Gear Talk > Processing & Publication
Advice or recommendations on using color checker
pluton:
--- Quote from: Jack Dahlgren on May 22, 2019, 06:57:46 ---Yes, generally I photograph under “natural” light which ranges from blue to yellow, to pink and green, and all combinations. But for architectural work it starts to be important that a photo of a sample matches the sample, or at least allows you to accurately compare one photo of one sample to another photo of another sample. And both might have been taken at different times and places.
--- End quote ---
If the mixed or discontinuous spectrum lighting is not able to be corrected by careful use of adjustment brush corrections(painting the excess blue out of the shadows, fixing the hideous cast of a low pressure sodium vapor lamp, etc), the solution is to abandon the existing or available light and bring in artificial lighting. Imagine: Total Control. Unfortunately, for physically large subjects, this could get to be an expensive operation. Sometimes, you can get away with bringing artificial light in on just a portion of the overall scene, and plan/wait for harmonious natural light to match.
Ann:
Once you have made, and saved, your own Profiles, it is pretty simple to substitute the appropriate Customised one for the software-provided Profile when one is processing.
I have made some dual-spectrum profiles (Daylight+Tungsten for example) and they handle images shot in mixed lighting rather successfully.
That said, the provided Profiles in the latest versions of commercial processing software are pretty good these days but you still have to use the right Profile for any particular set of images which is highly unlikely to be "Camera Standard"!
Frank Fremerey:
--- Quote from: Jack Dahlgren on May 22, 2019, 06:57:46 ---Yes, generally I photograph under “natural” light which ranges from blue to yellow, to pink and green, and all combinations. But for architectural work it starts to be important that a photo of a sample matches the sample, or at least allows you to accurately compare one photo of one sample to another photo of another sample. And both might have been taken at different times and places.
--- End quote ---
the Gold Standard for Architectural Photos, not documentary but aestetic work is determining the right time, angle and light, often even the right time of year. Then come back, when the light is right.
Documentary work should be done in comparable light, so either bring your own or decide for a set like: "overcast, 10 in the morning, view from South East" ... you can not match Californian midday sun and sunset hour in Bejing, even if you choose the same materials and angles ... sometimes the very same slab of concrete can look orange, sometimes like slate ... you will not be able to work around this with a color checker
Ann:
For architectural Interiors, you are highly likely to have to deal with multiple different lighting sources within the scene itself and the use of a Dual Lighting Sources Camera profile can help considerably.
I seldom photograph the ColorChecker itself during an actual shoot (Product shots containing important fabric-colours would be an exception) but I always process my RAWs starting with my most appropriate pre-made Camera Profile.
(I never shoot JPGs.)
Then I adjust all the ACR Sliders manually, and use Adjustment Brushes liberally, to pull the rendering that i want from the RAW.
Mostly I am not trying, (or needing!) to match the original scene but am much more likely to want to create a series of images which portray the scene as I wish the Viewer to see it — while the series also needs to work when viewed together in a printed spread.
It doesn't matter how much you use ColorChecker, you are unlikely to be able to reproduce the Spot Color inks used in product-packaging, or the colours of certain acryllic artist's paints, in Press CMYK output or inkjet prints so "Pleasing Colour" is the best you can hope for in those cases.
This Lion was shot at sunrise (so the overall colour temperature of the scene was Blue) but a beam from the rising sun (bright Orange!) spot-lit his face.
My ColorChecker-created dual "Daylight+Tungsten" camera Profile handled the situation easily while none of the canned camera profiles could.
Frank Fremerey:
what Ann says plus an emphasis on the out-of-gamut-colors part. There is an early thread somewhere on nikongear from a shirt fabric shooting for a customer. A greenish blueish tone far beyond any target color space. We created a series of edits from the RAW and in the end found half a match in sRGB and quite a useful match in AdobeRGB
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