RAW Color Profiles: Lightroom’s Best Kept Editing Secret!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

🔥QUICK QUESTION: "So which Color Profile do You use?"

[@nralbers]

I tend to use either Adobe landscape or vivid unless I'm making portraits. I'll sometimes check out if a specific camera profile works better. I only use the other profiles when editing jpg photos from my mobile.

[@liamdoran2149]

Adobe landscape works well for me!

[@nilofido411]

I have been using profiles for as long as I can remember, however in a totally different way, first of all I don't use any of the Adobe ones, I use my own, I have dedicated ones for each camera that I have created with Xrite colour passport, this are for general use, but most likely I create and use one for each shoot. I also have to point out that I shoot a completely different type of photography, mainly commercial, and colour accuracy is extremely important for me, hence preferring a starting point that it is as close as possible to reality, then minimal adjustments and mainly in contrast, and luminance, rarely on colour, vibrance and saturation.

[@terrycoker1798]

@@nilofido411 Adobe Landscape or Canon Landscape

[@careylymanjones]

I use Adobe Color, Vivid, and Landscape most often.

[@Shonduras]

LEARNED A LOT thanks bro

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Yeah man! Glad to hear it - appreciate ya stoppin by!

[@GiggleBlizzard]

Thank you so much for your videos, I finally gave in to my curiosity and bought a D5 MKII with a 50mm about 6 months ago, and only in the last month or so did I finally get lightroom - and your videos are so helpful for that. Also as a little side note, I recently got a 24mm f/2.8 as an addition to my 50mm and I love it - partly because it has IS which turns out to be very handy, but also the wide-angle has been so good because a lot of the photography I do is of young children and other people at parties, usually in crammed spaces, so I can be so close to my subjects and yet get them and even multiple people - and that has been so wonderful for my photography!

[@charlesscott6202]

I create a ColorChecker camera calibration profile for each of my cameras and that is my starting point for most images.

[@YariJaluff]

How do you do that?

[@davidnelson5567]

Mark I have always enjoyed your videos not just for what I learn but the manor in wich they are presented. I remember a few years ago you did a video in Dec. or jan. in which you showcased other youtube photographer you followed. I found it to be very generous on your part. From that video I started watching Alyn Wallace. An amazing talent and individual. I learned so much from him. I was saddened to hear of his death last week, He will be missed. Thank you Mark for making him know to me.

[@Area319Photography]

I really like working with profiles, probably a little too much. I can really burn through time looking and trying various profiles. Like you I find that I usually pull back on the amount slider of the custom profiles. Sometimes you take a profile that looks way over the top at 100%, but pull it back to 20-30% and it's magic. Something I have noticed with Landscape is that it will sometimes get a little funky with the orange and magenta.

[@rlfisher]

Many creative possibilities available with the profiles. For me, I almost always use a camera-specific linear profile for my color images. It gives me the most latitude in how far I can push the sliders.

[@TonyC0101]

Yep! I made a post about using a linear profile in the Lightroom reddit page and have had the same observations. I am hoping more people will make videos about using them as they do allow for better quality, especially in noise and dynamic range.

[@jasonp9508]

I discovered “Camera Standard” a while ago and that’s my go-to now. Renders colors in a more pleasing/correct way than the Adobe defaults, for my Nikon D5600.

[@milesrudduck]

Always great content. One of the best channels for growing photography skills.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks so much - means a lot!

[@alexyphotoman9716]

Good topic and information - Thanks! I use a linear profile specific to my camera as this affords the greatest 'headroom' for further changes. I've switched to DxO Photolab, from Lightroom about a year ago, but your discussion about the profiles available applies to this software as well.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Appreciate you checking out the video Alex!

[@RickLincoln]

I have generated dual illuminant color profiles for all of my cameras. (X-Rite Color Checker Passport) I have set up Lightroom to load them as import profiles which instantaneously provide "accurate" color. Not creative. "Accurate". A starting point of reality. Dual illuminant files are usually accurate or very close to it, but I have also generated color profiles for LR to use for specific lighting situations. Flash, shade, noon sun, tungsten, etc. If I am shooting in a challenging lighting environment, let's say a portrait shoot with a lot of colors, I will generate a profile for that specific shoot. All of these profiles appear in the same profile browser as the ones from Adobe, Camera Matching, B&W and the creative set and are as simple to use as in this very well done video. No one has ever accused me of being a color purist. But I do like to make my creative decisions from a realistic baseline. Mark, you are an amazing educator. I enjoy your video content. I really enjoy your example photographs!

