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Qp Card 202 & FREE Qp Calibration
Software for Raw Images

Getting accurate natural colors from any digital camera with RAW option has been an elusive goal for digital photographers. It can be a challenge to get photographs with correct hue; where red is red, green is green and blue is blue – and to make photographs with sufficient saturation in all channels. Believing that this is the optimum starting point for efficient picture editing in RGB, QP has been at the forefront of addressing this challenge. QP’s second goal is to get the correct colors in a fast, accurate, uncomplicated, and inexpensive way.

QP has addressed these goals with the new QPcard 202 and QPcalibrator software, which perform color correction using color management and profiling at the first accessible stage in the digital image workflow – the RAW image. In order to accurately monitor each camera’s color property, QP has designed a new high quality, color target with modern camera sensors in mind. With only 35 carefully selected and individually manufactured color patches, QPcard 202 can meticulously pin-point color behavior of almost any camera in any light.

QPcalibrator software compares camera performance with the target colors and creates instructions for the profile on how to “move” small segments of colors (almost 1300) into correct position in a three dimensional color space. Color saturation is controlled in two stages: primary control in the matrix, followed by “soft clipping” in the lookup table. It keeps track of color saturation making sure no color channel is over-saturated with blocked or “flat” colors as a result.


Accurate Natural Colors in Three Easy Steps

• Take a RAW photo of QPcard 202.
• Process the photo using the free QPcalibrator software.
• In less than 5 seconds a custom, camera- and light- specific, RAW profile has been created and
automatically saved in the correct folder. Next time you open Adobe Camera RAW you will find your profile under the camera icon.
After doing this the first time, toggle between Adobe normal and your custom profile to compare the difference in color rendering between the profiles. You will be amazed by the difference.

QPcard 202

The design and preparation of the color card is crucial for successful color management of the camera.
QPcard 202 has 35 coated color chips mounted on a cardboard surface. The carefully selected color samples are individually mixed in order to achieve as straight-forward spectral response as possible. This is very important in order to avoid undesired metameric effects that can ruin correct evaluation of the color performance.

The color samples are divided into four groups. The primary group has 9 saturated samples of red, green and blue picked to accurately determine the spectral midpoints of the on-sensor filters. The secondary group has 12 samples of complementary colors chosen to properly graduate saturated colors. The grayscale group has 7 neutral samples of different lightness for white balancing and linearization of individual channel response. The pastel group with 7 lighter, still saturated, color samples helps fine-tuning skintones and lighter colors.

The corner-marks of the card are automatically detected by the QPcalibrator software and a grid covering the color patches is created. Every color patch is measured in 6400 spots and the 3200 lightest are discarded. This prevents small dust particles and minor reflections to interfere with the measurement.
Unlike older color targets on the market, the background has been intentionally kept white. This provides an opportunity to evaluate the evenness of the exposure of the card. If the card is unevenly lit, the software compensates in the linear RAW signal with maximum 1,5 EV, assuring high quality profiles even if the card isn’t perfectly photographed.

 

Download QPcalibrator for QPcard 202 

This version of QPcalibrator is available for both Windows and MAC. 

 

Instructions for the Beta:
The software is fully functional, but with a limited feature set. Download and install just as any other OSX or Windows application.

The software accepts raw files from almost any camera that Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop ACR can open. Should you find a camera model that isn't supported by the QPcalibration 202 software yet, you can convert the raw file you want to make a profile from to DNG with Adobe's free DNG-converter, and use that in the QPcalibration software.

You need a sample photo of the reference card taken with the camera and the light you intend to make a profile for. This shot does not need to be very meticulously framed or lit, but the profile quality will suffer if you can see direct reflections in any of the color sample squares. You should also avoid partial shading of the reference card - even though the software compensates for uneven lighting before sampling the raw-file. Sharp edged shading can confuse the correction algorithms.
Open PDF instructions on how to take a calibration photo of QPcard 202

The workflow in the calibration software is very straight-forward. Press "Open file..." to open your raw file. The software will then automatically load the raw file, find the color-patches, and run the color calibration routines. When you see the shot in the preview window you can choose to apply a normal exposure curve (the default setting), or a slightly steeper or shallower contrast curve that will give you profiles with higher or lower contrast. This is done with the "Contrast curve" control.
When you press the "Calculate" button to finalize your profile, you will be prompted to give it a suitable name, and then the profile will be saved to your Adobe camera profile folder automatically.

(*tip - After you've saved the resulting profile, you can change the contrast curve and press save again. You will then be prompted for a new profile name, and the software will calculate a new profile from the same raw-file but with another tone curve).

Item # Description
MSRP
GQP202 QP Color card 202
59.95