UPDATE: The following article has been revised to reflect newly-optimised Lightroom settings and example images. For a limited time, you can also download the CCD Effect preset for Lightroom HERE.


Get "that CCD look" with the K-3 / K-3II and Lightroom

Many people feel that the colour rendition from Pentax's earlier CCD sensor cameras is superior to that of later CMOS sensor models. Although the K-3 and K-3II are my day-to-day cameras, more recently I've been shooting extensively with a GX-10 - Samsung's clone of the Pentax K10D - and I've become a huge fan. Whether it's down to the sensor, the camera's colour profiling or a combination of the two, I really can't say for sure; but, the results are very appealing - punchy, saturated, almost film-like images, with very little post-processing needed to achieve great-looking results.

So fond am I of the GX-10's output that I decided to develop a Lightroom preset that would re-create "that CCD look" for my K-3 and K-3II photos.

I started by taking two photographs of an X-rite ColorChecker Passport, one with the GX-10, the other with the K-3. Both cameras were fitted with the same model of lens (the Pentax-F 28-80 f/3.5-4.5), to avoid optical differences in contrast and colour reproduction. The photos were taken in RAW format using the DNG file type (which, importantly, embeds a copy of the camera profile).

I imported both photos into Lightroom 6 and ensured all settings were at Lightroom's default values, with no presets or user defaults applied. I then selected the "Embedded" profile for each photo (to use the camera profiles rather than Adobe's), and set the white balance for both images using the eye-dropper tool on the same mid-grey square of the Passport.

From this point, all adjustments would be to the K-3 image alone, trying to match against the GX-10 "master" image as closely as possible.

I fine-tuned the exposure level so that the mid-grey tones were at the same luminosity for both photos (within +/- 0.5, as there was some variance of values across the square).

I adjusted the contrast so that the "darkest black" and "brightest white" squares had the same luminosity. This required some minor tweaking of exposure to keep the mid-tones at the right level, as contrast adjustments appeared to have a non-linear effect on the tone curve. Now, each of the grey-scale squares showed luminosity values very close to those in the GX-10 image.

The remaining adjustments would deal with colour reproduction - specifically hue, saturation and luminosity for each colour.

In the Camera Calibration section of Lightroom, I adjusted the hue and saturation of the Red Primary, Green Primary and Blue Primary channels to get those primary colours as close as possible. Since there is no luminosity adjustment for these, it's impossible to get them exactly right - but we can place them in the ball park.

At this point, a casual comparison of the colours in both images was already much closer than before.

Next came the really time-consuming part...

In the Color section of Lightroom, I adjusted (and re-adjusted!) the hue, saturation and luminosity of each colour to achieve a close match for each coloured square in turn. As you'd expect, adjustments for each colour had a knock-on effect to one or more of the others, and there was a great deal of back-and-forth fine-tuning required. Small, incremental adjustments were vital to avoid significant impact on related colours, which had to be tweaked to counteract any minor changes.

I was unable to get every coloured square matching exactly, but it was very close.

I saved the adjustments as a user preset, checking the Contrast, Color Adjustments, Process Version and Calibration boxes to ensure all the relevant settings were saved.

Then, on a sunny day with no clouds (rare in my part of the world!), I took some test shots of real scenes side-by-side with both cameras, and tried out the new preset on the K-3 files. The results were good, though not quite as good as I'd hoped - in particular, the green and yellow balance wasn't quite right, and the saturation and luminosity of light-blue skies wasn't what it should be. So, I went back to the ColorChecker Passport images and fine-tuned the adjustments before re-applying them to the test shots. After many iterations over several days, I eventually reached a point of diminishing returns; the results were so close that further tweaking would have little additional benefit and more than likely be detrimental.

Here's a "before" and "after" example of the preset being applied to an indoor test shot of some coloured pencils:

What's interesting about this example is how little difference there is in the greens, as vivid greens are something the CCD sensor cameras are revered for. From my testing in normal shooting conditions, it seems this is largely due to luminosity and saturation of yellow and orange rather than a radical difference in green tones.

It's worth studying that example image in detail. At a glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking the adjusted image is merely brighter, with a little more contrast. But if you look at each pencil individually, you'll see some quite significant changes in hue, saturation and luminosity, while the white, black and grey shades are (as they should be) nearly identical in both shots

Since completing this exercise, I've applied the preset to a number of K-3, K-3II, and even some K-5 images from my Lightroom library. The outcome is just what I'd hoped for... the photos have more of "that CCD look" I've come to appreciate so much. Greens and browns are warmer (great for landscape work), blues are richer, light-blue skies are somewhat deeper and better defined against clouds, yellows and oranges are brighter, while reds are a real treat - more orange than scarlet and not so over-saturated.

Of course, no preset or any amount of post-processing can re-create the fun of using a particular camera. For those who've never owned one of Pentax's CCD-sensor models (or their Samsung cousins), I highly recommend picking one up at the right price, since - at lower ISO settings - they produce wonderful images. I'll continue to use my GX-10 regularly, as it's a great bit of kit - but these adjustments provide a solid basis for reproducing at least some of that signature CCD look with the K-3 and other Pentax CMOS sensor cameras.

