White Balance help!...pics inside...

button-moon

button-moon

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Name
Tracey
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Hi guys

Its not often I come in here anymore, but you can guarantee it will be a question when I do! lol

Ive taken on loads of advice in the past and i'ts got me to the point where I am today, but now I need help again :)

OK,

I take pictures of my cakes in a 3 foot light tent with 2 studio flashes either side. Wallpaper as background.

Camera settings are usually 1/120 f.9 iso 100 and the white balance set to 'flash'

this is the result:

564476_10150687964106926_188177171925_9497503_2002320002_n.jpg


Which Ive been fine with using at the minute because its still getting ok results.

But ive noticed it gives them a light warm/orange hue to them.

Im rubbish with photoshop I just cant correct the white balance in it properly.
If i use 'levels' to get the correct 'white' its not always possible if theres no white on the cake etc. And using the sliders make the picture grainy.

Ive tried 'color balance' but sliding them up and down the colours gradually still doesnt get the true colour I want.

Im aiming to get this:

http://www.thecakeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/modern_snow_white_cake.jpg

which I consider to be a more 'white' clean looking and to me...makes it easier to see detail?


Ive tried setting the camera to various white balance settings, like fluorescent light etc but either makes it more orange, or too blue.

:help:

thanks so much in advance to those who don't read and run!! xx
 
Can you set a custom white balance on your camera using a grey card?
 
Hi Tracey.
Have you tried taking a shot of a neutral grey card or colorchecker inside your light tent using the lighting and setup as you have it?
That way, provided you don't change anything else, when you take the cake shot you would have a reference point to balance your light to.
Lovely looking cake BTW.
 
straight over my head that paul LOL

I think i have 2x custom white balance slots....have no idea how to set them :) ha ha

I think the one i linked to was natural light from a window to the left. I know you cant really re-create natural light, but I just like the way it looks! and I have crap windows here at home lol
 
Is this what you're after?


20120504-150943.jpg by MarkBerry1963, on Flickr

I don't have PS, but in lightroom I just used the colour picker tool (next to the sliders for white balance), and clicked on the white icing. I'm guessing PS will have a similar tool?
 
Thanks Mark! That seems to be an improvement!

Yes the similar tool in PS is levels....i click the dropper tool onto the white icing but more often than not it will either blow the white right up (take i too far!) or my cake has no white on it to use?! LOL
 
button-moon said:
Thanks Mark! That seems to be an improvement!

Yes the similar tool in PS is levels....i click the dropper tool onto the white icing but more often than not it will either blow the white right up (take i too far!) or my cake has no white on it to use?! LOL
Click to expand...

I would get a grey card and take a shot placing it next to the cake, then use the WB dropper on the card to set white balance (in fact this is how I usually set WB for landscapes)

In Lightroom, I then sync the WB of all photos without the card using the photo that shows the card. I'm not sure how you could do this in Photoshop, but someone else may be able to help there. Or you could place the card somewhere close enough to the cake to have the same lighting, but where you can crop it out.

What camera are you using? Canons have the ability to set a custom white balance using a grey card - Nikons will do the same but I'm not sure how sorry. This would probably be an easier way for this application. On a Canon, you take a picture of the grey card under the same lighting as the subject. It has to fill a decent amount of the image and you can then select that photo to use as a custom WB. This is then applied to all photos you take until you change to a different WB setting or take another custom WB

Edit: Just noticed you have a Canon, so I'd recommend giving the custom WB settings a go. There should be step by step instructions for this in the manual
 
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I'm not sure levels is the same thing; it's colour balance you want, but others are right that the best way is to get it correct in camera, especially if you're shooting jpegs. You would need to do the grey card thing to get that correct. There's a hopelessly boring video on YouTube that explains how to do it with a 500D; I suggest you fast forward to 8 minutes because the bloke will put you asleep well before you get there otherwise!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPL2PZjzlUE

Basically, do that each time you change the lighting, NOT each time you change the cake!
 
thanks James! I have a Canon 500d, and yeah there is a custom white balance....just wasnt sure how to set it up?

So im assuming the grey card has to be a certain type of grey?