[@neilgrant1927]

Thank you. I stumbled across the profiles a few months back- used some for black and white conversion (like the red filter) and some of the Vintage profiles for street scenes etc. Your summary sheet is most useful.

[@dungbeetle.]

A great video, Mark. Thank you. (And, no, I didn't know about this at all!)

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Awesome to hear!

[@Valleography]

Awesome video like always. I always knew the profiles were there and I would typically landscape for landscapes and portrait for portraits. But didn't realize they had in camera profiles as well. Thanks!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

You betcha! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@dennisfrederick9304]

Mark as always you have expanded my Lr knowledge. I always used the pull down choices but never knew about what was available by clicking on the windows. I shoot a lot of landscape pics sunrise and sunset so I usually start with the landscape but I have used the standard and vivid depending on subject matter. Thanks again for sharing.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Happy to do it Dennis!

[@RA57727]

Mark, you were correct in stating that those profiles may have gone unnoticed. Thank you for your video as an amateur trying to learn photography I’m finding two items always present, to me, the greatest challenge - composition (I saw your video on that subject and that was really helpful) and editing (I.e. Lightroom (I use Lightroom Classic as well) especially challenging is using gradients. I’m someone that learns best through repetitive use to try and achieve understanding. So I’m still working on that. Sorry got a bit long winded. Thank you for your videos and your advise.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Happy to do it my friend - glad to hear you enjoyed it!

[@lauriesolgon1846]

Another great video, Mark. I’m a software engineer and since I sit at a computer all day I really don’t want to spend any more time at my computer to do post processing but I do. I never knew about these profiles in LRC. Next time I open LRC, I’m going to play with these and see what I get. Thanks!

[@JohanAppelqvistMalmgren]

Great video as always Mark, thank you! Where/when in your workflow do you apply this? I ibis you use the Calibrate section really early which I’ve taken up after watching your video on it and I love it. Do you apply a profile even before this? Perhaps after adjusting exposure and white balance? Thanks again!

[@wismokey]

You covered a lot of important information here. I build custom profiles for my cameras so I match to the lighting situation accurately. I use X-rite Color Checker Passport to build them. I use one of three profiles most of the time, one built for Blue Hour, one for Golden Hour, and one for Daylight. Using kelvin color temp to build those. I sometimes build a profile for specific lighting situations too.

[@BP-xe7dw]

Good god, I never knew this is in the corner of my screen! This has been the most mind opening feature. Almost feel ashamed. Thank you.

[@brentmiller3250]

Great video, I’ve been using Lightroom since v2, and never bothered with the profile … until now. Thanks so much!

[@DavidHarrisGRI]

I knew about all the Adobe profiles, and camera profiles, but you made me take a closer look. With my Canon camera I have always automatically used the camera landscape profile, but for my drone I import using Adobe Landscape along with a preset I developed myself to tweak the colors and contrast. I often like the drone colors better. With a little experimentation just now with some files from my Canon I am finding that the Adobe landscape profile alone looks kind of flat compared to the the camera landscape profile, but it gives me better results with a bit of tweaking. I think a new import preset is in my very near future. Thank you for spurring my curiosity, Mark.

[@suitcasejunkies8719]

Wow, I didn't know those profiles were there. Thank you so much for sharing this information.

[@tomrandall6539]

I play with these colour profiles all of the time, and as an OM System user I really like the jpeg renditions of what my camera can output, but annoyingly the camera matching profiles within Lightroom are pretty awful and don't even closely match the colour rendering of the camera. So usually I stick with Adobe Colour, and go from there! Sometimes I can use a camera matching profile but have to bring the saturation down to about -20, and then fix greens and yellows. But I guess altering colour and building presets is something Lightroom is most excellent at!

[@davidf6326]

Try searching for a profile called 'Camera Natural Canon'. Although it doesn't sound the most obvious choice, I found it when I did a search for the very problem you're describing - poor colour rendition of ORF files in Lightroom. It seems to tone down some of the oversaturation that I was seeing. Might not work for all everything, but as I recall (I haven't actually used it for a while) it helped with skin tones in particular.

[@caroljohnson4321]

Thank you so much for going over these profiles.

[@Bruce-ko3np]

Mark, I just discovered your KZbin channel today, and already value the information you're sharing. For editing, I use only Lightroom Classic, and to be honest, it's largely because I've never ventured into the world of Photoshop. Is there a reason to? Are there edits you do in Photoshop that are unavailable or don't give the results you want in Lightroom? As time allows, I'll be watching more of your videos. Thank you.

