DNG converter and Profiles Update

G10 CR2 RAW format

I recently purchased the Canon Powershot G10 so I could shoot RAW from a compact platform, and take advantage of the extra bit depth.

I have been using Lightroom2.1 and CS3/Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 4.5 for my processing workflow. Neither of these supported the G10 CR2 RAW format.

Note: – As I am writing this article, the Lightroom 2.2 update has just been made available to support the G10.

For ACR support of the G10 RAW format I have to update to CS4 with ACR5.2, and  am still in two minds as to if the upgrade it is worth the cost.

The Canon Digital Photo Professional software (v3.5)  supplied with the G10 exports to TIFF and JPEG, but not DNG.

After a bit of searching I found the latest version of Adobe DNG Converter (5.2) supports the G10 RAW format (as well as Canon 5D Mark 2,  Leica D-LUX-4 and Pansonic’s DMC-G1, DMC-FX150, DMC-FZ28, DMC-LX3 cameras).

Using the converter I am able to change my canon raw files to DNG format and then work with them in any version of Lightroom and ACR.

DNG Profiles

When I downloaded the DNG converter, I noticed it was around 35MB compared to the previous version at around 10MB.

A bit of research revealed that the reason for this extra size is that the converter also contains the new Adode camera profiles.

In the case of Canon cameras, these profiles are designed to emulate the rendering of the preset Picture Styles in the Canon DPP software. They act more like Lightroom presets rather than ICC profiles. This subject can be a little confusing, but visit the following links for more info:-

• Adobe Labs – DNG camera profiles
• Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) preset Picture Styles

Once installed, the DNG camera profiles can be found in in the Camera Calibration section of Lightroom and ACR.

The profiles are not the “be all and end all” of processing, but rather a good place to start, and can provide some punch to your images when starting out. Once you have selected the profile you want, then you can move through the normal workflow process of white balance, tone adjustments, sharpening, etc.

DNG Profile Editor

Another feature to come out of the camera profiles is the DNG Profile editor.

The Profile Editor software allows you to modify the present profiles and create news ones.

Even more interesting is the ability to use the Profile Editor software with a 24-Patch Color checker chart to create custom DNG profiles for different white balance situations.

This is an exciting bit of software, and I expect we will see more of this in the future.