To install PSKiss Cross Camera Color DNG Profiles:

1. Extract the .zip file.

2. Select all profile files and copy them to:

Mac OS X: Macintosh HD /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

Lightroom 4.3 and ACR 7.3 users :
Macintosh HD /Users/USR NAME/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

Windows Vista C:\Users\All Users\AppData\Local\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles *

Lightroom 4.3 and ACR 7.3 users:
C:\Users\<USR NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles *

3. Launch Photoshop Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw

PSKiss Cross Camera Color Profiles support Photoshop CS4 or higher and Lightroom 2.7 and higher.

See the QuickStrat Guide for further information.

To get your camera’s profile pack, Click Here.

* If you can’t find this folder, go to: Control Panel > Folder Options > View Tab > Select Show hidden folders

When working with a large number of photos, using Lightroom presets increases productivity.
Lets say you prefer a certain color profile and you want to reproduce this particular look, on a lot of photos.
First, we recommend that you get your camera’s Cross Camera Color DNG Profile pack.
Check out the supported camera list*.

After installing the DNG profiles, open a photo in Lightroom:

Scroll down and expand the Camera Calibration tab.
Click on the Profile menu and choose the preferred color profile.
Personally, I like the color scheme of Nikon D3 Portrait profile:

Now, save this as your own free Lightroom preset:
Click on the “+” button at the Presets tab, give a name for your preset – name it wisely. You might want to know what it does when you will use it again…
Now choose the destination folder and click OK:

That’s it!
You can use this preset whenever you develop another photo in Lightroom.
Just expand the enclosing folder in the Presets tab and click on it:

* If you can’t find your camera in the supported camera list, contact us and we will be happy to create it for you.

Click Here to get your PSKiss Cross Camera Color DNG Profiles.

Click here to get your copy of Aging Film Presets!

How to install PSKiss Aging Film ACR Presets

The easiest way to install ACR presets, is via your operating system:

1. Extract the .zip file you downloaded.
2. Select all the Camera Raw Settings folder and select its content (the files with .xmp suffix).
3. Open up Finder in Mac or Explorer in Windows, and browse to the following path:

Macintosh: /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRawFolder/Settings

WindowsXP: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings

Windows 7: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings

How to install PSKiss Aging Film Lightroom Presets

1. Extract the .zip file you downloaded.
2. Launch Lightroom if it isn’t running.
3. In Lightroom, get into the Develop module. On the left side, scroll to the Preset tab:

Right-Click in that tab and create a New Folder:

After creating the new folder, Right-Click on it and choose Import from the drop-down menu:

Now, browse to the folder that contains the presets (the one you extracted on step 1),

select the first line in the list, hold down the Shift key, scroll down to the end of the list and select the last one (now you can release the Shift key):

Click “Import”.

Thats it! All the presets are ready to work!

Expand your color experience

with Cross Camera Color Profiles.

Click Here for more information.

After you extract the zip file you downloaded, you will find these items:

• CameraProfiles folder – contains the DNG profile files.
• LR Presets folder – contains Lightroom presets that use these profiles.
• PS Presets folder – contains Adobe Camera Raw presets that use these profiles (compatible with Photoshop and Elements).
• Disclaimer and ReadMe files

Step #1 – Install the DNG profiles

To install PSKiss Skin & Scenery Color DNG Profiles:

1. Open the CameraProfiles folder, Select all profile files and copy them to:

• Mac OS X: Macintosh HD /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles
  Lightroom 4.3 and ACR 7.3 users :
  Macintosh HD /Users/USR NAME/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles
• Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles
• Windows Vista C:\Users\All Users\AppData\Local\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles
• Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles *
• Lightroom 4.3 and ACR 7.3 users:
  C:\Users\<USR NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles *

2. Launch Photoshop Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw.

You will find the installed profiles in the Camera Calibration tab:

PSKiss Skin & Scenery Color Profiles support Photoshop CS4 or higher, Elements 8 and higher and Lightroom 3.0 and higher.

* If you can’t find this folder, go to: Control Panel > Folder Options > View Tab > Select Show hidden folders

Step #2 – Install ACR Presets

1. Open the PS Presets folder, select all the Camera Raw Settings files (the files with .xmp suffix) and Copy these files.

