Color Checker Passport & Monitor Calibration

I picked up the ColorMunki/Color Checker Passport combo, and now I have a question. I watched Mark Wallace's video on AdoramaTV about using the CCP to get an idea of how to use it.

So you do the CCP profile first for color correction, then you correct your WB? Wouldn't that cause the colors to shift some? I would think you should correct WB first, then do the color correction.

Also, for those that use the CCP, do you use it religiously? ie, do you use it when just out shooting (not street shooting obviously)?

The video explains to set WB first before you take the first shot with the colour pattern pallet. Then it goes to say to adjust WB first in LR. I have one but don't use it as much as I would like to. I found to blues get very saturated as it showed in the video. I was testing it and my wife's sweater was teal but after using CCP it turned it blue. Perhaps skin tones are the most important part. This is why I'd like to follow this thread.

I had to go back and watch it again, but in the video, he creates the profile, restarts LR, changes to the CCP profile, then sets his white balance. So is he doing it wrong? To me, it would seem to make sense to set WB, then do the CCP profile. I can alreadt see this getting confusing.

We'll see what the experts say. I just goofed around with mine again. I set CWB with a flash and shot the colour panel. Again the blues saturate. I toggled between Adobe Standard and the custom profile with a custom WB image I shot out of the camera. Some slight colour changes but not too much expect for again the blues.

Actually playing around some more it seems to make sense to first open the profile then set WB. I think the initial WB shot is just a base. After you select the profile which provides accurate colour then you decide how warm or cool you want it. I think adjusting WB first then selecting the profile may be defeating the purpose. You want to do everything within the selected profile?

Like I said I have been wanting to give this thing another shot. I must admit I am pretty happy with adobe colours but will switch to Canon's faithful if it seems too saturated for me and then tweak from there. I'll give it a run next time I shoot - next Friday I have a gig.

All the ccp profile is just that ... A profile. It's no different than choosing Adobe Standard, Camera Standard, whatever. In fact, if your camera matches the samples that Adobe used when creating Adobe Standard then if you followed the correct steps there should be zero difference between your ccp dual illuminant profile and Adobe Standard. Since I doubt you have an ISO standard light source to create the profile it's likely the stock Adobe Standard profile is more accurate.

When I saw zero difference between the one I created for my D700 and Adobe Standard I tossed the ccp one.

To me the ccp only really shines when doing studio work using consistent lighting, if Adobe botched creating Adobe Standard for your camera (gets fixed when users complain, so only an issue when a new camera is added) or if your camera is significantly different than the samples Adobe used (I'm betting this is unlikely). Just my opinion though and I'm certainly not fussed if others disagree.

To use the profile do the same as for any of the other profiles you have in the dropdown. Select what you want to use then start editing, starting with WB. To me if the profiles are built correctly WB shouldn't change from profile to profile anyway. Saturation, intensity of certain colors, blacks, whites and contrast should change, but neutral grey shouldn't.

That all makes perfect sense. Adobe has sure come a long way in the last few years. Makes everything a lot easier. Thanks Bob.

I just bought a colour checker passport and was disappointed to see that there are no instructions included and there is no lanyard either. Does anyone else have these items missing (England)?
This isn't the first time I have bought an American item that doesn't include everything you would get if purchased in the USA . Why do they do that?

BigDil, same thing. No lanyard and a blue square was imperfect so it went back (amazon in the UK, then Calumet UK - still no lanyard) .
But to return to the original query from the op, I still can't get the definitive answer.
That being do you do a white balance from the image of the passport in Lightroom BEFORE you activate the custom profile or after ?

A shoot I did last night being a great example. Firstly I don't do a custom wb on the job, rather do it at my desk and if I have a passport shot to refer to I'm good.

So my passport image loads up in to LR, my usual way is to create profile and activate it THEN wb from it's neutral square.
However, if I wb from the square before I produce the profile the results are vastly different.
Obviously this will be the case as the tone of all the squares differs between the two profiles.

Doing it my usual way of after profile gave me these values:
Temp 6400
Tint +32

Then doing it before new profile activated gives me.
Temp 6350
tint + 13

Visually that is quite a shift from magenta to green.

Logic tells me that you should do it after, as if you were using an Adobe profile you would naturally be doing a wb on top of that profile as it loads as a default.

But if you wb on a shoot from the passport or before you load the profile, you are doing it before and you will get these two very different wb values.

So the question is, which way is correct ?

If I'm recalling correctly there should be a CD in the box that contains a PDF version of the manual and the ColorChecker Passport profiling software.

If you don't have a CD you can download the instruction manual from X-Rite website: http://www.xrite.com …ssport_User_Man​ual_en.pdf

I've never used the lanyard as I find its way too long (and I'm 6' 7") and just gets in the way.

BigDil wrote in post #17168694
I just bought a colour checker passport and was disappointed to see that there are no instructions included and there is no lanyard either. Does anyone else have these items missing (England)?
This isn't the first time I have bought an American item that doesn't include everything you would get if purchased in the USA . Why do they do that?

Your intuition is correct. Load/or apply the relevant profile, the do the White Balance.

Or better yet, flip to the WB Target on the ColorChecker Passport, shoot a reference image that you can use both to set the camera's WB, and use if necessary when post processing.

Thank you for that, it makes perfect sense it just threw me that there was such a tint shift.
I have a good calibrated monitor and being honest found both image versions wrong to my eye. The correct way - too magenta, the alternative too green.

However a few points down on the tint from the magenta version and I'm happy.

The thing that I don't get though is surely if you set a custom white balance on the shoot THEN profile in LR you are going to end up with the incorrect too green version no ?