[@jeffnewman8261]

I prefer a high contrast look for my black and white photos. Love the drama it creates.

[@drewselby1]

I always switch to Adobe Landscape or Portrait. I never even looked at the whole profile selection before...that blew my mind and will now make my editing process hours longer haha

[@PMCN53]

Interesting Mark, I'll have a play with these. Thanks for sharing from your vast knowledge base!

[@Jsfrog]

I import into Lightroom with it set up to automatically: 1. put the photo into Adobe Landscape color profile (I just like it the best most times, but will switch it to something else once in a while) 2. apply lens profile 3. remove chromatic aberrations The above three things just save a bit of time.

[@brandonmjohnsonphotography]

I knew that section was there but I haven't really messed with it. I'm going to have to take a look now. Thank you so much for all you do for us, Mark!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Happy to do it and thanks for checking out the video Brandon!

[@mikebartow9415]

Thanks Mark! I saw those tabs but never played with them before. I had set camera to neutral and left it at that. I would proceed to edit in the other tabs. Now I have something new to experiment with.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Appreciate you checking out the video Mike!

[@DeputyDawg503]

Awesome video Mark! Is there a way to change the default color profile away from Adobe Color?

[@scothowe539]

Thanks for covering this Mark. I have messed around with it in the past but had totally forgotten it exists. I'll have to revisit that feature in the near future. I do tend to use LUT's in Photoshop pretty often. I suppose that's kind of similar

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Glad to do it!

[@loiszak7458]

Thank you for your great content! I'm always learning something new!

[@mahgirbsti]

Since I normally underexpose a bit, I started shooting recently in the Light Profile. Seems to be a decent starting point!

[@ErlendGrseth]

Nice one! Thanks for the reminder. Got me thinking, is there a way to access other camerasystems colorprofile? I'm using Canon cameras but I LOVE the Fujifilm profiles...

[@Theshark-l4k]

I quit the Adobe products because of the monthly subscription. ON1 was more affordable . Can I transpose what you are doing with LR to ON1? Love your courses. Thanks

[@bigdhav]

Hey Mark, great video as always. Do you use DXO Nik collection plugins?

[@RGP_WA]

Thanks Mark. Little did I know these profiles existed!

[@brendallsterling4117]

I do use these. I like the way it brings out the picture to my liking!

[@micwarmington1]

if you choose eg a camerra matching profile can you put an artistic profile on top of that or does the artistic one replace it ?

[@gharel396]

Can you use the camera-specific profiles for a different camera system? Like GR3 profile on pictures from an R6

[@apeel2008]

I noticed that in the earlier part of the video, you are changing profiles after what seems like (based on the sliders) photos that have already been significantly edited photos. However, I think you mentioned that you should pick the profile at the start of the editing process. So I am a bit confused. Do you recommend setting the profile first? Wouldn’t the choice of profiles be strongly dependent on previous edits? And would subsequent edits be strongly dependent on the profile selected early on?

[@guidovanbelle8516]

Since over a year, I tend to use Camera Landscape for landscapes and all "others". I was surprised to learn that Vivid is a good candidate for people, thanks for the tip, I will certainly follow up on that one. . The others, I like to fool around with if I in play mood, just fiddling around and see what resonates. I am interested in the more recent ways Lightroom allows to create one's own profiles, but until now, I did not get something that I keep for my workflow. I prefer to restart for each batch of pictures and then throw those away as I tend to forget what I had in mind when creating my own. But then, it is not my profession.

[@simonmaney3438]

I find the profiles can vary a bit between cameras. Adobe Color is good for my EOS R, but prefer Adobe Std with my 5D2 (Adobe Color can be quite contrasty). Semi-related is how Apple files work with Adobe. Generally I choose the Proraw profile, but sometimes even then I can't correct Apple's over the top colors and HDR processing so choose Adobe Color. This tends to have a much more natural look, but is often either a stop under or over exposed! I'm guessing Adobe only gets to use one of the iphones multiple bracketed shots, either a dark shot for the highlights, or a bright shot for the shadows. A big limitation with Apple Proraw for myself.

[@vzshadow1]

Camera matching neutral is my first choice to begin my editing process. I go from there.

[@EgídioLeitão-g9d]

Mark, do you use linear profiles in Lightroom? I don't recall you having covered that type of profile. Linear profiles are camera-specific.

[@doctorstrobe]

I'd like to know if it's possible to build such a profile for film negatives

[@brucekraft744]

I always like playing around with Profiles, but I often forget to try out others besides the default. The Profiles menu is just not prominent enough. When I open a photo in LR, I'm usually keyed in to some aspect of it which I want to pursue further. Profiles is a great feature, easily overlooked by me.