2. Open up Finder in Mac or Explorer in Windows,  browse to the following path and Paste the files:

Macintosh: /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRawFolder/Settings

WindowsXP: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings

Windows 7: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings

The presets will be available in the Presets tab:

Step #3 – Install Lightroom Presets

1. Launch Lightroom if it isn’t running.
2. In Lightroom, get into the Develop module. On the left side, scroll to the Presets tab:

Right-Click in that tab and create a New Folder:

After creating the new folder, Right-Click on it and choose Import from the drop-down menu:

Now, browse to the LR Presets folder in the one you extracted,

select the first line in the list, hold down the Shift key, scroll down to the end of the list and select the last one (now you can release the Shift key):

Click “Import“.

That’s it! All the presets are ready to work!

See the QuickStrat Guide for further information.

To get your camera’s profile pack, Click Here.

Expand your color experience with Cross Camera Color Profiles.

After installing the Skin & Scenery Color package,
you are ready to explore your new possibilities.

Using Skin & Scenery Color profiles – Adobe Camera Raw (Photoshop and Elements) and Lightroom

1. In Adobe Camera Raw window (Photoshop CS4, CS5 or Elements 8-9), click on the “Camera Calibration” tab:

In Lightroom, switch to the “Develop” module and expand the “Camera Calibration” tab:

Now, choose the desired profile from the “Camera Profile” menu (Photoshop) or the “Profile” menu (Lightroom):

PSKiss Skin & Scenery Color profiles – Properties and Features chart

The following chart explains the characteristics of each profile:

Feel free to ignore our suggestions and do what ever suites you right.
After all, it’s all about creativity, isn’t it?

Using Skin & Scenery presets – Adobe Camera Raw (Photoshop and Elements) and Lightroom

Each profile has 4 presets that use it.

The first one is always marked as “Basic“. This means that all settings are left at default except the DNG profile in the Camera Calibration tab.

The other 3 are creative presets that use the named profile. You will be surprised at the differences when you don’t use PSKiss profiles…

Use the preset named “—PSKiss-Back 2 Default” to remove all adjustments and return to Camera Raw defaults quickly.

Watch the free video tutorial for more information

To get your camera’s profile pack, Click Here.

Expand your color experience with Cross Camera Color Profiles.

Categorizing is somehow, a human nature. We tend to do it in almost every part of our lives. Developing and editing our photos, isn’t different. We categorize our workflow to “technical” or “creative”. If we use a “technical” workflow, we want to get the most of our photo – more details, wider dynamic range, more colors, higher contrast, you get the point…

When using a “creative” workflow, on the other hand, we tend to think differently. We might overlook technical details, we might want to concentrate on the “look” of the image rather then on details and so…

In this post, I would like to demonstrate how you can develop and process your Camera Raw files using a “creative” profile and at the same time, improving your image. Yes, it is possible when you have the right tools.

The essentials of Raw processing

When opening a Camera Raw file in Lightroom or in Photoshop, most people start working with the Basic tab sliders. That’s quite obvious because they are the first you see…

I would like to offer a new place to start with – the Camera Calibration tab. This it is the most important tab in the Adobe Camera Raw window and the Develop module in Lightroom. The Camera Profile you choose in this tab, creates the initial color palette and the basic dynamic range of your image. Every adjustment done from now on, uses these colors and details. No more ,no less.

There are 4 steps in Raw develop process:

1. The basic Raw file – No colors, no contrast, as a matter of fact, it looks quite like this:

2. Fundamental Processing – The developing software, such as Lightroom or Photoshop is rendering color, correcting White Balance and applying the basic filtering. The photo is colored but still, isn’t the expected image:

3. Applying DNG Profile - A DNG profile is applied to create the initial color and brightness of your images:

4. Personal Adjustments - Now, you apply your personal adjustments with ACR or Lightroom, on top of the DNG Profile from the previous step. You can use Lightroom presets, ACR presets or your own adjustments:

Is the default profile good enough?

Well, sometimes it is… In many cases people are pleased with the default profiles, just because they never saw any alternative.

This becomes critical when dealing with photos taken in difficult lighting conditions, such as live performances. In many places you are not allowed to use flash so you are stuck with the stage lighting, which isn’t always optimal. You might delete a good photo, just because you couldn’t get the most of it. Isn’t it a pity?

