Hi,

I'm wondering if I should be able to change the Camera Profile within Adobe Lightroom or Camera Raw with the DNG images from the phantom 4. The only option I get is Embeded, the same as if I'd shot jpeg. Normally if I'm editing a RAW image I do get to change the camera profile, I certainly do with my Nikons.

Surely I'm not the only person shooting RAW images and editing in Adobe software? Can someone have a look and see if they get any of the camera (colour) profiles as selectable options in the Camera Calibration section of the Develop Module in Lightroom and let me know?

I've also noticed that Photoshop and Lightroom do not seem to recognise the actual embedded camera colour profile in the RAW images from my Phantom, the jpeg version from the camera does not look the same as the RAW imported version in Lightroom. As I understand it, a RAW image when imported should be displayed with either the standard Adobe colour profile or one of the in-built profiles from the manufacturer (DJI) which you can choose - or if it is a jpeg, then obviously whatever is baked in.

Am I doing something wrong/is something wrong with my camera or is this normal?

I'm trying to work out if I have yet another problem with my phantom, or it's just some kind of DJI quirk with their RAW files that makes them not really RAW.

The camera profile is for lens correction not colours. It corrects chromatic aberration and other effects caused by the lens like distortion.

Take a photo (RAW/DNG) and zoom in 100% or more using lightroom. Find some chromatic aberration -- usually at bright edges of objects in the photo. Now ask lightroom to use the built-in camera profile. You'll see that the aberration is removed. If you did not have a camera profile then you'd have to do this step manually.

Edit: For other settings like colour and white balance both photoshop and LR can be set to automatically apply them (or not) from the EXIF data in the DNG file (it's called a profile as well in camera raw so it's a bit confusing). Anyway I don't think there is anything wrong with your Phantom -- it all sounds quite normal to me and you might just need to experiment with options and stuff. Your description is exactly how RAW works for all my cameras (Phantom, 3 different Canon DSLRs, 2 compacts).

CraigR Posted at 2017-11-2 12:11
The camera profile is for lens correction not colours. It corrects chromatic aberration and other effects caused by the lens like distortion.

Take a photo (RAW/DNG) and zoom in 100% or more using lightroom. Find some chromatic aberration -- usually at bright edges of objects in the photo. Now ask lightroom to use the built-in camera profile. You'll see that the aberration is removed. If you did not have a camera profile then you'd have to do this step manually.

No, I'm not referring to the lens profile/correction, that is working fine.

I'm on about the bottom section of the develop module in Lightroom, Camera Calibration or the  Camera Calibration tab in Adobe Camera Raw, here you should be able to change the colour profile of the image. For instance, if I was using a raw image from my nikon camera, I could pick from any of the camera profiles the camera uses, such as Landscape, Standard, Portrait etc or in the case of the phantom, there should be the matching options, such as dlog, True colour or whatever options you can pick from when using the drone.

I've just noticed that if I open a RAW image from the drone using Camera Raw, I have the options for lens correction and just the embeded option for colour profile, but if I then pass it on to photoshop then back into Camera Raw, those "RAW" options, Lens corection and single colour profile option are no longer there, they would be with my Nikon RAW files, it's as though the phantom RAW files are not true RAW files...

Mart Posted at 2017-11-2 11:16
Surely I'm not the only person shooting RAW images and editing in Adobe software? Can someone have a look and see if they get any of the camera (colour) profiles as selectable options in the Camera Calibration section of the Develop Module in Lightroom and let me know?

I've also noticed that Photoshop and Lightroom do not seem to recognise the actual embedded camera colour profile in the RAW images from my Phantom, the jpeg version from the camera does not look the same as the RAW imported version in Lightroom. As I understand it, a RAW image when imported should be displayed with either the standard Adobe colour profile or one of the in-built profiles from the manufacturer (DJI) which you can choose - or if it is a jpeg, then obviously whatever is baked in.

I'm trying to work out if I have yet another problem with my phantom, or it's just some kind of DJI quirk with their RAW files.

This is not a problem with your Phantom.
It's how images from the Phantom are.

Labroides Posted at 2017-11-2 14:12
I'm trying to work out if I have yet another problem with my phantom, or it's just some kind of DJI quirk with their RAW files.

This is not a problem with your Phantom.

Yeah, I downloaded a P4P DNG file and it behaves the same.

Shame, I can utilise the inbuilt colour profiles with my Nikon d800 and sony RX100 MkIV RAW files.

Seems odd that Adobe didn't bother to build those profiles for a camera as popular as the phantoms, maybe the files just aren't true RAW?

RAW files contain proprietary info.  If you shoot in B&W mode with the Nikon, the Nikon made editors and viewers will open them in B&W from RAW.  Some other editing software may open it as color as they do not access the RAW data the same way as Nikon.

DJI doesn't make a viewing software to read their files (Maybe they should?) on a computer as other makers do so what you get from someone elses software may look correct, or it may be wrong too.  If you watch settings like white balance and the tint, they are all over the place among software makers.  It's maddening at times too.

A "true" RAW file need not include anything but the raw pixel data from the camera. Colour profiles, lens profiles, EXIF, all that stuff does not need to be in the raw file; only the pixel data. Manufacturers add that extra stuff for the user's convenience -- they don't have to.

I'm not sure what the big deal about colour profiles like landscape and portrait is anyway... they're simply preset saturation, contrast, etc values that are applied to the image after the raw pixel data is read into the conversion program. Can't you make your own?

CraigR Posted at 2017-11-3 12:40
A "true" RAW file need not include anything but the raw pixel data from the camera. Colour profiles, lens profiles, EXIF, all that stuff does not need to be in the raw file; only the pixel data. Manufacturers add that extra stuff for the user's convenience -- they don't have to.

I'm not sure what the big deal about colour profiles like landscape and portrait is anyway... they're simply preset saturation, contrast, etc values that are applied to the image after the raw pixel data is read into the conversion program. Can't you make your own?

I don' think anyone is making a big deal out of anything here. I was surprised to not have those colour profiles available since I do with all the RAW images form my other cameras and manily wanted to check there wasn't soemthing amis.

Yes, the answer here s simply to make my own presets in Lightroom (or Camera Raw) it's easy to do.  Might have been nice to have the ability to choose an inbuilt profile that was cloers to my intended output perhaps.

Compared to the files that come out of my Nikon D800, the phantom ones aren't great (wouldn't expect them to be - the Nikon is probably 10 x the cost and weight of the unit hung below the phantom), you can't push those pixels around to anything like the same degree before the image quality breaks down, so I'm not normally looking to go to town in the editing part and for the vast majority of the stuff I'm using my drone for, there isn't much need for great artistry, so a speedy workflow is what I want.

So I now know there isn't something wrong and my workflow can reflect that.

Mart Posted at 2017-11-5 01:51
I don' think anyone is making a big deal out of anything here. I was surprised to not have those colour profiles available since I do with all the RAW images form my other cameras and manily wanted to check there wasn't soemthing amis.

Yes, the answer here s simply to make my own presets in Lightroom (or Camera Raw) it's easy to do.  Might have been nice to have the ability to choose an inbuilt profile that was cloers to my intended output perhaps.

Compared to the files that come out of my Nikon D800, the phantom ones aren't great

You should try the P4 pro.  It's a big step up from the regular P4 camera.
I have a D800 and love it but the difference between it and the P4 pro isn't huge.

Labroides Posted at 2017-11-5 03:44
Compared to the files that come out of my Nikon D800, the phantom ones aren't great

You should try the P4 pro.  It's a big step up from the regular P4 camera.

I've definitely considered it, second-hand prices on the p4p are reasonable.