colour challenge (for British eyes!)

[robinp]

Every digital camera I've owned has had problems with reds and as the British post box or telephone kiosk red is so familiar to our eyes it spoils the photo if it looks too "odd"...
Here's a quick test I did with four different raw converters on an Olympus raw file, white balance in each case was set by selecting the white strip in the middle of the No Entry sign. Taken on a typical cloudy English day.
Would be very grateful if you could tell me which looks truest to your eyes.....

Thanks, Robin

[KeithM]

Bottom-left one to me Robin. Depends of course on how fresh the paint is, and how much Sun the kiosks get :)

Could be a similar situation to genuine snooker balls on television - they're just plain out of gamut - so match balls are made specially with the 'right' colours for TV coverage...

Keith.

[easternherp]

First then third for me.

[proberts]

I'm a Merkin- but #1 is my vote. I'll just add that if the strip on the sign is reflective, you may have been better off selecting something else to white balance on, as it may not be uniform (zoom to 100% and check if it's all the same colour.)
^ See, I'm bilingual too ;)

Paul

[Bilbo]

First then fourth for me - I'm also looking at the blue on the sign though. Red is always unreliable - used to have a red(ish) Ford Escort years ago!

Bob

[robinp]

Thank you all for your answers :righton:
OK, now I'll tell you which raw converters were used -
Top left Adobe PS CS2
Top right Silkypix
Lower left Olympus Studio
Lower right Bibble

The Olympus phone boxes look too orange to me and that was what started me off on the experiment. If left to everything auto and colour balance "as shot" then they were all acceptable except Adobe Raw which looked horrendous! :(
Personally, for this particular shot, I'm happiest with the Bibble result but am still searching for that elusive workflow with one converter that will give believable colour with most shots.

Thanks again for your observations,

Cheers, Robin