“Re-exposing” you Image…

This photo was taken during a dance show of a local youth dance group. This is how it looked when first opened in Lightroom:

Getting something out of this, means a lot of work. Many photographers I know, might give up on this one. I can’t because I like it and the dancer loves it. Look what happened to this image ,when using PSKiss Cool BrightUp profile (part of Skin & Scenery Color Profiles):

This profile was originally created for “creative” purpose. It was meant to give the image a “cool-desaturated-less-contrast look”, it wasn’t aimed to be a “photo-saver”. However, in images like this (and I have thousands of them), it practically saved the image; The skin tone isn’t so red any more, the dress regained it’s turquoise color and the lights are light-blue again…

Adding some Fill Light in the Basic tab, completed “re-exposing” this image:

The Final Touch

Being a perfectionist, I had to do some minor skin tone adjustments, add some Clarity, a touch of sharpness and a slight noise reduction (obvious when brightening an under exposed image), all took about 2 minutes to complete.

Choosing an alternative DNG profile, brought the image to a new place which in this case, saved it from deletion… The new color palette that the profile created is impossible to create in any other method. The dynamic range which actually exists in the file, couldn’t be extracted by the default profile, so brightening the shadows, resulted in a lot of noise. Again, using PSKiss Cool BrightUp profile took advantage of the sensor’s dynamic range and created significantly less noise.

So, “technical” and “creative” can live together on the same image…

Click on the image to enlarge:

That’s all for this time.

If you want to learn more about alternative camera profiles:

Visit our Cross Camera Color Profiles page

or

Visit our Skin & Scenery Color Profiles page.

We recently received a very interesting mail message from photographer Mark Mortensen (http://www.markmortensen.com). Mark uses our Cross Camera Color profiles when developing his Nikon D700 and Nikon D7000 NEF files.

Mark said that he has noticed that when he set the camera calibration of the D7000 in Lightroom, to match the D3 Standard profile, he got some posterization or banding in shadow areas of certain images. We asked Mark to send us the NEF files and the .xmp files (so we can track his develop settings) and it was as he said. Posterisation was certainly present in the shadows:

So, Balance the White Balance…

The first photo was to “cool”. The “As Shot” White Balance was set to 4500. A small correction of the White Balance temperature from 4500 to 5200, corrected the color hues and removed the artefacts immediately:

The second photo was to “warm”. The “As Shot” White Balance was set to 4000. A small correction of the White Balance temperature from 4000 to 3450, corrected the color hues and removed the artefacts immediately:

Summery

When you use PSKiss Cross Camera Color profiles or Skin & Scenery Color profiles, you alter the basic color scheme of your photo. If you see artefacts, such as posterisation or banding, especially in high ISO images, simply make some minor changes to the White Balance. In most cases, that will do.

I got a call from a good friend, complaining that he just can’t get the correct color from Lightroom.

That seemed strange since the guy is using a brand new Canon EOS 1D-X with the best lenses Canon makes…

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but never harmed any person, so I went to check it out.

This was the original image as seen in Lightroom:

My friend Rodi insisted that this isn’t the car’s red color…

Instinctively,  we chose the Camera Lanscape profile which le to another disappointment:

Rodi mentioned that when he used his previous camera, there was no such problem. That led me to the solution… His previous camera was Canon EOS 1Ds mark 3 – so we chose Canon EOS 1Ds mk3 Lanscape profile. Bingo!

We didn’t touch any other slider in Lightroom.

With Cross Camera Color profiles you can fix and change colors, with just 1 click. If you need any more processing, go on and use any of Lightroom’s great features. Your initial colors are set by the profile:

Get your camera’s Cross Camera Color profiles – HERE.

What about your Personal Touch?

Over the years, every famous photographer developed his or hers unique “visual signature”, that small twist in the image which became their trademark.

Most of them were very particular about dark room techniques, which allowed them to make sure that the image they presented, looked exactly as they wanted.

Today, in the digital photography era, there is no dark room anymore.

Instead we have Lightroom

This magnificent application, allows photographers to apply their unique personal touch quickly and easily, in a well lit room and without any dangerous chemicals…

In this post I would like to share with you the basic steps of my work routine that ends up with a personally touched image.

It all started in Lightroom 5.6 Develop module, with this photo of my youngest niece:

Step #1 – Choosing the appropriate color profile

I thought the image looked a bit “cold”, so I chose the Leica M8 profile in the Camera Calibration tab.
This profile isn’t a standard Lightroom profile. It is a part of PSKiss Cross Camera Color profile package.

This profile replaced my Canon EOS 40D colors with the deep warm colors of the Leica M8.

I decided to desaturate the Yellows a little bit, so I dragged the Blue Primary Saturation slider to -40:

 Step #2 – Balance the White Balance

The result felt a bit “yellowish”, so I cooled the white balance by dragging the Temperature slider to the left, till it fitted:

Step #3 – Add some Contrast

The initial exposure of this photo was good and balanced, so it wasn’t an effort…

I brightened the Whites and darkened the Blacks. This gave an “edge” to the contrast of the image.

