In this video, I talk about why I’ve stopped using the default Adobe Color profile in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom. I show how it added too much contrast and some odd color shifts in certain images, especially in high-contrast scenes like one I shot at the Mildred B. Cooper Church.
That experience made me look into alternatives, like linear and camera-matching profiles, and I found that the Camera Neutral profile from my Sony A1 gave me a much cleaner starting point without all the added contrast and color distortion. I also go through how to make a custom preset so your images automatically load with your preferred profile instead of Adobe Color.
I’ll explain how to set that up in the settings, step-by-step, so each RAW file opens the way you want. Even though this means you might need to fine-tune colors manually, I prefer it because I know exactly what’s happening in the edit. This setup gives me more control and avoids having to undo things that Adobe Color forces in by default.
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
Hi Blake, you got me more confused! I have a Sony A7CR (and previously Sony A7R). The only color Space available are either SRGB or Adobe RGB. So my settings are Adobe RGB and same in Photoshop and Lightroom.
Am I missing something?
Best from France
Yep, missing something 🙂 But easily fixed. This is NOT about Color Space, its about profiles. Profiles and color space are different. Color space is how you see the image and a profile is how ACR interprets the data in your image using datasets that could change the tone and color presence of the raw file. Please watch the video closely.
Blake,
When I try to find the camera profiles you talked about, I can find a lot of others but I cant seem to find or load the camera profiles. How do I find them (I already checked the profile section on camera raw)?
Is this ACR the filter or ACR the program? If its the filter you wont see them there, if you opened the file directly into ACR by dragging it and dropping it into PS, that’s ACR the program.
Blake, you created the preset in Photoshop. Is the preset you created applied to the raw file when it is imported into Lightroom too?
This was not created in Photoshop it was created in ACR, but I get what you mean, clarifying for others who may see this.
Lightroom is a different, but similar process. I don’t use lightroom so you are on your own to experiment with this process there.
This was AWESOME, Blake. I just changed mine and it looks great. Thanks as always.
Vinny