Tutorial for Sekonic L-758DR: How to create a custom profile

herrfox wrote in post #9127492
ok, i hope to make again a try with hot illumination!thank you for your assistance, TMR;
a question yet,for the custom white balance..i use the camera values or the meter's values?

You perform the custom white balance with the lens set to 3 or 4 stops under minimum exposure. This is the 'sweet spot' of a lens and is typically f/5.6 or f/8. My lenses have a minimum aperture of f/22 so I always use f/8 for my custom white balance.

If you're using ambient light then f/5.6 or f/8 are fine and again, you want to do this under a diffused cloud cover or in a shaded area.

You use the 18" neutral gray side of the target and meter for f/5.6 or f/8 making sure the reading is uniform across the card, set your camera to that aperture and set a custom white balance.

The calibration target is your reference for white balance and exposure.

does anyone would like to share 5d mark ii profile?

hnr2802 wrote in post #9873555
does anyone would like to share 5d mark ii profile?

Hi,

I'm not sure if you're read the whole thread and how much you know about custom profiling but the bottom line is that if you're not going to create the profile yourself with your camera and sensor then it's not worth bothering with anyone else's profile.

Don't sweat the profiles. If you're finding that your exposures are not correct with an L-758DR then you either need to calibrate (not create a custom profile) or you're method of metering is incorrect.

Until version 3 or another significant update to Sekonic's DTS I recommend that you calibrate your meter and forget about profiling. Why, you ask? There are still bugs and glitches in the software, especially if you're using flash, that will give you incorrect results.

Hi Robert.

Its too bad that this(originally) informative thread, has grown to be a bit difficult to follow.
As a personal thought, I'll urge you to motivate your members to not use the quote function when replying directly to the last reply as it makes the thread longer than necessary.. (ok I see this is not very well written, but you guys get the point?)

hi again!is it correct a curve so?because in the "data transfer software guide"i seen in the"trouble shooting": "the graph line shifetd".Now i'm asking if my curve is bad!if the ev values could be thinked as values of my camera and sent to my light meter.Thank you.

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herrfox wrote in post #10042952
hi again!is it correct a curve so?because in the "data transfer software guide"i seen in the"trouble shooting": "the graph line shifetd".Now i'm asking if my curve is bad!if the ev values could be thinked as values of my camera and sent to my light meter.Thank you.

Well the curve isn't much of a curve. I've seen a lot of variations in results but never a jagged curve like that, especially with ambient light.

There's almost no way to get a perfect curve but you should be able to get a very smooth curve with almost no breaks. Are you taking the test shots inside with lights or outside? If it's outside ambient then are you making sure you're in shade or under a cloud cover? If you're in light that is changing at all then it won't work.

i used hot light!2 x 1000w with dim;!today i tryed outside but i have curve with break ever!i shootted many photos but nothing..curves with breaks ever!i used the meter's contrast function to control the uniformity of the lighting! and in the morning, outside,also..but i continue to have curves so!mhm..it seems that the target II not works!

herrfox wrote in post #10045325
i used hot light!2 x 1000w with dim;!today i tryed outside but i have curve with break ever!i shootted many photos but nothing..curves with breaks ever!i used the meter's contrast function to control the uniformity of the lighting! and in the morning, outside,also..but i continue to have curves so!mhm..it seems that the target II not works!

Not so. You've come to a conclusion that is incorrect. There are bugs in the software but the target and DTS work well with ambient light where you're changing shutter speed.

I think you and I have discussed in detail the bugs that come in to play when adjusting the aperture of the lens. That problem doesn't exist with ambient light and shutter speed adjustment.

I know I'm not a big fan of custom profiles especially with flash but the system works well with ambient light.

Thank you TRM,i will try yet!at soon.

Dear TRM..in the first try..i used 5,6 in the camera but with light meter i had 5,6.6 or .7..
now in this last try i used the dim in the lights spot and with the light meter i measured 5,6.0 at center of the target and 5,6.0 or +.1 in the others parts of the target.so this curve is better...it seems..what do you think?can i get a curve more good than this curve?thank you.