To improve the sense of “depth”, I raised the Clarity.

To give the image the color look I was looking for, I reduced the Saturation and increased Vibrance:

 Step #4 – Retouch

I removed some disturbing background details and some skin defects (yes, even a baby’s skin isn’t perfect ):

 That’s it. Got the image I wanted:

Step # 5 – Save Preset

Since there are more photos from this session and I want them all to have the same “look”, I saved a preset of my development:

Selected another photo, opened it in the Develop module and applied the preset.

The original photo:

Applying the preset:

The final image:

Now, all you need is a few minutes and your camera’s Cross Camera Color profile package.

Enjoy developing

Tal Ninio

My current Lightroom students, are a group of professional photographers, who tend to ask very good questions.

As I was teaching them the first step to their “perfect image” – choosing the appropriate camera profile (of course ), they kept on asking for a comparison chart. They really wanted a place where PSKiss color develop profile are presented, side-by-side, so they can know which color table is anticipate when before they select a specific profile.

Since I can’t refuse a student’s request (well, at least a good one…), I created this post, presenting our favorite  portrait related develop profile for Lightroom an Photoshop.

These profiles are taken from the camera based Cross Camera Color profiles, as well as the creative based Skin and Scenery Color profiles.

Click on the first image to present the gallery window, then use the right keyboard arrow to go the next image or the left arrow for the previous one:

Now you are ready to decide what’s your favorite portrait profile.

Click to enlarge:

Please note that no changes where made to the image, accept choosing a different camera profile.

Photograph by: Eduardo Bodner

Learn more about Cross Camera Color profiles

Learn more about Skin and Scenery Color profiles

Portrait colors and retouching, are two very common and time consuming tasks photographers face, when ever they need to work on portrait photos.

My good friend Gadi Ohad, sent me this studio portrait, for color develop and retouch (click on images to enlarge).

Products used in this Lightroom / Photoshop tutorial:

- Cross Camera Color Profiles

- PixelGear 2

This is how I did it:

Step #1 – Choose Develop Profile

Gadi wanted a “golden-royal” skin tone, for this portrait. He has a this sophisticated manner, every now and then…

This was the easiest step. I picked Leica M8 (part of Cross Camera Color Profiles):

To learn more about Cross Camera Color Profiles, see the free tutorial, or the free video tutorial.

Step #2 – Edit in Photoshop

Lightroom is a great program for managing your photos and processing your Raw files.

When it comes to retouching, Photoshop offers better tools and filters.

Step #3 – Basic Retouching

After the image opened in Photoshop, I duplicated the Background layer and removed some skin imperfections and stray hair, using Photoshop’s native tools – Clone Stamp, Spot Healing brush and Healing Brush. At this point, be patient. Zoom in to the face area, examine the surface carefully and work systematically. Part by part, hair by hair. There are no “magic shortcuts” here:

Step #4 – Skin Retouch with PixelGear 2 – SkinGear

To retouch her skin and reach a professional smooth look, I used PixelGear 2 – SkinGear.

The first step with this filter, is selecting the skin tone (using Color Range) and converting the selection to a mask.

This creates a new layer named Skin Gear. I smoothed the skin using these settings:

After creating the initial mask, you will need to remove the areas you don’t want to smooth such as, eyes. lips, hair etc.

To learn more about how to use SkinGear, see the free tutorial, or the free video tutorial.

Step #5 – Enhance Contrast with PixelGear 2 – ToneGear

To enhance shadow contrast and highlight contrast, I used PixelGear 2 – ToneGear.

This creates a new layer named Tone Gear. I used these settings:

To learn more about how to use SkinGear, see the free tutorial, or the free video tutorial.

Step #6 – Sharpen Edges with PixelGear 2 – EdgeGear

To sharpen the edges, I used PixelGear 2 – EdgeGear.

This creates a new layer named Edge Gear. I used these settings:

Note that EdgeGear uses SkinGear’s mask and inverts it. This makes sure that sharpening isn’t applied to previously smoothed areas.

To learn more about how to use SkinGear, see the free tutorial, or the free video tutorial.

Step #7 – Final Touch

To end this session, I brightened teeth and white eye areas.

The final Layers list, looked like this:

The final image:

Products used in this Lightroom / Photoshop tutorial:

- Cross Camera Color Profiles

- PixelGear 2