Color Profiles
The Components of Color Quality
The DT Stellar uses a custom LED panel with the best spectral match to daylight available in any light today (98 CRI, 98 CQS, 98 TM-30-15, smooth spectrum). However, the light is only one of five major components of the color pipeline in a digitization environment:
- Light Spectrum
- Camera
- Lens
- Camera-Light Geometry (angle and distance)
- Color Profile
Types of Color Profiles
Color profiles (ICC profiles for most capture workflows; DCP for LightRoom) come in three major flavors:
- Standard Commercial Profiles: made to provide “pleasing” rather than accurate color; this is the case for most profiles found in most camera software
- Included Cultural Heritage Profiles: a pre-made profile specifically made for accurate color and tone; this is the case, for example, in Capture One CH which provides profiles for common camera-light combinations such as Phase One iXH with DT Photon lighting
- In-Situ Profiles: A profile made by the user, by capturing a color target, and using color profiling software such as basICColor or DT Nexus.
In-Situ Profiles have the ability to be the most accurate of the three because they incorporate all four Components of Color Quality (light, camera, lens, geometry). However, they also require more skill (care), hardware (targets), and software. Moreover, a poorly made in-situ profile can have major issues that aren't easily detected unless you are following the best practice of independently evaluating the results.
A well-made Cultural Heritage Profile can often provide excellent quality with no effort on the part of the user and no additional hardware or software.
This topic is discussed more extensively in our DT Digitization Reflective Workflow Guide and our Modern Color Profiling webinar.
The iXH 150mp DT Stellar (2025-Beta) Color Reflective Profile
DT has created a Cultural Heritage Profile for the DT Phase One iXH 150mp, 72mm Mk II lens, and DT Stellar lights mounted in DT Reflective Geometry (defined by the angle and distance of a DT Atom) in an ideal environment (free of flare, glare, and ambient contamination). It is provided below without cost, but also without warranty; each institution should evaluate whether this profile provides holistic color and tone accuracy that meets their needs.
Because the iXH 150mp and IQ4 150mp share the same sensor and the Phase One lenses are very homogenous in color transmission the results should also be quite good when using this profile for setups using the IQ4 150mp with DT Stellar lights. Likewise the DT Stellar and DT Photon use the same LED Panel. However, it should be emphasized that this profile has not been broadly tested with those components, and best results are expected for the DT Phase One iXH 150mp with 72mm Mk II lens and DT Stellar lights mounted in DT Reflective Geometry.
Download the profile below and place in /Users/[your user]/Library/ColorSync/Profiles and restart Capture One.
We are eager for feedback on this profile; please email [email protected] to get in touch with your questions, results, and feedback.