White balance + Cards = Am I doing this right?

^Joe

^Joe

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In lightroom, I'd use the white balance dropper on the mid grey card, then apply that (sync) to all the images taken in that session (assuming you shot RAW).

That top image looks about right to me. That doesn't mean you HAVE to use that white settings though... if you want it warmer, then make it warmer.
 
Thanks for the reply. I suppose when you look at the original for that long then any change messes with your mind.

Is there any way of telling what temperature the first one is? I'm only using Canon DPP in RAW and struggling to find that info.
 
Something looks wrong here.

It looks to me as if image #3 is your original (very warm); the warm tone to the light is confirmed by the image of the cards; and image #1 is the corrected one.

Did you photograph the white card in the same light as the people? Can you elaborate on your post-processing technique - what WB settings were used for each image, etc?
 
StewartR said:
Something looks wrong here.

It looks to me as if image #3 is your original (very warm); the warm tone to the light is confirmed by the image of the cards; and image #1 is the corrected one.

Did you photograph the white card in the same light as the people? Can you elaborate on your post-processing technique - what WB settings were used for each image, etc?
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You're correct, as I said in my post :p

That's right, I took the pic of the cards in the same light as the guests were in.

I used DPP; opened up the image (#3 in the post), clicked under the RAW heading, on the dropping icon, and clicked on my picture of the white card, on the white card. (Both grey and white resulted in the same result).

Thanks for posting
 
StewartR said:
Something looks wrong here.

It looks to me as if image #3 is your original (very warm); the warm tone to the light is confirmed by the image of the cards; and image #1 is the corrected one.

Did you photograph the white card in the same light as the people? Can you elaborate on your post-processing technique - what WB settings were used for each image, etc?
Click to expand...


This is a good point.. using the grey card as a reference point for all others will ONLY work if the light source for the rest is identical to the reference shot.
 
Hi, What you should have done I believe is take a photo of your grey card in that set and used that as the in camera white balance before you even started taking photographs. The problem you have inside is that there are so many shades of light coming from different light sources. Try it at home take a photo of the grey card set it as white balance in camera then try altering the white balance in your software of just one photo of your living room.
Russ
 
russellsnr said:
Hi, What you should have done I believe is take a photo of your grey card in that set and used that as the in camera white balance before you even started taking photographs.
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It makes no difference if you are shooting RAW. So long as the lighting of that set of images is the same as the lighting used in the grey card shot, then the results will be the same. Adjusting white balance pre, or post shoot is the same if you shoot RAW.

My point was, either method will only work if the lighting on teh grey card shot, and the rest of the set are the same. If you take a grey card shot in tungsten light, then balance it in Lightroom, then use those settings to balance images shot under fluorescent.. it will not work.
 
^Joe said:
It was. The exact same room, a few moments before they entered.

Apologies if I didn't make it clear. :)
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Then all should be well with a single balance point.. which you have. That first image looks fine here on a hardware calibrated Eizo ColorEdge screen. If I'm being fussy.. it may be a little too magenta in the skin tones, but overall I'd say the white point is pretty neutral. Areas appear cool, but I suspect there is also daylight entering that room. With multiple light sources, you can only balance for one or the other, and if daylight as well as artificial lighting were present, you will get colour casts.
 
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In Lightroom? no.. not white balance... Tint.. it's the slider underneath that seems to go from magenta to green.

You can also add some green in Photoshop. Loads of ways to do it, but I'd probably go with -10 Tint in Lightroom... at a guess.
 
I've no idea... never used it, but it sounds about right. White balance is a blue/yellow thing, and tint/hue is a magenta/green thing... so that will probably be it.
 
I wouldn't get too caught up in colour accuracy though.. as it's highly subjective, but it IS important to be consistent across a set of images.. even if it's consistently wrong.. I'd rather that than the groom's suit being a different colour in every shot :)

If the colour balance is looking OK... then it's looking OK... just keep it the same level of OK throughout :)
 
Pookeyhead said:
I wouldn't get too caught up in colour accuracy though.. as it's highly subjective, but it IS important to be consistent across a set of images.. even if it's consistently wrong.. I'd rather that than the groom's suit being a different colour in every shot :)

If the colour balance is looking OK... then it's looking OK... just keep it the same level of OK throughout :)
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Thanks very much.

I'll have to work out how to duplicate the process throughout that set of images in the location.
 
