Can you convert a DCP profile into an ICC profile?

I want to use my Xrite Colorchecker Passport 2 through Capture One Pro 21, but the colorchecker software puts in a DCP file and Capture One requires an ICC prfile to choose from.

Is there anyway to convert the DCP into an ICC profile?

I Googled it but the only article I found saying it could be done offered a download from 2009 and I couldn't get it to download.

Thanks in advance!

Not to my knowledge but I also wonder why you would want to do that. If your computer already has the Xrite profile running, Capture One is using it to display itself on your computer. Using it again would be double profiling and would result in very inaccurate colors.

My Colorchecker Camera Calibration version 2.2.0 can create both DNG and standard ICC profiles. However,  you can only create ICC profile representing a single lighting condition. It also comes with a little instruction sheet telling you how to import the ICC profile into Capture One Pro.

I don't know why the program calls it DNG profile when the profile it creates has file extension "dcp".

E.J. Peiker wrote:Not to my knowledge but I also wonder why you would want to do that.  If your computer already has the Xrite profile running, Capture One is using it to display itself on your computer.  Using it again would be double profiling and would result in very inaccurate colors.

OK, my ignorance may be showing, but let me see if I can express this in an intelligent manner.

As I understand it, my calibrated monitor will accurately display the colors as my camera captured them, correct?  But who says my camera is capturing the colors correctly.  I thought that is the whole purpose of the colorchecker passport 2, to allow you to see if the colors you captured are correct and accurate.  Then, after you apply the camera profile to the images, those images will be the actual colors they should be, and then the moniitor calibration will display the accurate colors in an accurate fashion.  Is my explanation understandable or jusy hodgepodge?  

In other words, the colorchecker would just make sure the colors the camera recorded are accurate, while the monitor makes sure the monitor is displaying them accurately.

I thought the monitor calibration only made sure your monitor is accurate, is that correct?  However, if your camera captured the color inaccurately, wouldn't the color on the monitor still be inaacurate?  It seems that both the camera and monitor should need to be calibrated.

I hope I haven't just confused the issue even more.

Bill Chambers wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:Not to my knowledge but I also wonder why you would want to do that.  If your computer already has the Xrite profile running, Capture One is using it to display itself on your computer.  Using it again would be double profiling and would result in very inaccurate colors.

OK, my ignorance may be showing, but let me see if I can express this in an intelligent manner.

As I understand it, my calibrated monitor will accurately display the colors as my camera captured them, correct?  But who says my camera is capturing the colors correctly.  I thought that is the whole purpose of the colorchecker passport 2, to allow you to see if the colors you captured are correct and accurate.  Then, after you apply the camera profile to the images, those images will be the actual colors they should be, and then the moniitor calibration will display the accurate colors in an accurate fashion.  Is my explanation understandable or jusy hodgepodge?  

In other words, the colorchecker would just make sure the colors the camera recorded are accurate, while the monitor makes sure the monitor is displaying them accurately.

I thought the monitor calibration only made sure your monitor is accurate, is that correct?  However, if your camera captured the color inaccurately, wouldn't the color on the monitor still be inaacurate?  It seems that both the camera and monitor should need to be calibrated.

I hope I haven't just confused the issue even more.

Phase One profiles every camera with a suite of 750 photos captured under different lighting so it is doing the by camera calibration for you before it releases it into Capture One as a supported camera.  If the colors you are seeing are off, it would be because the white balance and/or color customization in the camera that you shot with is off to begin with.  While what you say holds true for Adobe RAW conversion like LR or ACR, it isn't the case for C1.  Additionally, you would need to then do a color checker profile for every WB setting in your camera and then remember to apply it properly during RAW conversion.

In the end, regardless of which RAW converter you chose, unless you are doing artwork archival imaging, you are going to be modifying the colors to some extent to your taste anyway as you prepare the images, it seems like this would be creating unnecessary work for any other type of imaging like nature photography.  But again, Phase One does the detailed color calibration for you for every camera they support.

Oh, one other thing, in Base Characteristics under the Color tab, make sure that the correct ICC profile for your camera is selected.  Film Standard is the curve that should accurately represent the colors.  Of course, even with that, your WB choice is the main reason for inaccurate color and note that selecting auto white balance will give you inaccurate colors essentially 100% of the time.  If you want accurate colors every time you would have to shoot a calibrated gray card and do a manual white balance in camera on that gray card before taking your real shot.  If you were to do that, Capture One would then render 100% accurate colors assuming you have everything in C1 set to a default value of 0.

In the end, regardless of which RAW converter you chose, unless you are doing artwork archival imaging, you are going to be modifying the colors to some extent to your taste anyway as you prepare the images, it seems like this would be creating unnecessary work for any other type of imaging like nature photography.  But again, Phase One does the detailed color calibration for you for every camera they support.

Oh, one other thing, in Base Characteristics under the Color tab, make sure that the correct ICC profile for your camera is selected.  Film Standard is the curve that should accurately represent the colors.  Of course, even with that, your WB choice is the main reason for inaccurate color and note that selecting auto white balance will give you inaccurate colors essentially 100% of the time.  If you want accurate colors every time you would have to shoot a calibrated gray card and do a manual white balance in camera on that gray card before taking your real shot.  If you were to do that, Capture One would then render 100% accurate colors assuming you have everything in C1 set to a default value of 0.
Ok, well that's good to know about using the Film Standard curve as I didn't know that at all.

The reason I was asking about the colorchecker was not for nature work, but for shooting artwork for a gallery downtown (so artists can have prints made), so I wanted to make sure the color was dead-on accurate.  I set-up a little "studio" so that I can control the lighting, the height/angles so as to get very little distortion of the image itself, but I wanted to make sure to get the color right.  I wasn't aware C1 already had it in the bag.  Excellent news.

Thanks again, E.J.

Bill Chambers wrote: The reason I was asking about the colorchecker was not for nature work, but for shooting artwork for a gallery downtown (so artists can have prints made), so I wanted to make sure the color was dead-on accurate.  I set-up a little "studio" so that I can control the lighting, the height/angles so as to get very little distortion of the image itself, but I wanted to make sure to get the color right.  I wasn't aware C1 already had it in the bag.  Excellent news.

Thanks again, E.J.

I think the only way you can be sure that you get the "accurate" colors is to create a profile every time you shoot under a particular lighting condition. Capture One Pro comes with camera profiles, but I'd say it's pretty much a generic one.

If the argument for not setting up a custom color profile for your camera is that you are going to adjust the colors anyway in post-processing, then it also should not be important which profile you choose in Capture One Pro for your files. You decide the final look of your photograph. Use a Canon R5 profile on your D850 files if you wish. Nobody will know anywhere but your photograph will look like ones taken with a Canon.

I think the reason you want to set up a custom color profile for a particular camera is not about getting accurate colors but rather to get the colors the way that particular camera sees them. Have you tried using different color profiles of different cameras on the same raw file? Have you photographed in jpeg the same scene with different cameras? I'd bet the resulting images don't look the same. So, which one shows the "accurate" colors??

Ah OK, now I understand! For reproducing artwork, I would most definitely do a custom white balance off of a true neutral gray card for every lighting situation. Also, artificial lighting can have some weird non-linear behavior so make sure you use really good lights with a solid color temperature and not a lot of false color lobes in it's spectrum. A photospectrometer would be a good thing to have.

Or you can make sure to use high CRI lights. Anything LED you need to check carefully. Incandescent lights will be fine in general as they produce a good spectrum as will electronic flash.