Adobe Camera Raw Calibration

I will describe with few words how I calibrated my camera bodies EOS 5D, 40D and 20D. I am using Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom for my workflow and sure all photos are taken in raw format.
Lightroom can adjust color pretty well but still I feel I need to fine tune and check color anyway.
You need ColorChecker target and a script for Photoshop CS2 or CS3. See also instructions for installing a script.

Take a photo and open it with ACR. Change workflow options 8 bits and size to the smallest size. Even with these settings script will run about one hour.
Press I key to choose Color Sampler Tool. Set white balance with gray tarket second from left on bottom row. Don't do any other adjustments. More about performing calibration.

Open image in Photoshop. Press P key to choose Pen Tool. Top of page check Paths function for Pen Tool. Click first dark skin patch then down white, right to black and up to bluish green.
Choose File...Scripts... AcrCalibrator to start running script.

Values will appear as a image in Photoshop. Flatten the image, Ctrl-Sift-E, and save it for future use.
Write correction values to ACR Camera Calibration.

Save values to Presets.

Use names like 5D_6000_-6_Evening_Sun_CZ8514. Name is meaning
EOS 5D
Color Temperature= 6000
Tint= -6
Evening sun
Lens is Zeiss 85 1.4

All elements as lighting conditions, camera body and lens have an influence on color. So if you have Cokin gradient filters it might be a good idea to correct magenta cast by calibrating your setup with gradient filter.
Canon L series lenses seems to be similar but my Zeiss lenses and specially Hartblei Super-Rotator Tilt&Sift lens needs own corrections.

Result
You need several values for all kind of lighting conditions with you gear and save corrections to ACR presets. Presets you can use in both Lightroom and ACR.

So what does calibration change in a photo and can you notice it?
Camera calibration helps you to get cleaner colors. Get several calibration values in your presets. Move cursor over preset values and you can see and compare easily the results.

I did notice that EOS 5D uses big corrections on red channel Red hue about -16 and Red saturation 40 on hard sun light. I think you can see effect quite clearly.
Camera calibration has helped me to find out how my camera bodies and lenses works related to color. I have had many times a difficulty to find out any neutral areas in a photo to measure values for color correction. You can get only shadow cast and highlight areas measured but this is not enough.


So what are you still waiting get a ColorChecker and calibrate your camera gear!

I have used these presets with my cameras. Install C:\ Documents and Settings\user\Application data\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings
Presets for 1D Mark III, 5D, 40D and 20D.