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i tryed yet(with more attention yet about the aperture values) and i get Dyn range+ 2.7 ev, clipping point+ 2.3 ev as above and clip point- 2.0 and Dyn range- 2.9;in the experiments is used iso 100 and iso 400;however the curve has breaks ever.Do you think that if i try outside is it better?thanks

herrfox wrote in post #10049633
i tryed yet(with more attention yet about the aperture values) and i get Dyn range+ 2.7 ev, clipping point+ 2.3 ev as above and clip point- 2.0 and Dyn range- 2.9;in the experiments is used iso 100 and iso 400;however the curve has breaks ever.Do you think that if i try outside is it better?thanks

I prefer being called Robert to my user ID but if you're going to call me by my user ID can you please get it right ?

TMR Design, not TRM

The curve you're showing above looks pretty good. You could spend more time on it and possibly get it better but it wouldn't do anything for you.

I can appreciate your determination but honestly I think you're continuing to spend far too much time on a system and process that is far from perfect and has bugs throughout.

I love Sekonic meters but this is one area that they have dropped the ball, haven't fixed the bugs, haven't updated or corrected the documentation, and many professionals that truly wanted to embrace custom profiling have given up on it for all those reasons.

It's a time waster. I've said it many times before and I'll continue to say it... if you already own a Sekonic L-758DR then you've got an incredibly accurate and feature packed meter. Have you considered that a custom profile that is incorrect will do more harm than good? I challenge you or anyone to calibrate (not create a custom profile) the meter to your camera/sensor and go shooting..... then use a custom profile (a correct and accurate one and not one with the curve all screwed up) you've created... then come back and tell me that you saw a difference in the readings and it mattered in your exposures. You'll never see more than 1/10 stop variation, if anything.

I guess people that own this meter just don't want to give up on a feature that they were excited about having when they dropped $500 on the meter but at some point you have to throw in the towel. For those that are using and swear by the custom profile they've created, I make the same challenge. Shoot with the profile, then shoot with a default camera position on the meter and then report back with the difference in your exposure. I'm being sarcastic because there isn't going to be a difference.

Assuming you nailed a really perfect and accurate profile you would see a difference in high ISO ambient shooting and in JPG shooting if you were pushing the highlights but wanted to make sure you were not clipping them. But think about it... can't we do that now without a custom profile? A simple meter calibration and you'll always know when you're going to clip highlights regardless of whether you shoot RAW or JPG.

That's my Sekonic rant for the day..

sure dear Robert..i'm starting to thing about only business for sekonic!and if i think that the target is optional..i think more about a business!i was curious..and i tryed with anhoter camera+anhoter zoom lens and then i exchanged the lens in the cameras..and i got others values with the same uniformity of light(5.6 .0/5.6 .+1)(tomorrow..if you like..i will post them)so..many values(little several) for little or any variation than using default camera profile!..and then a curve ,not continue ever!it seems that evry iso,focal,ambient light,camera has own values for dyn range,clipping point,so now..i think that i make earlier shotting in raw/jpg and post correction!i think that i will remove DTS from my pc/mac so!thank you.

Well I have found this very interesting reading so far but no answers to my personal plight. I am into low light and HDR panos and have a canon 30D. I have been doing a run of church interiors in HDR creating panos and currently using a system of taking a shot (M) checking the histogram and then altering the speed until I get the amount of shots I consider has covered the DR I need. This culminates on some shots of 3 HDR pics using 19 shots per pic and blending the resulting 51 pics into the final pano. The results are great but I figured that if I bought the L-758D it would allow me to do the same by getting an accurate exposures across the range in maybe 2 to 3 shots. What excited me was the fact that I could create a profile that allowed me to set the DR of my 30D into the EM. Well I was lucky enough to get a free profiler with my new EM but I do not have any studio lights and it appears that I cannot use natural light to profile. As I only want the DR of my camera in the EM can I use someone else's profile to transfer to the EM? If so where can I get one as there are none on Sekonic website?
regards

HI,

I was going to respond to your email but then I saw this post. I'm not sure where you got the idea that you can't profile using ambient light but that is incorrect. The whole idea of creating a profile is to have accurate exposures regardless of whether you're metering ambient incident, ambient reflected, flash incident or flash reflected.

When creating a profile using ambient light you must work in shade or light that is not changing. If the light changes it will throw off the process.

Regarding the 30D profile. Unfortunately I no longer have a 30D profile and abandoned the idea of a collection or library of profiles once I discovered that the only profile worth using is one created for your camera/sensor in particular. A profile created for someone else's camera of the same make and model will have slightly different characteristics and if you're going to go to the trouble of creating a profile then it may as well be accurate.