New practice shots for CC

JulieLawsonPhotography

I hope I don't lose anyone in my explanation, (I tend to get very wordy). I tried yesterday to find a gray card at local photo places. No luck, I guess I'll have to order it on-line. Anyway, when I called the last place, he said that if I didn't have a gray card I could use my Adobe Bridge on my RAW files to get the proper white balance. I could use the eyedropper tool to choose the grayest point of the photograph and I should get a white balance that was close. I also asked a couple of other things regarding photoshop and color settings etc. Without going into all that I'll just set the picture settings up for you and if you feel inclined can tell me if it's a miss or if i'm heading in the right direction. I shot all of these but one photo in Adobe RGB, RAW then used the custom WB in Bridge to get the right coloring. I noticed in camera that she looked a little pale. I know at one point I may have set the camera to portrait? I'm going to play around today a little more.





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This one was in III SRGB


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Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Julie

Richard

Julie,

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the "grayest" point. What you should be looking for is an area that you know to be neutral gray. You have to avoid white and black areas. Conventional wisdom is that fair-skinned Caucasians look most natural if yellow slightly dominates magenta. Keep in mind that what is "correct" may not be the most flattering. All of these shots are slightly more magenta than yellow if you measure them, but don't look terribly wrong to my eye. Skin color does vary from person to person and suntan is also a factor during the summer. Do the tones look right to you?

I think you're on the right track: shoot in RAW and make WB adjustments as needed

Scott_Quier

Richard's right about selecting a point to use a neutral reference. Very dark darks and very light lights do not make good references. You need to find something that is supposed to be both neutral in color and not at either end fo the histogram.

The whites of eyes in caucasians adults and older children can usually be used as a reference (very young children is a hit or miss thing as the eyes can be a bit blue). At weddings, the man's tux, the color of his white shirt can usually be used (unless the photo is very under exposed or over exposed). Depending on the quality of the fabric used, the bride's gown can sometimes be used and is usually a good reference point. Clouds can sometimes be used.

What I usually do is to click around on things that might be neutral and look at the result. If it looks right, then it is propbably right (but measure the skin tones). If it's close, it's usually close enough that a little tweaking with the temperature and/or tint sliders will get dialed in in very short order (of course, you need a calibrated monitor for that last part to work well).

JulieLawsonPhotography

Richard wrote:

Julie,

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the "grayest" point. What you should be looking for is an area that you know to be neutral gray. You have to avoid white and black areas. Conventional wisdom is that fair-skinned Caucasians look most natural if yellow slightly dominates magenta. Keep in mind that what is "correct" may not be the most flattering. All of these shots are slightly more magenta than yellow if you measure them, but don't look terribly wrong to my eye. Skin color does vary from person to person and suntan is also a factor during the summer. Do the tones look right to you?

I think you're on the right track: shoot in RAW and make WB adjustments as needed

Thanks for responding. The skin tones are too grayish. I guess I must have completely misunderstood what the guy at the store was telling me. I did some more yesterday in Raw and they look a little better when I adjust wb slightly.

JulieLawsonPhotography

Scott_Quier wrote:

Richard's right about selecting a point to use a neutral reference. Very dark darks and very light lights do not make good references. You need to find something that is supposed to be both neutral in color and not at either end fo the histogram.

The whites of eyes in caucasians adults and older children can usually be used as a reference (very young children is a hit or miss thing as the eyes can be a bit blue). At weddings, the man's tux, the color of his white shirt can usually be used (unless the photo is very under exposed or over exposed). Depending on the quality of the fabric used, the bride's gown can sometimes be used and is usually a good reference point. Clouds can sometimes be used.

What I usually do is to click around on things that might be neutral and look at the result. If it looks right, then it is propbably right (but measure the skin tones). If it's close, it's usually close enough that a little tweaking with the temperature and/or tint sliders will get dialed in in very short order (of course, you need a calibrated monitor for that last part to work well).

Thanks to you too Scott.
I was looking for actual gray to measure. I guess I really misunderstood. I'm glad the both of you cleared it up for me. That helps tremendously, now I will know a little better how to do that.

Thanks again.

rhommel

imo, altho using a gray card is effective in setting your white balance, it can be tedious work in post processing as you would have to correct each photo's WB... this is not recommendable specially when shooting tons of photos (weddings, events).

i usually trust my camera's WB but i mostly use my Expodisc when i am shooting natural light. a bit expensive, but imo, a very good buy.

http://www.expoimaging.net/products/product_detail.php?prodid=2&productname=ExpoDisc_Digital_White_Balance_Filter_-_Neutral

JulieLawsonPhotography

rhommel wrote:

imo, altho using a gray card is effective in setting your white balance, it can be tedious work in post processing as you would have to correct each photo's WB... this is not recommendable specially when shooting tons of photos (weddings, events).

i usually trust my camera's WB but i mostly use my Expodisc when i am shooting natural light. a bit expensive, but imo, a very good buy.

http://www.expoimaging.net/products/product_detail.php?prodid=2&productname=ExpoDisc_Digital_White_Balance_Filter_-_Neutral

I've seen the expodisc and actually got to use one, but need more practice with it and with gray cards. I'm really just trying to expand my knowledge in photography. When I did my family's sessions, I had it on auto wb and they turned out very well just using that.

Scott_Quier

rhommel wrote:

imo, altho using a gray card is effective in setting your white balance, it can be tedious work in post processing as you would have to correct each photo's WB... this is not recommendable specially when shooting tons of photos (weddings, events).

I do shoot weddings (in fact did one this last Saturday) and all the reception shots will have the same WB (and many other settings) applied. All photos shot under a given set of conditions will require the same WB correction (and many corrections will be the same as well). With Adobe Camera Raw, you process one photo of a set. Then, back in bridge, you can select all the other photos of that set and apply the previous conversion (right click and select from the menu). So much for visiting each photo to get the job done.

rhommel

Scott_Quier wrote:

I do shoot weddings (in fact did one this last Saturday) and all the reception shots will have the same WB (and many other settings) applied. All photos shot under a given set of conditions will require the same WB correction (and many corrections will be the same as well). With Adobe Camera Raw, you process one photo of a set. Then, back in bridge, you can select all the other photos of that set and apply the previous conversion (right click and select from the menu). So much for visiting each photo to get the job done.

that's assuming the photographer has Adobe Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw/Adobe Photoshop

I guess this would apply to Julie...

Scott_Quier

rhommel wrote:

that's assuming the photographer has Adobe Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw/Adobe Photoshop

I guess this would apply to Julie...

Or Lightroom or Bibble Pro or ... (there's lots of apps that can work this way).

Swartzy

Agree with Richard & Scott. We have a couple of skin tutes here on Dgrin that will provide some numbers. Another great way to set white balance is Ed Pierce's calibration target http://www.photovisionvideo.com/store/shop.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=P&Product_Code=DT6020&Category_Code=DCT

I have the larger version and makes life so simple. Shooting in RAW is a must in my book especially for people.