How To Reset Sekonic L-758dr To Camera Default Settings

Tutorial for Sekonic 50-758DR: How to create a custom profile

Notation: This tutorial was created using the original calibration target and version i of the Sekonic Data Transfer software. Since writing this, the new Calibration Target II and version 2 of the Sekonic Data Transfer software have been released. You can still use this process with version 1 or you lot can download the new software and use either the original target or the new Target Ii.

I'1000 posting this how-to in an attempt to clarify the horrible transmission that accompanies the data transfer software and to demystify the procedure. There is no dubiety that doing a total custom profile is time consuming and does leave a lot of room for human error merely after having spoken to the L-758DR projection director and performing the procedure several times I take a grasp on the process and can mayhap shed some light on this topic.

I think that for about people, if you already own an L-758DR you've got ane of the finest meters out at that place so to recollect that the custom profile is a must just isn't then. For those that want to be equally authentic as possible and are working with 1/10 stops rather than ane/3 or 1/2 stops then there are some benefits and I have explained some of them in this post from another thread.

The first affair that most owners of this meter learn speedily if they want to create a custom profile is that on top of the toll of the meter yous take to buy the Sekonic Scale Target, which has an 18% grayness carte du jour on one side and a serial of grayscale patches on the other.

If your computer is ane of the newer Intel based Macs then y'all tin view and create a profile on your calculator only you can't transfer the profile to the meter. This is a problem that is being corrected and should be in the updated software due out in Baronial.

I'g going to outline the process for a Flash/Incident profile since that is the most mutual utilise of a light meter. The procedure for Flash/Reflected is identical. I'll utilise ISO 100 every bit an example and I'k shooting RAW. If you shoot JPG then information technology'south very important that you lot alter all color, saturation, contrast and brightness settings to a zero value and then no processing is beingness practical.

Process

- Select the lens you want to utilise. Selection a lens that you use oftentimes and one that has a 7 end range. For example, an aperture range of f/2.viii to f/22 would work well. This is based on having a lens where you tin find a heart exposure and have the ability to move 3 stops in either direction. Typically this is going to hateful that f/8 is the centre exposure and the 7 stop range is f/ii.eight, f/4, f/v.6, f/8, f/11, f/xvi, f/22. If you have a lens that has f/4 every bit its largest aperture then you would brand f/eleven your heart exposure and the range would exist from f/4 to f/32, bold you could finish downwards to f/32.

- Fix the target and camera (see images #i and #ii beneath). Y'all'll need the 'B' side (grey menu) first. The target should be set up so information technology's perpendicular to the floor and parallel to the groundwork. Make sure that yous don't have whatsoever low-cal or colored backgrounds and that there are no light sources returning light to the target. Unremarkably small-scale amounts of light or colour cast would be acceptable but since this is actually a calibration you lot should do everything you lot can to keep things precise in the procedure, as these things could easily throw off the results.

Setup the camera at whatsoever distance needed from the target so the entire frame is filled with the target. With my 85mm lens I'm non quite iv feet from the target to have information technology fill up the frame. Manually focus on the target (I find it easiest to focus on the white text below the grayness surface area earlier yous frame the shot). If yous're lens is not in focus it could adversely affect the results. Set your shutter speed for the sync speed you use with your strobes and photographic camera. I use i/125s with Alien Bees strobes. Also set your ISO for the kickoff i (or only one) you desire to accept in the profile. Then let's use ISO 100.

- Ready up the lights (run into images #1 and #ii below). Depending on the lens used and power of your strobes y'all'll stop upward with a slightly different setup and power level settings will vary. You lot'll need 2 lights on low-cal stands.

Ideally, you want your strobes at 45 degree angles from the center of the target and the easiest style to find that angle is to take the distance of the photographic camera from the target and measure out that same distance to the side of the camera, staying parallel to the background. That point should be 45 degrees off centrality. Exercise this for the left and correct light. Make sure the lights are set at the same power levels. Suit the peak of the lights so the center of the light is on the vertical centrality of the lens. Then check your settings by taking an incident reading (lumisphere extended) from the heart of the target with your meter at target position and discover the ability level setting that gives you that eye value of f/8. Measure across the target taking a far left and far right reading, making sure that there isn't more than than i/10 stop variation. If in that location is then fine tune the angle of the lite(s) and so you have even lighting from left to correct.

If you discover that you lot're working in the bottom end of the ability slider (1/16 or below) on your strobes to get your centre exposure of f/8 then you should move your lights further away, making sure to proceed them the same altitude from the target and at 45 degree angles.

- Set Custom White Balance. Since you lot've already set upwards and metered for f/8 you can take your grayness carte du jour shot and set a Custom White Balance on your camera.

- Take pictures for calibration. Turn the target over to the 'A' side, maintaining the same position so it's centered in frame. Accept a series of seven images. I ever do mine with the heart exposure first, and then I open the aperture and then close it, so my terminal serial of images is f/8, f/5.half-dozen, f/four, f/2.eight, f/11, f/sixteen, f/22 (encounter image #three below). Some people find information technology makes more sense if they shoot them as f/2.eight, f/4, f/v.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22. I figure I might also take the f/8 start since I was already there from the grayness carte du jour shot and because it's the first image I'm going to utilise one time I get into Photoshop to find and generate the results.

