lighting at PS workstation

[dehavenphoto]

I am using a custom white balance with a gray card that came from H&H color lab.

My files continue to come in slightly red. Anyone else having this problem?

Jack

[rbeckerelite]

What are you doing exactly? Are you shooting a grey card and finding it is red?

My first thought is that your system may not be profiled correctly or at all.

Let me know.

Randy

[rbeckerelite]

You said you are using a custom white balance using a grey card. I believe to achieve a tru custom white balance you must use a white card/paper NOT grey. That could be your problem.

Randy

[apb]

White balance and Grey Balance are the same thing.

What you are balancing is a neutral subject under the current lighting conditions. The card, regardless of grey or white, needs to be a true neutral - so a Kodak Grey Card or a videographers white card ( that is scientifically measured to be neutral) will work. A neutral white value in photoshop is R-246,G-246,B-246, a neutral grey could be R-150,G-150,B-150. Both are neutral. Density differs, but for purposes of measuring the color of light, both do the same job.
Old grey cards, white 'copier' paper, t-shirts, etc. will not work correctly and most likely will produce much worse images than the autoWB function.

Color casts can often be a matter of an uncalibrated monitor. I have also noticed that programs like MacBibble change the color values of my S2 Jpegs, mostly for the worse. Also depending on how you handle color management issues of ICC profiling, the colors shift: sRGB files tend to look flatter, less saturated, while throwing out the sRGB tag and assigning a tag of Adobe RGB pumps up the saturation and contrast.


andy

[rbeckerelite]

I am not an expert in white balancing by any means so I can only say what others have told me. I was at PMA here in Las Vegas and asked Will Crocket if a grey card would work with the custom settings of the S2 and he said no. A white was necessary. But then he said he was actually using a blank piece of paper from the fuji pictrography machine.

I use photoshop extensively and if it and the fuji system follow the same logic (as if that could ever happen...) a white balance in levels or curves is NOT the same thing as neutral balance.

I use a piece of white paper from my office printer or the white paint on my cyc wall and find both to be quite effective and useable.

Sometimes I get the feeling we are at the same place as those that used to make dageurotypes. Each photographer had his/her method and all made it work.

Best regards,
Randy

[dehavenphoto]

I posted this message quite a while ago. I had been using greycards from my lab. I tested the cards and found them to be too red to begin with. Also I had several cards and they all varied!

I couldn't find the Kodak grey cards locally so I bought some made by another company. They worked fine. I had to do several things:

1 - auto white balance is to be avoided for the studio portrait photographer

2 - forget Fuji's instructions not to use manual. In the studio, you have to use manual to get the white balance.

I also bought Will Crocket's video on digital. He said he uses a piece of white foam core board but I haven't found that necessary. My gray card is fine!

Jack

[apb]

Randy wrote: ...a white balance in levels or curves is NOT the same thing as neutral balance.
I use a piece of white paper from my office printer or the white paint on my cyc wall and find both to be quite effective and useable.


what I'm saying about the white vs. grey is that when you set the white balance on the camera, you need a neutral subject. You can have a neutral grey or a neutral white. The camera simply wants a neutral non-color to read the current color temp. from.

white office paper, white paint and foam core white may *work* but are most likely not a neutral white. Many white things have blue added to them, so that to the eye they appear "more white", but if you measured the color scientfically you would not get a true neutral.

a grey card should work fine, as does mine. however, leave a grey card on the dash of your car for a summer, and I'll bet it's no longer neutral : - )

for a better grey card you could try WarmCards
http://www.warmcards.com/digital_camera2.html
or
the GelCard from ICC
http://www.integrated-color.com/iccproducts.html
or you can order large sheets of Macbeth color checker grays which should be dead neutral, and consistent.

And as Will Crockett is paid by Fuji to say whatever they want him to say, I'm not sure I trust him 100% to be impartial.

Cheers!

Andy

[dehavenphoto]

The warm card site was very informative.

I think you are right about Will Crocket. I bought his basic digital DVD and wasn't impressed at all. It didn't really tell you anything. I guess I should have had a clue since it said "basic."

JD

[apb]

Also, if you use a piece of copier paper on day one, the cyc wall on day 2, a piece of foam core on day 3, and a different piece of foam core on day 4 to WB your camera, your *neutral* subject will change, and your skin tones, product colors, whatever will not be consistent.

Imagine producing a catalog, and shooting the same red sweater during four different sets, on four different days, with the above WB situation. You now have four different sweaters instead of one.

Not good for making clients happy. And now you have to spend extra time in Photoshop, because, of course you can correct the images there, but why do it if you don't have to?


andy