What WB did you have set on camera? if your using auto then the cameras wb can change between shots in which case you can't rely on the colour cards being the same as the subject.
 
swanseamale47 said:
What WB did you have set on camera? if your using auto then the cameras wb can change between shots in which case you can't rely on the colour cards being the same as the subject.
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True.. but if you shoot RAW, it's irrelevant, as the WB can be set post process. So long as you have a grey card shot, and the lighting is the same for all shots in the set (inc. the grey card shot)... and you shoot RAW.. it's utterly irrelevant what the camera's white balance is set to. The idea is that you balance by using the grey of the grey card as a reference point.... this white balances the grey card shot. You then apply those settings to ALL the shots, and so long as the shots are taken in the same room and lighting, they will ALL be balanced equally.
 
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I have a Canon 1Ds MkII and if I want to set a white balance I photograph a white card first, then select custom in the menu, then select the white card pic and finally set the WB on the camera to "custom"

The all subsequent shots are corrected in camera until I reset the WB.

I don't know how your camera sets WB but this method can make PP a bit easier and it was almost the same on my Canon 350D.

Incidentally the first shot also looks to have a slight magenta hue on my monitor also.

.
 
I wouldn't get so hung up on it, indoor lighting will often give 'wrong' colour depending on the decor, just set it how you like be that as it looked at the time or more natural tones.
In the OP the first one everything looks a little too pink but the original is rather yellow (but to me more attractive skin tones)
 
Pookeyhead said:
True.. but if you shoot RAW, it's irrelevant, as the WB can be set post process. So long as you have a grey card shot, and the lighting is the same for all shots in the set (inc. the grey card shot)... and you shoot RAW.. it's utterly irrelevant what the camera's white balance is set to. The idea is that you balance by using the grey of the grey card as a reference point.... this white balances the grey card shot. You then apply those settings to ALL the shots, and so long as the shots are taken in the same room and lighting, they will ALL be balanced equally.
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And where does it say in the OP that raw was used?
 
^Joe said:
That's a good suggestion actually - I'll try that out at home.

When setting the custom WB, I assume you have to point to the card somehow... or do you have to fill the frame with it? (Manual not to hand)
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Fill the frame - doesn't matter if it's OOF - in fact I think it's better if it is if I remember right.

.
 
For me.....

The white balance reading is incorrect to start, it would be better to get the model to hold the card in front of their face, as lighting in different parts of the room can be different...unfortunately this is not always possible!! :)

I havnt done a proper check (photoshop CC) seems to have moved the sampler tool..the one where you can have 3 points checked and get the RGB values?..if anyone knows where its gone??!!??)

Anyway it looks to me the light you WB card is under isnt the same as the person in the picture. The women in the pic has more green and blue landing on her and a shade more red, (as you are removing Green and blue when you are correcting to your WB card, the red becomes more dominant hence the reddish tone)..Also there is a bit more red in there anyway.

Pushing some more Blue and green in and reducing the red a touch looks a lot better to me.

The people behind the model look to have a different lighting again, so they will need to be corrected separately.

It looks as tho the lighting in the picture is pretty complicated and the foreground and background is different, so you can correct for one or the other..trying to do both will be hard work ;)

A simple solution would have been to use a flash to overpower the ambient light and provide a steady source..:)


A quick hack job on correcting WB pretty much doing as i stated above, if anyone wants more details I'll post up a link to my PSD if the OP is cool what that?

Thanks

Corrected


Original
 
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Thanks for the help all - much appreciated.

The light sources were:

-Windows letting in some natural light
-Flourescent tubing lights in the ceiling
-Small lamp things on the wall.

All in all a bit of a mess.

Some good points raised ^
 
TheDrift- said:
For me.....

The white balance reading is incorrect to start, it would be better to get the model to hold the card in front of their face,
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It was a wedding... and that shot is a candid of a guest. Get real.


Shoot RAW and forget white balance... just concentrate on your shooting instead.
 
Pookeyhead said:
It was a wedding... and that shot is a candid of a guest. Get real.


Shoot RAW and forget white balance... just concentrate on your shooting instead.
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There's nothing like quoting out of context is there ;)

I went on to say....unfortunately this is not always possible!!

As you know I was trying to get across in order to get the best WB reading the card needs to be as close as possible to the subject..as WB can vary from place to place within a room, depending on the lighting source.

..sorry for any confusion :)
 
the card needs to be as close as possible to the subject you put the wb cards so the light is close to depending on the lighting
(I put a white card on a table, took a picture of it) on a very brown/red table top and that is giving you the redish colour cast reflected in to the lens from the table top
always if pos hold the wb card in front of you about head hight or get some one to hold them up, that way you get the over all lighting in your wb shot.
 
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