Colour checker?
- Thread starter sureshot
- Start date
- Messages
- 922
- Name
- Simon
- Edit My Images
- No
I do for weddings and any commercial work I've done. Just because I want to be sure that the colours match what the client want
- Messages
- 1,369
- Name
- Chris
- Edit My Images
- Yes
It's pointless being too critical where lighting varies, as it often does outside the studio. I once visited an old friend who was in a panic. She was a painter and someone had bought one of her paintings who was coming to collect it in an hour. She wanted a photograph good enough to make a big gallery print from. Her usual photographer had tried and failed, unrealistic colours, and didn't have the time to try again. She noticed I had my camera with me. Could I photograph it now? So it had to be hand held and available light. It was about 1m x 1.5m in size. The lighting in her studio was too poor but it was sunny outside. So we took an easel out into the garden and found a good well lit spot and angle etc.. I didn't have my colour checker with me but verified with her that the several patches of white in the painting really were pure white. So I shot in RAW with the idea of taking white balance off those white patches.
Back at the computer I found that the white patches weren't all the same colour and despite being in direct sunlight weren't sunlit white or indeed any simple colour temperature. There was a slight green tinge which was strongest at the bottom. Ah yes, the green grass of the lawn! The sort of thing the sophisticated auto white balancing of the human eye never notices. So I white balanced at an intermediate green tinge half way up the painting and gave her an A3 print. (My monitor and printer and paper by the way have only been colour balanced by eye and hand, by photographing a colour checker passport, comparing what the screen and printer look like compared to the card, and tweaking until they're not too far off.)
She was delighted with the result, best colour accuracy she'd ever seen. She said I must have a really good camera!
Back at the computer I found that the white patches weren't all the same colour and despite being in direct sunlight weren't sunlit white or indeed any simple colour temperature. There was a slight green tinge which was strongest at the bottom. Ah yes, the green grass of the lawn! The sort of thing the sophisticated auto white balancing of the human eye never notices. So I white balanced at an intermediate green tinge half way up the painting and gave her an A3 print. (My monitor and printer and paper by the way have only been colour balanced by eye and hand, by photographing a colour checker passport, comparing what the screen and printer look like compared to the card, and tweaking until they're not too far off.)
She was delighted with the result, best colour accuracy she'd ever seen. She said I must have a really good camera!