It would be good for me to set a custom one though as I use it alot for photographing cakes in the same lighting tent on the same settings, it would save me a lot of hassle!

One more question....do you prefer the effect of my photo, or the linked photo in natural light? x
 
LOL thanks Mark!

so where can i get one of these grey cards? Im guessing ebay will have more then a few?! lol

So i take a picture of the grey card in the tent to set as a custom white balance, and then i use that setting to shoot away at the cakes? Hoping ive understood right! x
 
A white piece of paper should get you pretty close. I think it's meant to be 18% reflective neutral grey, but honestly, don't bother spending money on one; you just need a neutral colour.
 
Beyond that, yes you're spot on :)
 
I gave you the link :), no need to search.
 
Try the paper 1st and see if thats giving you acceptable results. Marks right, it should be a neutral colour (i.e. equal red/green/blue values) - paper may not necessarily be quite neutral, but it should be close.

You could compare to Mark's edit as that looks to have correct WB on my calibrated screen. If you're not getting that sort of result you could get a grey card such as one of these

As for the two pictures, with corrected WB (as with Mark's edit) I prefer yours. It's a cleaner background, which I think is better for product shots, and I prefer the angle. I'd probably go for a white border if you need one, but thats personal preference and it depends on the background of the website anyway.

Edit: think you probably wanted feedback on the lighting rather than the above - I prefer the lighting in yours too. Its more even, which I think is better for this subject and for use as product shots
 
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Thanks so much James!! I heard somewhere they were giving out free grey cards (it was either an event like focus or something, and never bothered to get one! doh)

So I will definitely get one if the paper doesn't work :)

as for the borders, ive just recently scrapped those as ive started to be approached by magazines who don't want borders or watermarks on them. (Yes im one of those who spends ages editing the backgrounds to different colours, curves, vibrance, adding watermarks and frames and then saves it like that) so there no way to remove the frame and watermarks afterwards, unless I start ALL over again! lol
 
button-moon said:
Thanks so much James!! I heard somewhere they were giving out free grey cards (it was either an event like focus or something, and never bothered to get one! doh)

So I will definitely get one if the paper doesn't work :)

as for the borders, ive just recently scrapped those as ive started to be approached by magazines who don't want borders or watermarks on them. (Yes im one of those who spends ages editing the backgrounds to different colours, curves, vibrance, adding watermarks and frames and then saves it like that) so there no way to remove the frame and watermarks afterwards, unless I start ALL over again! lol
Click to expand...

I'm not massively keen on borders but there's nothing wrong with using them if you like them - I've seen many photos in which I actually like the border. I quite like it in yours and it works for putting a title on the photo.

As for watermarks, I wouldn't stop watermarking because magazines don't want them. I would keep watermarking photos destined for your Facebook page etc - edit just the photo to your liking first and save that. Then add borders/watermarks and save another version.

This is where I find Lightroom invaluable - it would allow you to edit non-destructively, and make many virtual copies of each image edited in a different way, without having to duplicate the original file. You then just need to export a jpg of whichever version suits your need, adding watermarks as required and in whatever resolution suits the intended use. It would also allow you to switch to RAW (which makes editing WB easier in PP if needed) whilst keeping a nice easy workflow, as well as being good for cataloguing and key wording photos for your website

Btw your cakes look fantastic!
 
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aww thank-you so much Chris!

Thanks James! Yeah I wasnt a huge fan of borders but they made it really helpful to 'name' the cakes, especially wedding cakes that had no distinct design. So that customers could tell me easily which they liked. It kind of became my 'trademark' and people would instantly recognize it was one of mine due to the border, but just like in every profession, you get copied! So that was also a secondary reason for scrapping the frame idea.

I've only just got my head around photoshop (and I have still loads to learn!) It seems alot of people like lightroom but it sounds abit too advanced for me at the minute!
Luckily I've JUST started doing what you said yesterday....saving the cake as its processed, and saving another with its watermark ;)

thanks to everyone for the fabulous help! and lovely comments :)

I'll let you know how I get on! xx
 
Ummm, probably a silly question, but you do know you can open a jpeg in the RAW dialogue?

(File>Open As>Camera RAW)

Then just adjust the White Balance slider.
 
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