[@adriannovaccarpfishing6877]

Hello Mark. What PC do you use to edit your photos? Thanks!

[@clausgiloi6036]

Thank you, I definitely learned something.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Love to hear this!

[@chantallabelle8571]

Very interesting! I am using Capture One. May I ask you why you switched to Lightroom? Is it because you have more features with Lightroom? Thank you.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

I actually use both and Photoshop, but always use Capture One first as my RAW converter for Fuji files.

[@chantallabelle8571]

For focus stacking can you do it using Capture One or you do it by transferring your images from Lightroom to Photoshop ? Thank you. I really learn a lot since I am following your KZbin channel!

[@BRCPres1]

Thanks Mark. I’ll definitely be giving this a try soon.

[@TimKoch-i1z]

Hi Mark. The links to PPA and to download the profile guide don't seem to work.Not sure it isn't on my end but thought I'd mention it. Waiting on the email for verification for the guide but it hasn't arrived in my inbox. Thx!

[@IanRuben]

I use Lightroom every day ... :) Thanks I just learnt something new

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Great to hear it was helpful!

[@davebryer6133]

I almost always use camera-matching profiles. I have heard people say, I like the color profile of this brand or that brand, so I assumed that by using camera-matching it would give you the truest color science of your specific camera. I now think I was way off base for years now.

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

I use Rawtherapee and I play with profiles quite a bit but I like to start from scratch unless I am going B&W or Film grade.

[@patriziabertorello2722]

Great information! I didn't know that, thank you ....

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Glad to hear it was helpful!

[@nevvanclarke9225]

It's just a quick question when you apply the raw ones because they are called raw does the image still stay as a raw or if you save it after you've applied that is it then a JPEG? So bye using the colour profile? Is that far then still raw or is it, I've been using the ones because I really like some of those especially with the GFX system. I found that I could really get the outcome I was looking for. Essentially really they are just presets and that's okay. I've said for a long time if you want to save some time and get the desired look and even using presets is fine. It's not a bad thing a lot of photographers so no you shouldn't use profiles and presets. I got why not if it saves you a whole lot of work because sometimes having to go through all of the individual sliders one by one you end up making a complete mess of the image however when you use profiles and presets you often get the desired result pretty quickly. I don't use them for every single image but I would say probably one third of my landscape photography. I use profile matching and presets but I didn't know about the raw ones and I'm just curious with the raw one does that image stay as a raw once you've applied it?

[@johanp8391]

Helpful and informative, thank you

[@esanford]

Mark, I realize that you shoot the Fujifilm.... I have had the Fujifilm 100s since last July... I love the camera. However, I've allowed myself to be dragged down the rat hole of the differences between LR and C1. I have downloaded a copy of C1 to evaluate. First question, have you switched to C1? Why? Do you believe that the LR profiles that you discuss can pretty well get to a "starting point" similar to C1. I admit that RAF files are more saturated in in C1. Nevertheless, I do not like the interface and don't want to switch. What's your thoughts on this? Thanks....

[@paulg3388]

Well damn, I didn’t know this I’m embarrassed to say (the camera matching profiles not the Adobe info) but super useful thanks as usual !! Off to try it now 😂

[@Champageproblemsreviews]

How does that defer from presets? For instance the b and w presets to my eye are similar to the profiles, am I wrong?

[@keiththompson2289]

Good info. Something I haven't played with much.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks for checking it out Keith!

[@carlmcneill1139]

I shoot landscape in a flat profile for my histogram. When I import I want it to be flat or neutral. For most people, choosing one of those profiles would be fine. But, I prefer to control the contrast using the tone curve, the contrast slider and dodging and burning. But here's something I going out after I bought my z8. Adobe doesn't handle all files the same way. I had several photos that was around ISO 2000 or a little more. They looked like a hot mess when I imported them. I was thinking there was something wrong with my camera. I asked about it in my Nikon group and someone told me about Adobe and how it doesn't work well with the Adobe profiles when using a z8 or z9. I have since seen a video with the Canon R6. The woman in my group said to go into preferences and change it to camera settings on import. That fixed it. My files look great now. Even my z6 II files look better using the camera profiles on import. My suggestion is to try it and see if your files look better.

[@josephtitus5459]

This is why some people use first party software to process raws for color accuracy. Programs such as Adobe and luminar use interpretation of what the colors ought to be.

[@larrys2065]

Great Information! Thanks!!

