Should I calibrate my camera?

All cameras produce slightly different colors and if shooting RAW, then different RAW developing software will interpret colors in a slightly different way. Virtually all camera sensors today are somewhat similar CMOS-type with Bayer RGB-filters which will guarantee that the colors from different cameras are very close to each other. There are some differences, but they’re very subtle compared to differences between films. If shooting JPEG, every camera manufacturer has their own recipe how they express colors. You may also choose between the color style e.g. Portrait, Landscape, Neutral etc.

There’s an ever going debate between gear holics on which camera has the best color; Canon or Nikon? Olympus produces best colors they say, Sonys colors are bland. Capture One has better colors compared to Lightroom and so on.

I shoot a lot of food photos where accurate color reproduction is to be expected. My main cameras are Sony A7 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II. My subjective judgment is that Canon has more pleasing colors to the eye compared to Sony, both in JPEG and through Lightrooms mangle. Sony’s colors are harsh, where Canon has some kind of pleasant warmth in its colors. Here I must stress, that accurate and pleasing colors have nothing to do with each other. Accuracy is an objective term and pleasing is most subjective. You can´t measure how pleasing colors are, but you can measure accuracy which I will do here.

Calibration

If you shoot raw, you can calibrate your camera for accuracy or even get two cameras of different brands to produce colors alike. Because I use Adobe Lightroom, I will discuss about DNG profiles. Other raw converter will read ICC profiles. Concepts are the same in both.

Camera JPEG

When you shoot JPEG or RAW converted with camera manufacturers own RAW-converter you will get colors the manufacturer intended them to be in the first place. Because the manufacturer knows its camera best, you could expect best results here. If the colors are off, it’s not by accident.

Adobe Standard profile

When you import your RAW-photos into Lightroom, photos will be converted into the Adobe Standard profile. The RAW file has to undergo demosaicing and other adjustments before you can call it a photograph. Lightroom must recognize the RAW-format of your camera, otherwise it can’t read them at all.

Own custom profiles

If you’re not happy with the Adobes interpretation of colors, you can make your own profiles. There are several ways to create a desired profile and the methodology is same for them all: Shoot a standard illuminated color calibration target and compare the results to the reference values and you will get a calibrated camera with authentic color reproduction, at least in theory. I tested to create profiles with Adobe own DNG Editor, Xrite editor and QPCard. Adobe DNG Editor and XRite both uses the Color Checker as reference. QPCard has their own reference target which they claim to be more suitable for camera profiling than Color Checker thus giving better results.

Color errors

I did my test in sRGB color space which is the narrowest, but virtually every photograph will be converted to sRGB in the end, so this is justified and the colors are comparable in the web browser.

Color consists of hue, saturation and lightness. Hue is the most important, because it will tell what color the color is. Saturation indicates the degree to which the hue differs from a neutral gray. Usually cameras will exaggerate the saturation. Luminosity is the brightness of the color and will change with brightness and contrast and can easily be corrected in post. If the hues are wrong, the colors are wrong.
Methodology

I created my own (single illuminant) camera profiles as thorough I was able to. Then I shot a color checker target in standard illuminant (D50, daylight) and compared the results to the reference values provided by Babelcolor. Color patch C6 is not within sRGB color gamut and will be ignored.
Results


As I said my primary interest is in hues, if hues are wrong colors are wrong. I’m not the person to decide if it’s better that one color is vastly off when all the other colors are in line or when every color is slightly off. I´m sensitive for hue errors, other might be sensitive for saturation errors even if they are more easy to correct. It´s hard to pick a winner and this is no contest after all. I´m relying here on calculated CIEDE2000 Delta E errors. It´s a complex color difference algorithm and I won’t go any deeper into it, but it´s good to know that errors <1 are not perceptible by human eye and 100 when colors are exact opposite.

Sony A7 JPEG

Average Delta Error = 3,9
Worst color: A1 dark skin DE= 6,7

Authentic colors 

Sony A7 Adobe Standard Profile

Average Delta Error = 2,5

Worst color: B4 purple DE= 6,9

Saturation closest to reference values.

Sony A7 Profile made with Adobe DNG Editor

Average Delta Error = 3,0

Worst color: C3 Red DE= 3,9

Unsaturated yellow.

Sony A7 Profile made with QPCard

Average Delta Error = 3,4

Worst color: B4 purple DE= 8,8

Sony A7 Profile made with XRite

Average Delta Error = 4,4

Worst color: B4 purple DE= 12,0

Canon EOS 5D Mark II JPEG

Average Delta Error = 7,2

Worst color: A1 dark skin DE= 10,9

Compared to Sony more saturated and less bright colors. 

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Adobe Standard Profile

Average Delta Error = 3,3

Worst color: B4 purple DE= 7,1

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Profile made with Adobe DNG Editor

Average Delta Error = 2,9

Worst color: C3 Red DE= 7,1

Smallest hue deviation of the whole group, saturation also among the best.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Profile made with QPCard

Average Delta Error = 3,7

Worst color: B4 purple DE= 9,4

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Profile made with XRite

Average Delta Error = 4,7

Worst color: B4 purple DE= 12,2

 Saturation and hue is way off, just like with Xrite with Sony

Final verdict and conclusions

• Sony’s colors straight out of the camera are more correct compared to Canon.

• Adobe interpretation is more correct than camera makers own, I didn’t test the Neutral or Faithful profiles, just standard.

• It´s very doubtful if you gain anything by making your own profiles for standard lightning. I´m certain that situation would be different for profiles in “difficult” lighting i.e. fluorescent or led.

• Xrites calibration result is way off for both cameras, they are also oversaturated (13,3 %, Canon) by margin.

• Adobe DNG Editor produces least saturated images and very close to reference values in mean.