Phocus Software - DAC (digital auto correction)

Where are the DAC options available in the software interface?

They are located in the tabs area under the heading of Lens Corrections.

Can tools be added to any tab? or repositioned within tool tabs?

Yes tool can be added to any of the tabs from the right hand disclosure triangle in the top left of the tabs section and tools can be in multiple tabs. Tools can also be repositioned within the tool tab by drag and drop into a different position.

Which Factors are corrected through DAC?

The H3D II camera allows information from the lens and exact capture

conditions to be fed to the camera processor for ultra-fine-tuning

of the auto-focus mechanism, taking into account the design specifications

of the lens and the optical specifications of the sensor. In this

way the full HC lens program is even further enhanced, bringing a new

level of sharpness and resolution. Digital correction for color aberration,

distortion and vignetting is also added. “Digital Auto Correction”

(DAC), is an APO-chromatic correction of the images based on a

combination of the various parameters concerning each specific lens

for each specific shot, ensuring that each image represents the best

that your equipment can produce.

The H3D II camera allows information from the lens and exact capture

conditions to be fed to the camera processor for ultra-fine-tuning

of the auto-focus mechanism, taking into account the design specifications

of the lens and the optical specifications of the sensor. In this

way the full HC lens program is even further enhanced, bringing a new

level of sharpness and resolution. Digital correction for color aberration,

distortion and vignetting is also added. “Digital Auto Correction”

(DAC), is an APO-chromatic correction of the images based on a

combination of the various parameters concerning each specific lens

for each specific shot, ensuring that each image represents the best

that your equipment can produce.

At what point in your HB workflow would you perform DAC?

Post production probably one of the first things I'd do is batch process the images ticking the boxes for chromatic aberration and distortion.

What would by the advantage of making corrections in Phocus before export?

According to the User Manual if you don't correct and adjust in Phocus the benefits of thier DAC are lost. If you prefer not to correct and adjust your captures in Phocus, then you can export converted 

3F files from Phocus (and Aperture/Mac OS 10.5.2) directly to DNG, TIFF or PSD

and use Adobe Photoshop, for example.

Can these adjustments be made in Lightroom? How?

In LR3 in the Develop Module in the Lens Correction section there is a preset provided for Hasselblad.

Colour Management - Research Questions

What is the purpose of colour management?
(http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html)


Obtaining predictable color reproduction in the digital darkroom can be a challenge because each device-- digital camera, scanner, monitor, or printer-- responds to or produces color differently.
         _______________________________________________________________________________


What problem makes colour management necessary?
(http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/whats-the-problem.shtml)

Different device types tend to possess different color characteristics and capabilities. Displays, for instance, can't show the same set of colors that a printer can reproduce. This is because of the fundamentally different processes each device uses to produce color content. Scanners and cameras have different color characteristics as well. Even different programs sometimes interpret and process colors differently. Without a consistent color management system, the same picture can look different on each of these devices. The appearance of color content also depends upon the viewing conditions (such as ambient lighting). This is because the human eye adapts differently to different conditions, even when viewing the same picture.

As a result, color management maintains the relationships within color content so that an acceptable appearance can be achieved on devices with different color capabilities and across different viewing conditions. This requires color management systems to control the relationships between the device characteristics and the viewing conditions to produce acceptable results.

         _______________________________________________________________________________


What are the components of a device profile (i.e. what information do the contain)?
(http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1315593&seqNum=2)

• A colour reference space - sometimes called a profile connection space ( typically CIE Lab)
• A colour profile - to describe the colour characteristics of each device, and the colour gamuts of working spaces
• A colour matching method - to covert colours from one colour space to another using a specified rendering intent (e.g ACE - Adobe Colour Engine software)

         _______________________________________________________________________________


What is the difference between a device profile and a working space?
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_management) and/or
(http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1315593&seqNum=2)