For those who'd like to try this out, here are some screen captures of the relevant settings (remember to save them as a preset so you can apply them all in one go!). And, if you do try it, please let me know how you get on!

... and, just to finish, here's one more test shot from the K-3, taken in my back garden, with the CCD preset applied (and no other adjustments, save for exposure and white balance sampled from a known grey area). It certainly has the warmth and saturation I was hoping for

Thanks for reading!

[luftfluss]

You know you can do this a whole lot easier by using DXOOptics (or C1) and selecting a different camera profile. The profiles are done for you already. I particularly like the Leica M9 profile for landscape in DXOOptics. If you like Olympus blue as per a E510 or a EM1 MkII or whatever its a click. If you like a K10 rendering, its a click. Using the DXO Film Profiles you can set the picture up as various Kodak, Fuji or others. Like the Kodachrome 64 look; click. Fuji Provia 100; click.
My normal workflow is to use DXO to do the initial work particularly lens correction, lens softness, noise control and profile and then load directly into Photoshop ACR as a DNG. Works well and is a whole lot less trouble.

I like the various camera & film profiles in DXO, but they are not necessarily accurate. I find BMC's profile to be more similar to the CCD output of my previous Pentax CCD-sensor cameras that DXO's K10D profile.

What you are suggesting is a person buy and learn a new software package, which seems to me to be a whole lot more trouble than setting up BMC's free profile (once) and then accessing it with either a couple clicks or setting it as default.

[BigMackCam]

I'm still confused by the saturation differences between the two test images by the way.
If I put both images on the same profile the GX10s photo will have so much more saturation that the saturation slider actually make them match even remotely.

Is a different profile embedded on that file? It defaults to "Adobe DNG Neutral".
If I switch the K-3 onto that profile the above problem occurs.

Unfortunately I don't have C1, so I can't give you specific instructions... however, you need to select the profile that is embedded in the DNG file. In Lightroom, I actually see a profile called "Embedded" and select that. In RawTherapee, I select "Camera Standard" which uses the embedded profile if available, and the colour saturation I see is the same (or very, very similar) to what I see in Lightroom.

It sounds to me like "Adobe DNG Neutral" might be a generic, non-camera-specific colour matrix available in C1. What other profile choices do you have?

[stevebrot]

You know you can do this a whole lot easier by using DXOOptics (or C1) and selecting a different camera profile.

What you are suggesting is a person buy and learn a new software package, which seems to me to be a whole lot more trouble than setting up BMC's free profile (once) and then accessing it with either a couple clicks or setting it as default.

It is getting to be fairly predictable on this site that if there is a thread requesting help with Lightroom or has suggestions on leveraging a particular LR feature, a few DXO Optics or Capture One fans will show up and offer that their choice of product does it better.* Never mind that the comment may be seriously off-topic (no point of convergence) and is made at the risk of hijacking the thread.


Steve

* The offers early in this thread to reproduce the settings in DXO are truly helpful to DXO users wishing a similar preset and do not fall into that category.

[ripper2860]

On a related or completely unrelated matter ...

I really don't use LR at this time (I know, heresy!!). Is there a way to turn this into a filter (or applicable term) for use with PS? That way those that use DXO or others can export to PS and then further tweak by applying a CCD filter.

Disregard if this is a totally silly question.

[BigMackCam]

On a related or completely unrelated matter ...

I really don't use LR at this time (I know, heresy!!). Is there a way to turn this into a filter (or applicable term) for use with PS? That way those that use DXO or others can export to PS and then further tweak by applying a CCD filter.

Disregard if this is a totally silly question.

Not a silly question at all

I only have Photoshop Elements 14, not the full whizz-bang version. If full Photoshop allows primary RGB hue and saturation adjustment and individual colour HSL adjustment, my guess is that it would use the same value range as Lightroom. If that's the case, someone could use the values I've given in the article to produce some sort of preset or filter. It would be worth trying.

Do we have any Photoshop users who could confirm if these adjustments are possible?

[ChristianRock]

You know you can do this a whole lot easier by using DXOOptics (or C1) and selecting a different camera profile. The profiles are done for you already. I particularly like the Leica M9 profile for landscape in DXOOptics. If you like Olympus blue as per a E510 or a EM1 MkII or whatever its a click. If you like a K10 rendering, its a click. Using the DXO Film Profiles you can set the picture up as various Kodak, Fuji or others. Like the Kodachrome 64 look; click. Fuji Provia 100; click.
My normal workflow is to use DXO to do the initial work particularly lens correction, lens softness, noise control and profile and then load directly into Photoshop ACR as a DNG. Works well and is a whole lot less trouble.

I think the camera profile is there to make a specific camera look good in its initial settings, and *not* to make one camera look like another camera... if the K10D profile made other cameras look like a K10D, then you wouldn't need to load the profile for the K10D...

