Diva, try setting the color temperature in camera to 5200 and don't worry about color bal till you bring your raw files into whatever you use to process them. Works like a charm for me most of the tme.
Thanks Hack! I don't worry about WB until post (I shoot raw 99.9% of the time), but I'll try the 5200K and see if that gets me closer from the get go (this is the first camera I've owned with a kelvin setting - pretty neat little feature!!)
The more I think about these, the more I think the weirdness was to do with the surrounding green + not enough fill flash (to kill some of the reflected green). Very useful to realise how much it's impacting shots since I'll be doing another shoot in the same location there tomorrow...
Take the guess work out of it. Get yourself a white balance target you can trust and then shoot the first and last frame with that target in the frame. Use the target to set you white balance in post. This process will get your colors "accurate" and provide you a decent starting point from which to get them right (right being the difference between what was and what you saw ).
If you use something like the PhotoVision target you can then get a full-frame shot of the target to set a custom white balance (in camera) and also use it to get a decent exposure setting. The White/Black/Gray areas will appear as three spikes on the histogram. Put the gray spike in the center (with the white side closest to your light source) and ... Bob's your uncle.
Scott, a question for you on wh bal. Whenever I use a grey card and correct by that ,mostly outside, my colors always are too warm at least for my taste. I never see a neutral color. I know a very good photographer who is totally annal about color bal and all his prints are very warm. (Even owns a $500 COLOR METER.) All of us in the class were afraid to question him on it.
Scott, a question for you on wh bal. Whenever I use a grey card and correct by that ,mostly outside, my colors always are too warm at least for my taste. I never see a neutral color. I know a very good photographer who is totally annal about color bal and all his prints are very warm. (Even owns a $500 COLOR METER.) All of us in the class were afraid to question him on it.
Ive used targets and get too warm when picking also.
Saying that, I tend to lean warm on my images in my opinion.
Targets and eye droppers are great tools....as Scott said.....for a starting point. Nothing can replace a well trained human eye that is tempered with artistic tastes.
At the end of the day.....trust your eyes.
Thats my two cents. I would have blurted out how unrealisticly warm the images were. We cant leave it to machines all the time.
Typically I haven't had issues with colour since I first started calibrating, but the switch to the new monitor has definitely been a little more of a change than I anticipated. It used to be on our desktop upstairs so I had used it for checking contrast etc before printing, but not done much editing on it; my laptop screen wasn't terribly good, but I was 100% used to it and knew how to compensate. I'm starting to get the feel for the new one now, although I do sometimes feel like the calibrator is not as consistent as I'd like; I wish the Huey had run more happily in win7 as I would have just kept using it! The Spyder is ok, but it seems to adjust itself more often (not ambient, but actual colour).
Scott, a question for you on wh bal. Whenever I use a grey card and correct by that ,mostly outside, my colors always are too warm at least for my taste. I never see a neutral color. I know a very good photographer who is totally annal about color bal and all his prints are very warm. (Even owns a $500 COLOR METER.) All of us in the class were afraid to question him on it.
What Jeff said!
That having been said, if using a white balance target and then using the correct eye dropper in ACR renders a too warm balance then there are only three things left to investigate:
Your eyes - maybe you are intrepreting cooler colors as being neutral
Your monitor - maybe your color calibration is in error
Your white balance target - maybe it's not as neutral as you think. I might be a bit cooler than neutral.
That "very good photographer" may not be using his color meter (whatever that might be) correctly and/or he may be having problems with any one or more of the items in the above list.
I have found one of best white balance targets to be a good quality, well washed, men's white cotton shirt - like one might find at a wedding.
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The more I think about these, the more I think the weirdness was to do with the surrounding green + not enough fill flash (to kill some of the reflected green). Very useful to realise how much it's impacting shots since I'll be doing another shoot in the same location there tomorrow...
If you use something like the PhotoVision target you can then get a full-frame shot of the target to set a custom white balance (in camera) and also use it to get a decent exposure setting. The White/Black/Gray areas will appear as three spikes on the histogram. Put the gray spike in the center (with the white side closest to your light source) and ... Bob's your uncle.
ETA: Congrats on the FF camera. I love my 5DII!
My Photos
Thoughts on photographing a wedding, How to post a picture, AF Microadjustments?, Light Scoop
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Ive used targets and get too warm when picking also.
Saying that, I tend to lean warm on my images in my opinion.
Targets and eye droppers are great tools....as Scott said.....for a starting point. Nothing can replace a well trained human eye that is tempered with artistic tastes.
At the end of the day.....trust your eyes.
Thats my two cents. I would have blurted out how unrealisticly warm the images were. We cant leave it to machines all the time.
Jeff
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-My Website - Blog - Tips for Senior Portraiture
Typically I haven't had issues with colour since I first started calibrating, but the switch to the new monitor has definitely been a little more of a change than I anticipated. It used to be on our desktop upstairs so I had used it for checking contrast etc before printing, but not done much editing on it; my laptop screen wasn't terribly good, but I was 100% used to it and knew how to compensate. I'm starting to get the feel for the new one now, although I do sometimes feel like the calibrator is not as consistent as I'd like; I wish the Huey had run more happily in win7 as I would have just kept using it! The Spyder is ok, but it seems to adjust itself more often (not ambient, but actual colour).
What Jeff said!
That having been said, if using a white balance target and then using the correct eye dropper in ACR renders a too warm balance then there are only three things left to investigate:
- Your eyes - maybe you are intrepreting cooler colors as being neutral
- Your monitor - maybe your color calibration is in error
- Your white balance target - maybe it's not as neutral as you think. I might be a bit cooler than neutral.
That "very good photographer" may not be using his color meter (whatever that might be) correctly and/or he may be having problems with any one or more of the items in the above list.I have found one of best white balance targets to be a good quality, well washed, men's white cotton shirt - like one might find at a wedding.
My Photos
Thoughts on photographing a wedding, How to post a picture, AF Microadjustments?, Light Scoop
Equipment List - Check my profile