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Participating Frequently
April 20, 2024
Question

Sony A7RV camera profiles

  • April 20, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 4692 views

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? 

2 replies

Community Expert
April 21, 2024

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.

Participating Frequently
April 21, 2024

I will share some later on. 

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 26, 2024

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.


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.

D Fosse
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 20, 2024

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.

Participating Frequently
April 20, 2024

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
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 20, 2024

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.