly population is in decline and information about where butterflies are being seen and the type of habitats they are frequenting will give researchers valuable knowledge in the fight to save many species from disappearing.

All that is needed is 15 minutes of your time, sometime between 24 July and 1 August. Make a count of the number of butterflies you see in your chosen area and report your findings on The Big Butterfly Count website, www.bigbutterflycount.org. Further details about the count, an ID card and how to record your findings can all be found at the website.

2010 is the Year of International Biodiversity, do your bit to help and take part in the count. We will be.

An excellent website for information about butterflies is Butterfly Conservation  www.butterfly-conservation.org,

June was another dry and warm month for us in the South East. Although in the last couple of weeks of the month the North of the country has had some rain. It has been the driest start to the year for 29 years.

We did not get the much needed rain; with the ground baked dry the animals and plants are find times tough. Despite the warm weather, winds have been quite strong, a nightmare when photographing flowers. One of our projects this summer is getting images of bees in flight, but this proves difficult when it’s very windy; but we kept persevering.

It looks like the dry and warm weather will continue in the South East, but some welcome rain in Northern and Western regions. However, that said, having just listened to a forecast, the chances are that the London area will get rain this coming Sunday, 4 July.

Mean maximum temperature                29.2° degrees

Mean minimum temperature                  8.9° degrees

Importing RAW files into Lightroom is always an exciting event for us. As it’s the first time since pressing the shutter button, we get a really good look at the images. As with everything in life sometimes we are disappointed, sometimes we are surprised, sometimes we can’t understand why we took that picture. But no matter what the initial emotion, it soon is overtaken by the "it will look better when we do a bit of processing" emotion. That was until recently.

We have just started using the X-Rites ColorChecker Passport in conjunction with Lightroom to produce camera profiles. On its own this has improved the look of our imported pictures. But what has made a big difference is getting Lightroom to do a lot more of the image processing as it imports images. So if you would like to spend less time processing your images, get better quality images this could be of interest.

You can apply a camera profile to any image in Lightroom, no matter what setting was used to import the picture. But keep having to apply the profiles manually can be a bit tiresome and not to say time wasting. This is where Lightroom can help. Lightroom will apply your beautifully made profiles, as it imports the image. Not only that but it will also apply any other settings you wish. If you have more than one camera body it will apply the appropriate profile for each body. All this is possible.

You first need to do a bit of preparation work. But when you are finished you will have it so that Lightroom will import your images and apply a bespoke profile and settings to that image. If you have used a high ISO, you can apply a Noise Reduction based on that setting. What you end up with is images imported into Lightroom that have a fair bit of individual processing applied without you having to click a mouse.

What you need, is a set of pictures of the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport to enable you to produce colour profiles. Working mainly outside, taking pictures of wildlife we tend to produce our profiles using daylight. But choose another light source if this is more appropriate for your type of photography.

You need to capture the images used to create the profiles different ISO speeds, so that you can produce profiles for each ISO. One tip that we learnt is that with most modern camera the changes due to high ISO are very small. So we tended to only use a few ISO settings 200, 800, 1600 32000. If Lightroom hasn’t got a profile for ISO setting in the picture it will default to the closest setting. So if you set the ISO to 640 it will use the 800 ISO setting. This keeps down the amount of work you need to do. But you can produce a profile for each ISO setting if you think the improvements are justified.



X-Rite ColorChecker Passport

We also photograph a standard scene at the same time as the ColorChecker Passport. This is so we can compare pictures taken with different camera bodies. More about this later. Do this for each camera body you own. One important tip, make sure that you keep very good records and identify the frames as you go along as you are going to end up with a lot of pictures of colour patches. They all look the same and it can be a difficult task to identify them in Lightroom with having to look at the Metadata.


Standard photograph

Import all your images into Lightroom and start making the camera profiles. One profile for each illuminate, camera body and ISO setting. ColorChecker has one trick I should mention. It can produce profiles that are dual illuminant. Dual illuminant profiles are one profile that contains information for two different light sources, say one for daylight and one for flash. This type of profile is useful, if like us you do occasionally shoot using only electronic flash as a sole illuminant. A dual illuminant can have the daylight and electronic flash profile in one file.

Name the profiles you make with a name that lets you identify it later. Our profiles have names like EOS 1D II 400 D/F 100628. This gives us the camera body, the ISO setting, daylight and flash and the date the profile was created.

