Critique Colour Balance......

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544
Name
Andy
Edit My Images
Yes
My wife thinks the shots are too 'green'. I think they're a little to 'red' at times. Has anyone any thoughts on these shots please ?
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I don't think it'd hurt to pull down the saturation a touch, no. All personal preference though :)
 
Unless you have a standard to go by it's a useless post, because everyones screen who is viewing is different so how can anyone tell. :confused:
 
Do you mean aesthetically or technically? As shapeshifter says, it’s hard to tell technically.
 
As above regarding the colour balance, but number 4 is a very nice image
 
Unless you have a standard to go by it's a useless post, because everyones screen who is viewing is different so how can anyone tell. :confused:
^ this, it’s an impossible task, it’s why as a studio we never use colour calibrated monitors, my advice, look at it on your phone or iPad, people usually cannot mess with the default on these type of devices.
 
If this is the stance we're going to take, why bother giving crit on any images on here? I mean, I get that everyone's monitor is different and all but it strikes me as a bit unhelpful.

If these had been posted in the landscape section, would everyone refuse to comment because of monitor calibration differences?
 
If this is the stance we're going to take, why bother giving crit on any images on here? I mean, I get that everyone's monitor is different and all but it strikes me as a bit unhelpful.

If these had been posted in the landscape section, would everyone refuse to comment because of monitor calibration differences?
Critique on slight colour issues is simply not possible, that’s life.
 
OK, Thanks for looking. I should have thought about the fact that we all have different monitors ! But thankfully no-one said they were too nuclear !
 
Critique on slight colour issues is simply not possible, that’s life.
Yeah, perhaps. It could be as simple as a hobbyist asking if his shots are too green, as claimed by his wife? Everyone can give an opinion (even with that caveat), and if consistent then I guess the OP could then draw a conclusion.
 
Even un-calibrated screens can show the difference between the colour balance of a set of shots.

As as set, the colour balance in these shots is not consistent.
It seems to be mostly a shift on the magenta green axis..

However as this is a "Photographic forum" where a number of people Do use calibrated screens I think @Kieranstandishphoto comments are faulty.
For his own class of work, for mostly public sales, then using screes as delivered is possibly the better choice, as they are usually set brighter, more saturated and more contrasty than would be Ideal for most photographers purposes, or when compared to a calibrated screen.
Also a screens colour rendition wanders over time, and soon moves both from the ideal, and from the colour balance as it was delivered.

Those of us who do use calibrated screens, do see very similar colour renditions to each other, even thought the actual colour gamut of our screens may be wider or narrower than others, the balance will be consistent.

If you want to see if your screen is anything like neutral, then look at the actual RGB numbers of what you see as a neutral grey in an image.
If the grey is truly neutral then all the RGB numbers will be equal. However that is rarely the case as even a grey card is often illuminated by mixed lighting or varies over the surface by other reflected light.

This is why a hardware screen calibrator is so useful as it eliminates these variations.

Joe public rarely use calibrated screens and what they see is anyone's guess.
 
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Something looks a bit off, but not knowing the place and light on the day can only guess.
Beware of making things go HDRish with dehaze or whatever you used.

Had a quick play with one in photoshop to suit my monitor ;)

edit.jpg
yours again

33525248178_93301f1d47_b.jpg
 
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Something looks a bit off, but not knowing the place and light on the day can only guess.
Beware of making things go HDRish with dehaze or whatever you used.

Had a quick play with one in photoshop to suit my monitor ;)

View attachment 239847
yours again
I must say...
I much prefer your warmer stone colours.
it looks like it is much closer to the truth.
As there is no actual pure grey surface anywhere so it is hart to tell what it really should be.
There is however a lack of depth in the darkest tones which makes them look slightly washed out in both versions.
It would give the church more presence if it was not falling back, by correcting the verticals.
The sky is a horrible colour in both
 
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I think @Kieranstandishphoto comments are faulty.
I agree totally, the very least a professional should be doing is ensuring that colours are correct when delivered which requires a colour managed workflow, a calibrated and profiled monitor ensure a standard. Of course checks should be made on an unprofiled device.
 
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They certainly aren't 'bad'

Mainly a case of subtle WB/tint tweaks but even that is subjective. I would have them warmer with with less 'green' but I pull my HSL sliders all over the place at times.......
 