[@dummatube]

Fuji Film Profiles for fun, Linear and Passport profiles for my commercial work.

[@jamesvoiss7122]

I’m still not clear on the difference between RAW profiles and presets. They seem to be doing the same thing. What have I missed here?

[@ScotHacker]

I find it so odd that this is considered a "secret" by so many - this was one of the first things I learned in Lightroom because I wanted to take advantage of the Fuji film sims. For me it's all about Profiles (never Presets). Every single image, Shift+B is the first thing I do (the keyboard shortcut to open Profiles on LR (not Classic)). As a Fuji shooter, I'm choosing which "film look" to use on every single image. I've also purchased a lot of 3rd party Profiles and sometimes select from those as well. Just seems like choosing the baseline "look" should be the first thing one does. Feels natural to me anyway.

[@chrisburnard5157]

Thank you ever so much. Love your content.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Chris!

[@Pine4205]

Excellent video. TY.

[@dominiclester3232]

Nice, thanks! (Even if I’m a Capture 1 user, this is still interesting).

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

[@leslieballard2273]

I didn’t know this! Thanks!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Glad it was helpful then!

[@garychadbond1182]

I use custom profiles created using xrite colour passport

[@garymc8956]

Fantastic!

[@woutermissiaen4745]

very interesting!

[@mikewilson8513]

I had no idea this even existed !

[@JimEmbury]

Nice! Thank you.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Jim!

[@robstein67]

Great tip!

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thank ya!

[@adenewton]

I have my lightroom to default to whatever the camera profile was that i used in camera!

[@AlexanderSchimmeck]

I use my own linear profiles with all my Olympus cameras (OM1, EM1, EM10). I also use the linear profile for pictures that I took with the D70s, D200 and D700. Adobe offers special free software to create a linear profile. It often reveals details in the image that were not visible with the supplied profiles, especially in the sky. Sometimes there are structures in the clouds that were not visible before.

[@VK-vm4xe]

WTF!!! 😃I never realized there was such a selection of profiles there. Thanks!!!

[@vincentbillotto]

great video Thank you

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

Thanks Vincent!

[@FelanLP]

I personally don't use color profiles at all. I was even shocked that lightroom applies one automatically. Now, the first thing I do after importing any raw file, I make sure that the camera default profile is selected instead of the adoby standard one. So that no changes are made to my photos, I didn't make myself. And especially not before I even made any changes.

[@ColinRobertson_LLAP]

Unless you’ve made your own color profile, you’re using an adobe made color profile if you’re using Lightroom or camera raw with your raw files. Those “camera standard” profiles are made by Adobe to attempt to match your cameras color. They don’t always match though. Shooting raw + JPEGs will confirm. Or using another raw processor.

[@ColinRobertson_LLAP]

In other words, you ARE using a color profile. You have to. That’s how raw processing works.

[@FelanLP]

@@ColinRobertson_LLAP tbh, if you concider "how the camera captured it" a profile, then yes. For me it's more like deselecting the one Adobe selects by default.

[@FelanLP]

@@ColinRobertson_LLAP But if "Camera standard" is not the "no profile"-profile, which one should I use instead, so that I get the actual colors, how my camera captured it? I don't mean "Adobe-Standard". That's the one, I already moved away from, by selecting "camera standard". (Or camera default, or camera settings or how it's called in the english version.") But yes, If Adobe-Standard is selected, the colors are so far off, that not even color grading on top of that preset can get it back to how they look on jpg.

[@jeremyaus]

I generally prefer everything to be as neutral as possible so only use one special profile for each image, the specific colour calibration for each camera sensor. Obviously you need to create that yourself. The tools and method used to be fully supported but are now a little obscure.

[@rjrezagholi8925]

Adobe landscape or vivid.

[@deanimator]

Interesting to note that as you clicked through the various profiles around the 2 minute mark, the histogram appears to not change at all. Hmm

[@ИгорьЧухланцев-н1щ]

Original colour rendition only in original software for Nikon...

[@CraigLively]

Also, if you ever add LUTs to Lightroom, this is where you'll find them.

[@LikeOnFilm]

raw does't have a profile, there is an editor profile that is used to view the result during processing and conversion.

[@nicolacenni]

You've been a fuji user for long time.

[@MarkDenneyPhoto]

For about 5 years

[@Ericbjohnston5150]

I would say none. Even shooting jpeg. A perfectly printable file can be printed. Using a ninja 5 one can set up camera using ninja settings showing exposure, focus, zèbres and all that good stuff giving à perfectly usable print.

[@PRODIGITALDAVE]

Same as in your camera settings………