Creating DNG Profiles for Adobe Camera Raw

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements both use Adobe’s Camera Raw Plug-in. To make a DNG camera profile for use in these applications, follow the steps below.

First the image will need to be a DNG file format:

1. Open an image of the ColorChecker Classic in the Camera Raw plug-in.
2. Don’t edit the image, but make sure to verify that it was exposed properly. See Exposure Verification and Correction for more details.
3. Save the image as a DNG so you can open it in the ColorChecker Passport Desktop Application.
4. Click the ‘Save Image’ button in the lower left corner. A new window will appear.
5. In the ‘Format’ drop-down, specify DNG by selecting ‘Digital Negative’.
6. Click ‘Save’.
7. Launch the ColorChecker Passport Desktop Application.
   • On a Mac, it is located in: Applications/ColorChecker Passport
   • On a PC, it is located in: \Program Files\X-Rite\ColorChecker Passport
8. Select the DNG tab and drag and drop the DNG file into the window.
9. Click the Create Profile button. The software will automatically search for the patches and build the profile. If the software cannot find the patches, you will be asked to manually identify the corners of the patches.
10. Give the profile a meaningful name that describes the lighting conditions and click Save. By default, it will be saved to a directory that Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom use to store DNG profiles.
    • Mac: /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Camera Raw/Camera Profiles/
    • PC (If you cannot see this path, you may need to right-click on your folder, choose Properties, and check Hidden to see the hidden files)
    • Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles
    • XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles
11. Restart your Adobe applications to use the new DNG profile. It will be available in the Camera Calibration panel in Lightroom and Camera Raw.
12. In Camera Raw, open an image and click on the Camera icon to see the Camera Calibration tab.
13. From the pull-down, select the new profile. See Automating Color Control in Raw for ways to use this profile on larger groups of images in Adobe applications.

If the auto-detect function in your Desktop Application is having trouble finding the ColorChecker target, check out these helpful tips.