If you're going to move on to the other ISO's then yous'd now change the ISO in your camera and on your meter (moving i end up from ISO 100 to ISO 200), and readjust the ability levels so you are back at your starting point of f/8. So you do your grey carte shot for custom white residuum at the new ISO and repeat the process of taking the 7 test shots with apertures from f/ii.8 to f/22. Repeat for as many ISO's as yous want or for the whole range of ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600. The software gives you the option of only using ii ISO settings and information technology volition figure out the balance only I did this and so did a full contour and found that I came up with different numbers than the software did on those other ISO's. I think if you're going to the problem of creating a custom profile then you lot might as well do the whole thing, get it over with and so it'south washed.

- Interpreting the results. You lot now have vii images for each ISO setting you shot. Since our instance is using ISO 100 that'south what I'll use for the next steps. You perform this next procedure for each ISO.

Open the 7 images in Photoshop. Then open the Info Window. If yous haven't changed the defaults you'll observe it right in between the Navigator and Histogram tabs. In the Info tab you'll come across 4 sections. Expect at the top left section and you should see an eyedropper dropdown menu and RGB values. Make sure the eyedropper dropdown is ready to Actual Color. We're just going to be looking at the Dark-green (Thousand) value to obtain the correct information. Now, using the eyedropper tool (non the dropdown menu you lot just used), movement the eyedropper over the 7 grayscale patches on the image shot at f/eight (middle exposure) and discover the 1 where you become a value of 118 (± 2). Ideally, it should exist the heart patch but it'southward fine it isn't. I've done this a few times and never seen equally narrow a deviation as ± 2. Usually there is devation within a small area of as much as ± five. You'll find that the neighboring patches volition accept very similar values and at times you have to really be careful as to which patch yous select. This is where the man fault comes in and then be conscientious. This process gets more difficult every bit the ISO is increased because it becomes harder to differentiate the pixels with the noise from those without.

Now that you know which patch is giving you a Dark-green value of 118 you lot need to open the Sekonic Data Transfer Software. This is where the manual is non only hard to understand but it is incorrect and useless. Using the Camera 1 setting, click on the Wink/Incident push button. This will open up upward the tabular array that will ultimately be filled in with values. The far left column is ISO. Scroll down to ISO 100. The cavalcade to the right of ISO is Bounty Value. Double click in that field to open up the Compensation Value calculation window. (Getting the impression this is wearisome? It gets worse).

For Calorie-free Meter Measurement you need to enter the settings from your meter. In this case it's 125 for the shutter speed and an discontinuity of f/8. For Camera Exposure Data fill in exactly the same information as you did for Low-cal Meter Measurement. Side by side click on the patch that y'all plant the 118 value from, and finally click the Calculation button. Click OK to close that window and return to the data table.

Back to the Photoshop images. Now we demand to get the –Clipping Signal and –Dynamic Range. To do this, notice the image and the patch that gives you a value of 20 for the –Clipping Range and the image and patch that gives yous a value of 35 for the –Dynamic Range. Now take the apertures of the images and the patches that gave you the right value for both these parameters and get back to the Sekonic software.

The next 2 columns in the data table to the right of Compensation Value are the –Clipping Point and –Dynamic Range. Double click on either of those values in the ISO 100 row to open the Calculation window. Enter the Light Meter Measurement Data but equally you did earlier. This is something that they senselessly have you lot re-enter each time. And then you lot enter 125 and f/eight. Then for Camera Exposure Data you're going to enter the values you came upwards with, starting with the –Dynamic Range. Shutter speed remains the same and that is another thing that you'll exist entering every time. The exposure for the epitome that yous found the value of 35 is what you want to enter for F Stop (in the software it'southward called FNo.). In my example I plant 35 in the prototype shot at f/16 and it was the patch only to the right of center. Enter the value and click on the patch. Then do the verbal same affair on the right side of that adding window, entering the information for –Clipping Point. Once you lot're done click OK and render to the information tabular array. None of the values filled in mean annihilation until you complete the +Clipping Point and +Dynmaic Range.

To get these values you lot go back to Photoshop one more time and now you lot're looking for the images and patches that give you 245 for the +Clipping Indicate and 230 for the +Dynamic Range. Make a notation of the ones you found.

Get back to the Sekonic software. The side by side 2 columns to the right in the ISO 100 row are the +Clipping Point and +Dynamic Range fields. Double click either of these to open the Calculation window. Enter the values for +Clipping Indicate and +Dynamic Range just equally you lot did for the negative values. Click OK. This time when you return to the information table you'll see values filled in across the ISO 100 row and you'll be able to see the dynamic range and clipping points for your photographic camera/sensor.

That's the process for 1 ISO setting. At present you can either select another ISO, perform the same process, have the software interpolate and plug in the numbers for the other ISO's or you can manually complete the process for whatever and all ISO'due south you would similar.

The manual does explicate how to salvage and open profiles besides every bit how to transfer them to and from the meter.

I hope this tutorial helps those that have not been able to effigy this out or were confused by the transmission.

Source: https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=331725

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