redhogbill Loc: antelope, calif

you know!! I get up in the morning grab my coffee and site down and log onto HHG, mostly minding my own business , then a hogger will post something I never heard before used in terms of photography!!
so thanks to" BpoH" I will now spend the rest of the day reading and experimenting with "Kelvin"



:D thanks a lot!!!!!

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

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RAW is the only way - As you, the photographer behind the "Box", can change and give tones that are in the given data the camera has captured.

You can change this in the post-processing of the image - making use of the different software choices that support RAW conversion.

I do not have LightRoom... I can not, at this time, "wrap my head around it". However my post-processing begins in the use of Adobe Bridge to make my selections of the images that I wish to work over and make into prints, or conversions to jpg for posting on-line.

I open as RAW in a pre-open to CS-5 (Photoshop). I make my "first edits" there and "hit" OPEN. This opens the converted image to CS-5. And the first thing that I do is to Rename that image as something other (or change) the file number to something like C_MG_6541.tif... ((The "C" would mean 'copy'.)) and after saving that in another folder - I do final edits in CS-5.

Your work-flow (as any photographer's work-flow) will depend on what You would be most comfortable with.

This is the way I do it. We should ALL feel comfortable with the Way We Each do things.

romanticf16 Loc: Commerce Twp, MI

Even if you shoot in RAW you want to set a White Balance. Example-shooting wedding candids in a room with flash- on AWB the background will change in every photo depending on the ambient lighting. You'll spend hours in PP trying to get all your images to look evenly lit with similar background color.If you set a color temp the color shift will not be as extreme, photo to photo.

mtbear

The Xrite Colorchecker Passport is nice and I use one in my studio, but expensive at $70+. I use Qpcard 101's @3/$20 in the field. They are easier to carry and I don't care if one gets lost. I bought a 10 pack 15 years ago and still have 8 left. They work extremely well under mixed lighting conditions, like old gyms where burned out lamps are replaced with newer lamps of different temperature.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I think you may be correct even though most people seem to feel that the camera settings other than exposure have no effect on RAW files. I think they are wrong. The Styles in my Pentaxes seem to affect the DNG output Raw files -- maybe they don't with Nikon or Canon (I would not know -- though if Ricoh-Pentax does not get with it soon and come out with a FF camera I may be also buying a Nikon FX camera [ideal D810, D800E, but $$$!] and find out). I keep it on Natural or Bright. But I've found Vivid or Landscape DNG files nearly impossible to correct with Ps CS6. And Portrait seems too flat and unsaturated for me, but then I don't shoot a lot of portraits. Now, the in-camera B&W does not produce a B&W Raw only (perhaps) a B&W jpg. Same with WB, I can easily correct nearly any WB with Raw in the Ps Camera RAW editor, but it is faster and simpler to shoot it at the "correct" color temperature to begin with.

Also I've shot night shots of colored "neon" signs and changing WB does give different results even to RAW. Sorry, I've seen it and is was my pro-photographer instructor's idea. At first I was blowing her off as she is always fiddling with the WB on her Canons and I up until more recently used to shoot mostly on AWB on my Pentaxes. But taking WB off Auto or Daylight produces massively saturated great blues at night.

The color corrections in Ps or Lr are incredible. I've shot a white rose in a dark room with a bluish LED flash light -- light painting the rose for 30 seconds or longer. The initial files are all weirdly blue (obviously). But with a little work I can bring the petals back to neutral white. Though I'll admit there is a trade-off here, the green leaves are then not the correct green for a rose. But who cares, the whole image is surreal.

If people actually learned how to use their cameras and software they would not bitch or argue so much. Sorry, but it is true. Hopefully people are learning something on the UHH -- if they have open minds.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

In most situations, AWB will do just fine! In more challenging light conditions, it is a good idea to set the WB yourself. Then, custom WB (like setting color temperature in Kelvins) will give you the best results!

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

James, do you really shoot a 8x10"!? I have two 4x5" ones.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

In your example for the rose, just do a local adjustment (so the leaves are not affected), since you have PS, that's very simple to do!

kitk

In my experience it does. AWB works pretty good in my D-7100 but sometimes the camera thinks one thing and I am thinking something entirely different, as such I will revert to manual WB. The modes I have , tungsten , daylight, cloudy, etc. are very handy and usually do the job but occasionally they aren't up to weird lighting situations. My camera can be set per degrees of Kelvin and this can be very effective in odd light situations. If you have this option try to experiment with the Kelvin settings. The modes are the same just short cuts and not as finely adjustable. Worth a try, but I think you will see a difference in some of your photos.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Thanks speters. That is where I'm still learning Ps, doing local as apposed to global retouching like that. It might be easier with Lr but I am really just beginning to learn that and have not gotten that far in the Develop Module. But if I revisit my light painted rose I'll give that a try on the leaves. :)

h1h1d4mje

Yes, wb matter no matter whether shooting jpeg or raw. give it a try and you will see the difference

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

You have to be careful though using gray cards meant for measuring exposure with B&W film. They were not necessarily color neutral. I set a custom white balance whenever convenient. Sure, you can always change WB later shooting RAW. But I would rather know it is correct and not have to mess with it later. I use a WB target from Lastolite which is white on one side, gray on the other, and folds up like a circular reflector. It even has hash marks to focus on so you don't have to turn off you autofocus to use it.

twowindsbear

How do YOU measure the color temp to set the color temp ln your camera??

I'm really curious.

Thanks

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Gray cards are great for that. Even todays DSLR's are still made the same way, to see "color" as a neutral gray, so a dedicated gray card (which is 18%) is the way to go! No need to be careful!!! Gray cards are especially meant to use with color film, not just for B&W!!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Not all gray cards from the film era were meant for color. I had a very old gray card I used for B&W film, and when I tried it with digital, it was off. Maybe being old the color had shifted from neutral, or maybe it wasn't meant to be color neutral in the first place.