I made some DCP profiles in PL7 with a Datacolor Checkr Photo chart.
These DCP profiles are stored in the same directory as the photo used to create the profile.
My observation is that the DCP profiles applied to a photo are referenced with an absolute path by PL7.
I’m used to process my photos on an SSD, typically applying DCP profiles stored in the same directory. Afterwards, I move these photos + profiles to another mass storage (e.g. a NAS).
When I ocasionally reprocess a photo on the NAS, I get an error that the DCP profile is not found.
I solved the above problem by copying the DCP profiles to a profiles directory on my c: drive and import these profiles in PL7 before applying to photos.
This works fine, but it is in my view more complex that it should be.
My proposal would be:
Store the imported DCP profiles in PL7 with an absolute path when applied to a photo.
Store the other DCP profiles with a relative path when applied to a photo (the same directory of the photos, on whatever drive)
Does this improvement makes sense? Is it feasible?
with DxO approach when they generate a single illuminant matrix profile they can even store their PL-generated profile in directly in .DOP file or in presets … it takes so few bytes for the type of profile they suggest ( not in general of course, that can be few megabytes size-wise )
of course the ideal solution will be to let user specify where to search for profiles ( [A] some DxO systemwide special folder, [B] current raw file folder location, [C] current raw file relative subfolder location, [D] user specified folder, and [E] in case of DNG files profiles stored directly in DNG files )
I’m very happy with the DCP profile generation and color rendering feature of PL7. For me, besides noise reduction, color management is one of the key enables for decent RAW development.
I think introducing the DCP profile folder merrits priority, because the migration to a DCP profiles folder will be way more labor intensive as more photos are rendered with DCP profiles.
It took me a while to understand the current DCP profile administration (not sure even my understanding is fully correct). A writeup of the currently available DCP profile management implementation would really be convenient for users and will avoid disappointments down the line. I had to reprocess more than 100 files moving the picture folder + a lot of scripting around to manage the DCP profiles in a future safe way.
… it takes so few bytes for the type of profile they suggest ( not in general of course, that can be few megabytes size-wise )