Sony A7RV camera profiles

[Christopher34217843u3xr]

The camera matching profiles for the A7RV couldn't be further from camera matching. I click them and suddenly people's skin turn red. My camera does not give red skin tones in the jpeg files it takes. Do these need looking at again? 

[D Fosse]

Camera matching profiles are a compromise, offered because of public demand.

These are entirely different raw processing engines. Trying to make one raw processor look exactly like another is basically impossible. That doesn't mean one is more "correct" or "better" than the other, just that they will always be slightly different.

You will always get better results by letting Lightroom use its own algoritms natively as they are intended to work.

I have that camera and I think Lightroom treats the files beautifully. But I have never used the camera matching profiles, for this reason.

[Christopher34217843u3xr]

Personally I don't like lightrooms rendering of the Sony files I think the colour is awful and lifeless straight out the gate that's why I wanted to try camera matching because seeing the straight out of camera JPEGs the colour was pretty good, Sony did a decent  job on this camera with colour science.

I have a a competitor program that I also use and that renders the Sony files so much nicer straight out the gate but Lightroom has its advantages in other ways for certain kinds of jobs.

[D Fosse]

For what it's worth, I took a bunch of random portrait shots and ran them through different camera matching profiles for the a7rV. They all looked...horrible. That's the only word for it. So no argument from me on that particular count.

But the thing is - they look terrific with the Adobe Color profile. So why would anyone use any other profile? I don't get it. Sure, there's always some tweaking to get it just right - but there's nothing inherently wrong with it. Skin tones are beautifully rendered  as long as it was shot in proper lighting.

Now, if you positively don't like the Lightroom rendering, then the only logical answer is to use a raw processor that you do like. I don't know what Sony offers, but it will match the camera jpeg because it's the same raw processing engine.

As for the Lightroom camera matching profiles, you get a good clue of why it doesn't look good if you just glance at the histogram. From the smooth rolling hills you suddenly get steep cliffs, gaps and saw-toothed ridges. It's pretty obvious that some really radical curves have been applied to make it look like something it isn't. That alone tells me to avoid them.

[GoldingD]

Sounds like some third party profiles are called for.

[Christopher34217843u3xr]

Sony software just can't handle a big batch of files and it's not very good to use. It's ok if you just want to tether the choices are really Lightroom or Capture One I have both and both have their merits and flaws really. 

Capture one definitely renders files to a much better standard it took 2 sliders and 2 ai masks to get the exact same look as it took an entire edit and a few masks to achieve in Lightroom.. But Lightroom just has some subtle quality of life features i really like.

ill give the adobe colour another go tomorrow. Maybe its just because im used to capture one not needing saturation boosts and curves etc that im struggling to get used to the desaturated look in Lightroom.

[D Fosse]

Well, there you go - we all have different preferences. If anything, I sometimes find Adobe Color slightly too saturated, especially for skin tones. 😉

[Jao vdL]

One of those threads where screenshots and sample files would be good. It is entirely possible that Adobe made some mistakes in doing the camera matching profiles or used a preproduction version of the camera and Sony made changes to the sensor afterwards (it has happened before). Usually the camera matching profiles are quite good and close to the jpegs. In the past, Adobe has had to release updated camera matching profiles for some cameras where there was a big mismatch.

[Christopher34217843u3xr]

I will share some later on. 

[maximilianw28931415]

"couldn't be further from camera" is very mild wording for the actual problems I've seen so far. Color gradients get completly messed sometimes. Especially in clouds/skies. Often purple artifacts are introduced by Lightroom/Camera Raw. This is not GPU/screen/color-calibration related. It is purely the fault of Adobe's camera-matching profiles for Sony cameras in Lightroom/Camera Raw. I hope they will fix it soon because I am (still) a longterm user of Lightroom. But this makes it ridiculous. 

I don't like using the Adobe profiles either because this would mean starting my edits too far away from what those pictures should look like. Nikon and Fujifilm camera-matching profiles are much better and I am having much more fun with those in Lightroom.

[Christopher34217843u3xr]

Yeah I was been rather mild in my description but it colours are way off on those profiles. I've got the most part moved to capture one for now that renders the colours much much better straight from camera. But I do prefer some of lightrooms functionality especially now they offer tethering too. Hopefully it gets fixed.

[D Fosse]

Well, I can only repeat what I said a couple of posts up. The Adobe Color profile looks fantastic with a7rV files, and I can't understand why anyone would want to use any other profiles (except for specialized lighting).

Keep in mind what these camera matching profiles do: they twist everything around. Every raw processing engine has a native behavior, and the camera matching profiles tear everything up and turn everything upside down - all to make it look like something it isn't.

All you need to do to undertand this, is look at the histogram. You can immediately see that some weird curves have been applied to give this crazy histogram:

If you prefer the look of another raw processor better, that's fair enough. Then use that. But don't try to make Lightroom look like it. Let Lightroom do what it does.

[Christopher34217843u3xr]

I am not trying to make lightroom look like any other program. They all have different processing engines. 'Camera Matching' means matching the look of the camera jpeg file. The clue is in the title. I would just like lightroom to look like that which is what it is supposed to do. That would be plenty good enough.

[D Fosse]

I am not trying to make lightroom look like any other program. They all have different processing engines. 'Camera Matching' means matching the look of the camera jpeg file.

By @Christopher34217843u3xr

That's exactly what you're doing. Camera processing is just another raw processing engine. Just because this raw processing engine was made by the camera manufacturer doesn't mean it's any more "correct". It's just an interpretation.

I need to emphasize again: there is no such thing as an "original" raw file. It has to be processed to produce a recognizable image. This is how it looks from the sensor, the rest is processing:

[maximilianw28931415]

I don't need your help in "understanding" because I understand very well how all this works. I am reporting a broken profile that doesn't just look "a bit bad" but introduces serious problems when applied. Your arrogance and attitude are not needed at all but I understand you are getting something out of this behaviour. Good luck!