Fixing DCS Colour Casts

Discuss older Nikon-based Kodak digital SLRs, including DCS 100, DCS 200, NC2000, DCS 400/600/700-series, etc. Ask questions, post general comments, anecdotes, reviews and user tips.
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Ashley_Pomeroy
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Fixing DCS Colour Casts

Post by Ashley_Pomeroy »

It's mentioned here and elsewhere that the original Nikon D1 had odd, slightly magenta-ish colours, because it used NTSC rather than something more sensible. There were various fixes floating around at the time - Digital Photography Review came up with the simplest, which involved assigning an NTSC profile in Photoshop and then converting it into sRGB, which can be done as a two-step action. I mention this because I recently bought a D1 - £85! - and whilst swotting up I wondered what would happen if I applied this fix to some of the Kodak DCS files I have.

And, lo and behold, it seems to work. I was puzzled as to why my files from different DCS cameras all seemed to have a slightly purple cast, and it must be because Kodak calibrated them in the same way that Nikon calibrated the D1. After converting to NTSC, purple skies turn a proper shade of blue, reds become a lot more vivid. I always assumed it was because the camera was being thrown by infrared contamination, but no. The effect is less impressive on my DCS 460 files but it works very well with the DCS 560.

Here are some examples shot with a DCS 560. On the left is the file that I get from just opening it in Photoshop, which can be fixed up but it's irritating, and on the right is a simple profile conversion to NTSC (and then back to sRGB):
Image
Image

And here's Ulorin again, although the colours aren't obviously *better* because they're artificial anyway:
Image

Here's a DCS 460 file, which looks more natural but still a bit unnatural:
Image

In general the effect is subtle on the older files:
Image

So, er, there you go. Here's a DCS 760 also converted to NTSC:
Image

Interestingly the same fix works if I apply it to some of the sample files in Digital Photography Review's review of the full-frame 14n, e.g. London Bridge here:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/kodakdcs14n/page19.asp

The sky looks obviously purple; when I convert it to NTSC the sky turns blue again. It has a subtler effect on the samples in Rob Galbraith's review of the 14n, though:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_ ... -6139-6142

So, there you go.
Multifot
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Re: Fixing DCS Colour Casts

Post by Multifot »

Ashley_Pomeroy, thanks for the info,
Also it is a good idea to use Kodak software for the image edition too. Try it, i like it more than working in PS.
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