• The working space that you set in the Edit > Color Settings dialog is the default color space you set in Photoshop. If you start a new document or open a document that doesn't have a profile, the working space is the profile that will be associated with the image. It also means that if you're always opening images that already contain the right profile, the working space never comes into play. You'll notice that there are four working spaces in the Color Settings dialog—that's because each color mode gets its own default. RGB has its own working space, CMYK has its own, and so on. When picking an RGB working space, it's usually best to choose one that's built into Photoshop; for more information see "About the Built-In RGB Working Spaces" later in this chapter.
• The document color space is just another way of saying "the profile that's embedded inside an image." If there is no profile embedded in an image, you can either let your Photoshop default working space take over, manually assign a profile to it, or tell Photoshop to leave it untagged (that is, don't color-manage the document). Photoshop handles document profiles very intelligently: If you have five documents open and each has its own correct but very different profile, there won't be any need to apply the working space to any of them, and in addition, Photoshop will maintain each document's profile separately. Photoshop won't let one document's profile affect another document.
• A device color space represents the range of color produced by a device you use to create or output images. On the creation side, it could be a digital camera or scanner. On the output side, it could be a printer. As we've discussed, device color spaces are valuable for precisely describing the colors of the device that an image came from or is going to, but they are not good for editing, so you'll typically run into device color spaces (device profiles) when you first create or finally output an image.

       ________________________________________________________________________________


What is a 'reference colour space' and  how are they used? Give an example of one.
(http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-space.htm)

A reference colour space aims to describe all colours visible to the human eye. These RGB values result in consistent colour being produced. They are used as a guide as to which colour space you are working within, giving a standard of colour to compare to. CIE XYZ colour system or CIE L*a*b colour system are examples of systems within the reference colour space.

Whats the difference between 'calibrating' and 'profiling' ?

(http://www.adorama.com/alc/article/8525)

Calibration is the process of making adjustment to your hardware to produce an accurate colour output. Profiling is the creation of a special software file called an ICC profile that precisely describes the output characteristics of your device. Profiling is the result of calibration, the calibration gives you the information needed to create you profiles.

What is a Rendering intent?
(http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-space-conversion.htm)

Rendering intent allows you to see if the colour gamut you are trying to print at is the same colour gamut that your printer has or if the colours you have in your projected image will be clipped when they come to print. 

Which Rendering intents are most useful to photographers, and when would you use each of them?
(http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html)

There are two different rendering intents thats most useful to photographers, they are:
Relative colorimetric - this checks colours within gamut and clips out of gamut colours to the closest available colour.
Absolute colourmetric - simulates the output of the printer
Both would be used before printing to give a more accurate idea of which (if any) colours cannot be printed and will be clipped. The most useful one is relative colour metric this allows you to get more accurate vision of exactly what colours are going to be clipped before printing. You can adjust these colours accordingly to suit your image.

Image Stitching

Our task is to take a number of images and stitch them together to create a larger image; this is called a panorama. There are a number of reasons to create such an image - your lens may not be wide enough to cover the scene in a single capture, or a larger image with more megapixels may be required.

Some examples images are -

This Summative assignment consists of learning outcomes 4&6.

I have made numerous attempts at shooting panoramas over the last few weeks and have seen my skill grow. I used my Canon 5D with a 24-105 zoom lens, tripod and Adobe photoshop CS5.5 software.

For an example I chose the scene from my balcony of the Brindabella mountains at sunset. I used a total of 15 images to create my final image.

Im happy with this shot but id like to keep trying and capture something with a foreground as well.

For my final image i went to Tuggerenong lake, It comes to a total of 18 images; looking towards the centre area. I found it interesting that all the roofs of Tuggernong are all red...

Calibrating and Profiling a monitor

TASK- Calibrate an LCD monitor in the digital darkroom and load the ICC profile to the monitor.

I used the GretagMacbeth Eye One.

The Procedure -
1. Open Eye One Match Software
2. Collect Calibration Device
3. Choose 'advanced' in the dialouge window
4. Choose to calibrate a monitor (LCD)
5. Note controls and menu software window ( Process steps on LHS, detailed info on each step on RHS, read through to become familiar)
6. Step through wizard process as per screen prompts
7. Target settings 6500/2.2/120
8. Calibrate with RGB controls option ( use monitor control menu to adjust/advanced/gain/RGB)
9. Calibrate brightness also using monitor menu controls.
10. Actual calibration process can take up to 10 mins
11. Save ICC profile-name_dd-mm-yy_1.ICC
12. Click to Save
13. Save in users/student/library/colorsync/profiles
14. View profile in system preferences/displays

For my first Calibration on my monitor i tool a before and after screen shot (Control/Shift/3)

Before

After