Now to get Lightroom to apply the profiles automatically as you import your images. A little known feature of Lightroom or at least one we’ve only just discovered by accident is Lightroom’s ability to set a new default. This default setting is used when importing images.

Preference and the Presets tab. On this tab you will see the two options we are interested in Make defaults specific to camera serial number and Make defaults specific to camera ISO setting. If you want to make the default settings both camera and ISO dependant tick both boxes. If you only want one variable then select either camera or ISO. OK the dialogue boxes.


Select the Make default specific to camera serial number and/or Make defaults specific to camera ISO setting

You have now set Lightroom to look at the metadata in the images it imports for specific camera bodies and ISO settings. If you have not set a default for a particular combination, Lightroom will apply the Adobe Standard default settings.

Next select one of your test images that you shot at the same time as the profile image. You need to know which camera body and ISO setting was used to produce the image. Switch to the Develop module. Scroll down to the Camera Calibration panel and change the profile from Adobe Standard to your new specific profile for this body and ISO setting. If you want you can take the process a step further, make changes to the other develop settings.




Adobe standard settings

We use different camera bodies to take our wildlife pictures, when the images are imported you can see the difference between the bodies even after they have been profiled. So what we do is to make changes to the basic settings. These changes are to try and balance the differences between the camera bodies. One body may require that the exposure setting is a little different.


Our settings for EOS 1D Mk II

What you should be aiming for is when you look at the pictures in Lightroom you can’t tell which body was used. All this balancing and tweaking takes time and the chances are that you will not get it right first time but keep going. You can always change the settings again and again.

When you have finished all your adjustments for your selected image, you need to make these settings the default. Under the Develop menu you will find Set Default Settings click this option. You should then see a dialogue box.

Click the Update to Current Settings. Your develop settings, camera profile, are now the default.


Make your settings for this camera and ISO

Once you have finished doing this for your camera bodies and different ISO settings it is time to test. But take our advice and go and have a long tea break before you start, as by now you tend to be a bit over imaged.

Shoot a series of test pictures using all your bodies. Import these pictures into Lightroom. Under the Import settings dialogue make sure that under the Information to Apply section you set Develop Settings to None. This may seem an odd choice but what is happening is that Lightroom will apply its default settings to any imported image. As you have changed the Adobe defaults with your defaults these will be those applied.


Import settings used when importing new images

What you should see, with a bit of luck and skill is that no matter what body you took the image on they all look the same. When you look at the Noise a majority of the settings should be nearly there. When you start selecting your best images you have a better idea of how the final image will look. I can say that this little tip has saved us a lot of time and results in better images faster.

Until next time

A 480Km road linking Arusha and Musoma in Northern Tanzanian has finally been approved by the Tanzanian government. The proposed route includes a 60 Km section through the world famous Serengeti National Park. It is this section that experts are concerned may effect the migration of a million Wildebeest.

The East African Wildebeest migration is one of the greatest wonders of the natural world. It is a wildlife photographer’s dream come true. We have been lucky enough to witness the spectacle on a couple of occasions as the Wildebeest pass through Kenya’s Masai Mara. It is a wildlife moment that will remain with us both for the rest of our lives, when the Wildebeest cross the Mara River or the great herds travelling over the grass savannahs.

The fact that the new Arusha - Musoma road will bring wealth and benefit to the area is not in doubt. The Tanzanian government has a good past record on wildlife issues, so I believe that they have not taken the decision to approve the northern route lightly. I acknowledge that the proposed route will bring great benefits to the peoples of the area. My concern is at what cost to the natural world.

It is maybe difficult to see how one, two lane road could effect the movement of a million Wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of Zebra and Thompson gazelle. But research has shown that effects could be as catastrophic as stopping the migration completely. This would be a natural disaster on a worldwide scale. Even if the road doesn’t halt the migration altogether other possible effects could be just as much of a disaster.

I have no rights to lecture the Tanzanian government on what is right for there people. But I live in affluent society with a road network that has already destroyed much of our green and pleasant land. I can’t argue with the economic benefits of roads. What I can say from experience is that roads are bad for wildlife. More UK wildlife is killed and affected by roads and vehicles than by any other single process. I would urge the Tanzanian government to reconsider its planning decision on the road. Consider what may happen to its wonderful wildlife. Consider the economics if wildlife tourism diminishes because of this road.

