Can Images From Fuji And Olympus Cameras Be Color Matched?

In a previous post, a commenter posed a question to me about how one would go about matching color from an Olympus camera to replicate Fuji color. He is an Olympus camera user and is thinking about buying a Fuji X-camera.  I'll infer that he or she liked the color palate of Fuji images when viewed on the web and potentially could save money if he or she could match the Fuji color with his current Olympus. 

In response, I proposed one methodology but there are other ways as well.  Afterwards, I thought my answer was really inadequate and at some point in time wanted to get back to the question. You can read this at the end of this post.

I kept the question in the back of my mind for several days which had me wondering how closely could I match the Fuji color palate to the Olympus?  That turns out to be much more complicated and labor intensive than when I initially answered the question.  In reality, it would take weeks of work as Fuji provides several film simulations (and Olympus provides several variations of its color palate and "look") and one would have to try to match all of them to answer the question as generically posed. Additionally, within each film simulation is the ability to modify shadow detail, highlight, detail, saturation, etc.  In the end, one can configure a Fuji camera in hundreds of ways and trying to duplicate each would be an exercise in futility.  

To accomplish this in some sort of reasonable time and with reasonable effort, one would have to decide upon a single Fuji "look" one liked, then try to match that.  That could be Provia, Velvia, Classic Chrome, etc.  Once a decision has been made as to which color palate is liked most, then one could tackle highlight and shadow detail (contrast) and saturation.  That is doable in a reasonable amount of time, but would require some work. 

However....

I still wondered if the two different systems could be color matched in any way at all or are Olympus and Fuji engineered color palates so different that there is no way to make them match. The easiest way to find out is to photograph a standard color chart and see how closely I could match the two camera's colors.

Disclaimer:  This is not a scientific test.  This is a visual test.  I would be surprised to believe that exact hue and luminance of each color would or could be matched perfectly, but my goal is to determine if the overall image basically can very closely match in color palate.

I'm a big believer in the X-Rite Colorchecker Passport.  If you are unfamiliar with it, you can see and read about it here.  The device is about the same size as a travel passport, folds shut and has a full set of standardized colors as well as a full gray scale.  All color patches are calibrated to industry standards.  I mainly use the device for three situations.

Frequently, I use it to achieve correct color balance (I hate to say exact color balance since cameras don't necessarily reproduce exact color, but you know what I mean) when correct color balance is necessary.  Correct color balance and subjective color balance are two horses of a different color (pun intended).  

Correct color balance should be used when you need to replicate the colors of your subject with some precision for documentary, scientific or legal reasons.  Subjective color balance, which we use for almost everything else, is the color balance which most pleases our vision or our eye. It is very individual in nature.  You may like skin tones warmer than in reality.  You may like winter scenes bluer or cooler than in reality,  You may like fall foliage yellower or more orangy than in reality. You see what I mean.  We tweak the white balance to suit what we find most pleasing for any particular subject. That is perfectly okay, but not okay when replicating a painting to document it, photographing animals for publication, reproducing an object for legal proceedings, etc.

I also use the Colorchecker when there is heavily mixed lighting and it can get me back to close to what I saw when I made the images.  Sometimes mixed lighting is really hard for the auto white balance in your camera to decipher.  I also use it to standardize my cameras when using Lightroom.

Back to Olympus and Fuji color....

The X-Rite Colorchecker Passport has a feature which allows you to correct your camera's color palate to match industry standards for each color.  How it works is that you photograph the Colorchecker, import it into Lightroom, then using the software that comes with the device, Lightroom creates a profile that changes the colors reproduced by your camera to match industry standards.  The profile is located in the Calibration screen at the bottom right of the Develop module and is listed along with what Lightroom provides by default.  In the case of Fuji, the new preset will be listed along with Provia, Velvia, Classic Chrome, etc.  You then can add this new preset for accurate color to your choices for editing.  The same goes for Olympus or Nikon or Canon, etc.  I've consistently seen most changes in blues and yellows.  Another example is that sometimes cameras will reproduce red with a little more orange in it and this will correct that tinge of orange and bring the reds back to pure reds.  In some cameras there is more change than others but I haven't had a camera yet that replicates all colors accurately.  

What one can also do is use the preset instead of the Lightroom presets for all editing in Lightroom.  That ensures more accurate color instead of relying on the camera manufacturer's decisions on what color they like.  