[luftfluss]

The first time I tried the "CCD Look", I input the tweaks in Camera Raw (via Photoshop), then saved those tweaks as a setting cleverly named "BMC-CCD"

So, after developing the RAW in DXO Optics Pro, I export to Photoshop, select "Camera Raw Filter", select "Load Settings" from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side, double-click "BMC-CCD.xmp", then click OK.

[BigMackCam]

The first time I tried the "CCD Look", I input the tweaks in Camera Raw (via Photoshop), then saved those tweaks as a setting cleverly named "BMC-CCD"

So, after developing the RAW in DXO Optics Pro, I export to Photoshop, select "Camera Raw Filter", select "Load Settings" from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side, double-click "BMC-CCD.xmp", then click OK.

You da man!

And may I say, I wholeheartedly approve of your naming convention!

[ripper2860]

The first time I tried the "CCD Look", I input the tweaks in Camera Raw (via Photoshop), then saved those tweaks as a setting cleverly named "BMC-CCD"

So, after developing the RAW in DXO Optics Pro, I export to Photoshop, select "Camera Raw Filter", select "Load Settings" from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side, double-click "BMC-CCD.xmp", then click OK.

Excellent!!! I will do the same when I get home!!!

Thank you!

[BigMackCam]

I think the camera profile is there to make a specific camera look good in its initial settings, and *not* to make one camera look like another camera... if the K10D profile made other cameras look like a K10D, then you wouldn't need to load the profile for the K10D...

Honestly, that's what I thought too when I read Fauxton's post. I couldn't imagine DXO mapping profiles for lots of different cameras to one another... 20 cameras mapped to each other would be 400 different profiles! But a single colour-accurate profile for each camera... that I believe. Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong. If DXO really does provide a camera-to-camera mapping, that's some feat, pretty unique, and a lot of man-hours work!!

[luftfluss]

Not to go too far afield (@stevebrot is right about thread hijacking) but DXO's camera profiles really is about making one camera look like another. From their website:

"Thanks to the calibration of equipment in our laboratories, you can stay true to your camera’s color rendering, or you can choose another rendering to ensure uniformity among a series of photos taken with different cameras"*

If I take 2 similar photos, one with my K-01 and one with my Oly EM10, and apply the same DXO Color Rendering Profile, the results are very close to one another. This is only supported in RAW formats, and only cameras with Bayer sensors are supported. The sensors for Pentax, Nikon, Oly, and Panasonic are pretty similar, while Canon sensors somewhat different.

* DXO already has gobs of data from their sensor-testing for DXOMark purposes.

[BigMackCam]

Not to go too far afield (@stevebrot is right about thread hijacking) but DXO's camera profiles really is about making one camera look like another. From their website:

"Thanks to the calibration of equipment in our laboratories, you can stay true to your camera’s color rendering, or you can choose another rendering to ensure uniformity among a series of photos taken with different cameras"

If I take 2 similar photos, one with my K-01 and one with my Oly EM10, and apply the same DXO Color Rendering Profile, the results are very close to one another. This is only supported in RAW formats, and only cameras with Bayer sensors are supported. The sensors for Pentax, Nikon, Oly, and Panasonic are pretty similar, while Canon sensors somewhat different.

That's amazing. Thumbs up to DXO, then. What a great feature, if you're looking to emulate multiple cameras. Maybe one day I'll be tempted to try it

[ripper2860]

The first time I tried the "CCD Look", I input the tweaks in Camera Raw (via Photoshop), then saved those tweaks as a setting cleverly named "BMC-CCD"

So, after developing the RAW in DXO Optics Pro, I export to Photoshop, select "Camera Raw Filter", select "Load Settings" from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side, double-click "BMC-CCD.xmp", then click OK.

Worked fabulously. Thanks!!!!

[Des]

t is getting to be fairly predictable on this site that if there is a thread requesting help with Lightroom or has suggestions on leveraging a particular LR feature, a few DXO Optics or Capture One fans will show up and offer that their choice of product does it better. Never mind that the comment may be seriously off-topic (no point of convergence) and is made at the risk of hijacking the thread.

Not hijacking here Steve. Certainly not arguing for one program over another. Just curious to see whether the same kind of effect can be achieved in DxO.

DXO's camera profiles really is about making one camera look like another.

I use DxO OP 11 as well. As a quick and dirty test, I re-exported a photo that I had processed with the default camera profile (K-S2 in this instance), with only one change: selecting the camera profile for the K10D.

First photo is using the K-S2 profile (which, curiously, is also for the K-5ii, K-5iis and K-500, but not the K-S1, which has the same sensor). Second is using the K10D profile. The blues are the same to my eye, but the yellows and reds are more subtle and realistic in the latter. Green is a little different too, of course. I like the K10D profile - I'll use it again.

Edit: Strangely the differences are not as obvious when the photos are posted here as attachments. Trust me - the differences are obvious on my (recently calibrated) monitor, even on these scaled-down images.

[luftfluss]

Worked fabulously. Thanks!!!!

I was just thinking... remember to set the sharpening parameters in Camera Raw to zero, otherwise you will "sharpen" your photo every time you use BMC's CCD setting...