If you would like to read more on this subject there have been several articles published. The East African ,  The New York Times  you can sign a petition on Facebook at STOP THE SERENGETI HIGHWAY

Until next time.

Some comments made on Springwatch recently sparked some thoughts. Simon King has been in Dorset looking at various habitats and the wildlife they provide a home for.

One area that interested me was the meadow areas. How wonderful they look adorned with flowers giving vital food supplies to butterflies, bees and other insects. But for how long, there is a down side; these old style flowers meadows are fast disappearing. Before too long there may not be any left and that would be dreadful; not only for the wildlife but for us too.

Changes in way we live have caused the loss of these rich and diverse habitats. Perhaps going back to a more traditional method of managing our land would be better, less intensive management thereby allowing nature to flow through the land.

Perhaps the place to start is your own personal space. Rather than have everything neat and tidy, leave an area to the wildlife, let the weeds grow, plant some wildlife flower seed. We are having a great time in our own garden this year. We planted a wildlife flower mix and now take delight in watching what flowers are emerging and the insects they attract. By leaving the garden slightly less tidy and allowing nature to take its course; we have been presented with beautiful plants, watched baby birds being feed in our trees and enjoyed the sound of bees buzzing around the garden.

Finally, the recent announcement of £2 million from the Lottery funding for nature projects is great news. I do hope these projects are well supported and that the initial euphoria is not lost and people continue with their support for many years to come. In that way we may save some areas of our countryside to enjoy now and for future generations too.

Before we start I think it is important that you understand that I have a love hate relationship with grey cards. This in and out of favour relationship has been going on for a fair number of years now and I can see no end in site. So I state for the record, if you choose to start using grey cards after reading this blog I will in no way be held responsible for your mental health.

Right, that’s out of the way. The beginning of the relationship; I first started using Kodak 18% Grey cards when I was at collage. We were taught how to use grey cards to get accurate meter readings and how useful they were when producing colour prints, for getting accurate colours. Or at least that was the theory. Nine out of ten times we forget to take a shot with the card in it or when we did remember the grey card shot was the only usable one from the whole shoot.

My next encounter with the grey card was when taking pictures of the interiors of very large agriculture buildings. If you have livestock in the building flash is not an option. To get a picture you have to use the available light. This consists of what daylight is available. You then turn on every artificial light you can find. These are normally a 25 watt light bulb covered in the grime of ages, 40 feet above the floor. Then the last element is your portable photographic light. The resultant negative has so many different colour temperature light sources that they are almost impossible to print with a grey card as reference.

Having left the difficult interiors behind next came product shots. By carefully placing a grey card in a product shot you can get a very accurate meter reading. The draw back is when the grey card falls over and destroys the few last hours work. We all breathed a collective large sigh of relief when Polaroid backs became affordable. A quick Polaroid, look at the result. Adjust the exposure, deal with the odd stray highlight or two, change the backs, take the picture and move on to the next one. Grey cards had been banished to the back of the draw forever.

When we started taking wildlife pictures I never dreamed that grey cards could ever come back into my life. After all, never mind knocking things over. Who could you persuade to place a grey card on a sleeping Lions head?  Although, come to think of it perhaps Elephants are natures answer to grey cards.

Lulled into a false sense of security, I was processing pictures of flowers. Particularly please with my efforts and in order to show off, I proudly announced to Jacky to come and look at the beautiful pictures. She quickly pointed out that it could be greatly improved if the flower, instead of having a distinct bluish tinge, should be yellow.

After some thought, it seemed to me that we needed some sort of colour reference when taking certain photographs. The only problem with grey cards and the great outdoors is that most grey cards are made of card and not designed for the rough and tumble of wet grass muddy fingers and the occasional woops that’s were I left it.

Enter the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport this small bit of plastic has almost banished the hate side of my relationship with grey cards. Small, portable and with protective plastic; it is grey card that fits into your pocket and does not come out bent and dog eared.

