Adobe has posted a prerelease version of its Lens Profile Creator utility to be used with Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 to correct lens chromatic aberration, vignetting and geometric distorsion. The custom built profiles can be used in Photoshop Lens Correction filter, in RAW editing in Adobe Camera Raw (but only from ACR v 6.1 on) or in Lightroom 3. Results for chromatic aberration correction working in RAW are extremely better than working with JPG, since the correction works before demosaicing (conversion of raw data from camera sensor) and image conversion takes place.
The process involves these steps:
- downloading and printing a checkerboard test chart from Adobe Labs (see below the link);
- shooting sets of RAW (better) or non-RAW image sets, at least one set at two focus distances for primes, three focal lenghts sets for tele zooms and more sets for wide/fisheye zooms. For set (at a specific focal lenght), nine shots are required to put the calibration chart in various positions (center, edge centers, corners). Of course the more sets, the more precise the lens profile.
- importing the sets into the Lens Profile Creator to generate custom profiles for Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3. Also, users can share their custom profile in the adobe user community forum.
Lens Profile can be download at this link: Lens Profile Creator v1.0.
Additional information is available in the Lens Profile Creator user guide, Quick Start Calibration Chart Shooting Guide, Calibration Chart Shooting Guide.