I agree that they are not too bad.... perhaps if these are raw conversions you could tweak the tint (which is normally a magenta - green adjustment). It is always going to be different as many have differing ideas on the correct colour or saturation or even some local colour adjustment....
 
I agree totally, the very least a professional should be doing is ensuring that colours are correct when delivered which requires a colour managed workflow, a calibrated and profiled monitor ensure a standard. Of course checks should be made on an unprofiled device.

And what do you do when your colour is off on your “unprofiled device” ? Facts are facts everyone is looking at something different. This is of course what we have found after over 1.6 million published images into a very colour specific area such as fashion.
 
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And what do. You do when your colour is off on your “unprofiled device” ?

If you don't care enough about seeing accurate colour then you do nothing, and put up with it.
if you do care you profile it.

No one should expect to see accurate colours on an unprofiled device. As the chances of doing so are very low indeed.

It is very discourteous to supply less than as accurate colour as you can.
 
If you don't care enough about seeing accurate colour then you do nothing, and put up with it.
if you do care you profile it.

No one should expect to see accurate colours on an unprofiled device. As the chances of doing so are very low indeed.

It is very discourteous to supply less than as accurate colour as you can.

Who profiles it? are you talking about the general public? Sorry news flash, the general public would not have a clue what any of this means, more and more people are using their TV’s for shopping and the like, good luck profiling them.
 
Again thanks for all the replies ! Thanks 4wd, your version does look warmer on my screen and the better for it too.
 
And what do you do when your colour is off on your “unprofiled device” ? Facts are facts everyone is looking at something different. This is of course what we have found after over 1.6 million published images into a very colour specific area such as fashion.
You as a professional should strive to provide an accurate result to your client which means you should be working in a calibrated and profiled environment... The idea is that you supply something that is as close to standard as possible, if your editing environment isn't standardised how do you know what you are supplying?

Your replies show a level of ignorance of colour management

Just to be clear my background is in professional colour critical photography...
 
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Easy Boys ! I didn't mean to start an argument. Was only asking if my wife had a better colour vision than myself !
 
Easy Boys ! I didn't mean to start an argument. Was only asking if my wife had a better colour vision than myself !
Sorry Andy... There was a bit of research a while back that showed the fairer sex have better colour vision, of course it is all subjective and each and every one of us see colour differently. At the end of the day you were right to ask...

Oh and I love the waterfall images (its not Golitha is it?)
 
You as a professional should strive to provide an accurate result to your client which means you should be working in a calibrated and profiled environment... The idea is that you supply something that is as close to standard as possible, if your editing environment isn't standardised how do you know what you are supplying?

Your replies show a level of ignorance of colour management

Just to be clear my background is in professional colour critical photography...

What is it you do?

We shoot thousands of products for hundreds of retailers, both U.K. and abroad and have done for 13 years now with no issues, do you think that is down to luck? Do you think out of all the images shot in that time someone would have pulled us up over something? How about time inc for example, 4200 balls of wool, two images, the ball and a swatch for one of their online magazines you cannot get more colour specific than that, not one issue.

Facts are, every single monitor is slightly different, every single person sees colour different, product under different lighting will look different, so we ensure we cover as many bases as possible. We are not just supplying images we ensure the retailer has the best tools to sell their goods, we even ask Retailers about site usage regarding devices, it’s about the whole process not just supplying images.

Because it’s being done differently to the book, does not mean it’s being done wrong or badly.

Apologies to the OP went slightly off track, your images look fine on my iPad, however on my TV it’s another story... :)
 
Kieran... Don't get your knickers in a twist, your Dads business model obviously is a success, no one would dispute that, but it is production line photography (my generalised term so please do not take offence).

My own personal take is that as a professional I will supply images that to the best of my knowledge are as close to correct colour as I can manage, by doing so I have done my job, how they are viewed thereafter is out of my hands. If your monitor is not profiled to a standard and is way out without you being aware how do you cope?

What do I do.... well over 40 years of professional photography, 35 of those years spent in an environment where critical colour, with film and latterly digital, was of paramount importance as a senior scientific photographer in a major research museum where facsimile and fidelity was at the forefront, sometimes a very slight variation in accuracy dictated whether a trace fossil was visible or not. Quoting numbers, I have had many thousands of images published both in mainstream publications and in more specialist scientific publications...

I am not going to continue this here as it is not adding to the thread.
 
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