What X-Rite, makers of all things to do with colour have come up with is a fit in your pocket colour chart. The Passport has three leaves just like a book. Each leaf containing a different set of colour targets for different tasks. You have the "Creative Enhancement Target" (CET) what a mouthful. A "White Balance Target" (WBT) and a "Classic Target" (CT)

The CET contains set of patches that go from black to white along one edge. These patches allow you to adjust the exposure until the highlight or white patch has just stopped clipping. Next are a set of colour tinted patches. Using these you can adjust the colour balance in a controlled way. For instance, in Adobe Lightroom, by clicking on one of these patches would give you much the same result as if you had used a warming or cooling filter in the days of film. Lastly you have a set of colour patches these give you a visual reference for colour adjustments such as HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness)



If you use a JPEG workflow then the WBT is a must for you. It provides you with an easy to carry bit of white card. Instead of using all manner of unsuitable whites such as shirts, hankies, walls and even the odd wedding gown; you use the passports WBT to get a proper 80% white to balance the JEPG output against.

Last but by no means least is the CT or as it is better known to many the GretagMacbeth patches. This set of patches has been around for as long as I have been taking pictures. Providing a set of standard colours you can do many wonderful things, more of which later.

To use the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport select which set of patches you are going to use. For us this is normally the CET and the CT patches. Place the passport in the picture or in the same light and take a picture. The only thing you need to worry about is getting the exposure correct. So check the camera’s histogram and highlight warning if it has it. Check that the white patch on the exposure section is recording some detail.


Opens like a book to make a stand

Passports are designed so that moving the leaves of the book to different angles; you can make it stand up in almost any situation, well almost. We haven’t tested its stand up capabilities on sleeping Lions yet!  As soon as I find a willing volunteer I will of course be reporting back. When you have finished, close the Passport and the patches are safe from all the normal fates. Slip into a pocket or camera bag ready for next time.


Great with yellow flowers

Back at the computer download your images into your favourite software. Currently, ours is Adobe Lightroom. Find the image of the Passport and click on one of the grey patches with the eye dropper in the Develop module. All being well you should have a perfect colour balance for that picture. Next, find and highlight all the other pictures taken under the same lighting conditions. Synchronise the images using the colour balance settings and all your pictures will have perfect colour balance. It is as simple as that.

Now if that was all there was to the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport it would be worth its money. Being able to colour correct images quickly and accurately is good news. But the Passport has another trick up its sleeve.

Enter the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Camera Calibration Application software. What does it do?  For instance, take a picture of the Classic Target in daylight. Then import this image into the Camera Calibration Application and it will produce you a DNG profile.

Now for the really complicated bit; Digital Negative Graphics (DNG) is in fact an open file format created by Adobe. You may have come across its open standards format for storing your own digital files. We have been using it as an archive file storage format for a number of years now. The good thing about this file format for colour work is that it can contain camera calibration information within it. Because these DNG files can hold camera calibration information you can use this calibration information in software like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

If you are now as lost as I was when I first read about DNG profiles and DNG files, I fully understand your plight. Maybe this will help?  

Take a picture of your X-Rite Passport using RAW. Convert this RAW file to DNG. Import this into the ColorChecker software and it will produce a camera profile for you. This camera profile is exported as a DNG file from ColorChecker. This profile DNG file can be used by programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom when developing your images in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw)

Is having your camera calibrated a good thing. If you own more than one camera body it is a great thing. Normal camera calibration files are specific to the camera model but not to your particular camera. In the days of film Kodak and Fuji spent untold millions on making sure that their film produced the same colours year in year out. With digital cameras this consistency has been lost. No matter which make of camera you use, the chip inside has a wider manufacturing tolerance than film ever did. Shoot a picture on identical model cameras can produce very different results.

Adobe Lightroom and ACR use a generic profile for each camera stored in a file called Adobe Standard. These generic profiles correct most of the differences between camera makes and models. The aim of this profile is to bring all imported images to a common look. Being all things to all makes of camera is a great ambition and Adobe have in there usual fashion done a great out of the packaging job. The standard Adobe profiles are a vast improvement on what went before. But as always there is room for improvement and this is were ColorChecker Passport comes to your rescue.

Producing an exact profile for your camera body gives you several advantages. You get better more saturated colours and normally a first imported result that is closer to the original scene than if you use the generic Adobe Standard profile. X-Rite ColorChecker software when you install it provides add-ins for both Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom this makes it very easy to produce a camera profile.

As I have said before the X-Rite ColorChecker passport has almost won me over to the whole grey card world. It is now possible that I regret not taking a grey card shot when I return with pictures. It has also improved the quality of our pictures. It has reduced time spent fiddling with sliders, wondering if my colour memory has failed me or that flower should be blue. It is not long live the grey card yet but it certainly is long live the ColorChecker.

Until next time.