Back to Olympus and Fuji color....

Over last weekend, I went out on outside in full sun and made new RAW images of the Colorchecker passport to make new Lightroom presets, which I named "Full Winter Sun."  I wanted everything to be current with the Olympus E-M1 Mark II and the Fuji X-T2.  I brought all files into Lightroom, set the Colorchecker preset and looked at the color.  I measured several of the individual patches and they are very, very close.  I haven't done the statistical calculations but I would venture to guess that the differences are within any statistical variation that one could not notice a difference in color palates.  See the illustrations below.

Fuji X-T2 RAW file on left; Olympus E-M1 Mark II RAW file on right (click to enlarge)
The difference in size is just where I hand held the ColorChecker Passport out in front of the camera.  You be the
judge as it if the colors can be made to match.

You be the judge as to whether the Fuji colors can be made to match the Olympus colors. Most are very, very close and probably wouldn't be noticed in a real image.

This is the Fuji RAW file with the default Adobe Standard color palate applied
as it would if you just imported the file into Lightroom CC (click to enlarge)

This is the Fuji RAW file with the Provia color palate applied in Lightroom CC (click to enlarge)
Very little difference from the Adobe Standard, in my opinion.

This is the Fuji RAW file with the Velvia color palate applied in Lightroom CC (click to enlarge)

This is the Fuji RAW file with the Classic Chrome color palate applied in Lightroom CC (click to enlarge)

Finally, since Adobe has not yet created the various profiles for the new Olympus E-M1 Mark II, I can only show you their Adobe Standard-Beta profile as compared to the Colorchecker Passport corrected one. 

This is the Olympus E-M1 Mark II RAW file with the Adobe Standard-Beta color palate applied
in Lightroom CC (click to enlarge)

This is the Olympus E-M1 Mark II RAW file with the Colorchecker corrected color palate applied
in Lightroom CC (click to enlarge)

Below is a real life scene and comparison that I made with each camera.  Each was set to capture the image in RAW.  I tried to match exposures, focal lengths and images size so both images will look pretty much the same for comparison purposes.  When brought into Lightroom CC the only adjustments I made was to change the import profile on both to the Colorchecker Passport generated ones I made the other day instead of the default Adobe Standard import profile, set white balance on the same white hull of one of the sailboats, then equalized exposure so they both were approximately the same brightness (about 1/2 stop difference in me exposing the two images).  I then cropped the Olympus image to a 2x3 ratio from the native 4x3 and upsized it to match the Fuji image. Also, added some input sharpening. No change in sliders for whites, blacks, highlights, shadows, clarity, saturation, vibrance, color correction of individual colors or any other alteration.

The is the Fuji X-T2 image (click to enlarge)

The is the Olympus E-M1 Mark 2 image (click to enlarge)

These are the two above images side by side, Fuji on left and Olympus on right (click to enlarge)

My initial question was "can the color palates of the Olympus cameras be made to match the color palate of the Fuji cameras?"  The answer as far as I'm concerned is yes and maybe.  Yes, if you change the import profiles in Lightroom to an industry standardized color standard and maybe because both have several profiles which I did not have the inkling to spend the time and energy in which to test.  However, if the basic color palate can be matched, I bet, as an extension of that, the film simulations can be matched as well.

The next step would be to pick a Fuji film simulation you liked, photograph the color chart in JPEG, then do the same with the Olympus.  Bring the two into your favorite editing software and see what changes you need to make as far as color, contrast, saturation, etc., on the Olympus file to match what you like in the Fuji file.  Make an import preset for your Olympus with those changes.  Then go out and photograph some real life situations, typical of what you normally do, then revisit tweaking your preset to you are satisfied.

This will give you a good idea of how the two cameras treat the same colors.  Again, this could be much, much more comprehensive but I don't have the inclination to spend all that time conducting these tests.  I'd rather be out photographing!

Lastly, I realize that by photographing the X-Rite Colorchecker Passport, I am basically taking the individualism out of each camera manufacturer's color engineering and changing them to industry standards.  Sometimes we buy a certain manufacturer's brand of digital camera for the color palate and options they design.  This test really removes that individuality, but my point here was to find out if both manufacturers cameras could be matched in any way and how different would the individual colors be changed to match.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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