Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Red Wall, II

Manchester, Connecticut

The color of the red paint was so extraordinary that I stopped to set up a WhiBal card, making sure it didn't pick up any reflected light from the surrounding weird-colored surfaces, and then set a custom white balance for the RAW files for today's pair of pictures. I generally handle white balance in a subjective manner, often taking WB readings for reference, while then frequently setting a balance that isn't technically accurate, but better reflects the mood of the lighting as I saw it. In this case, I wanted the most technically accurate rendering I could get of the odd color, like nailing the exact trademark colors of a product in a commercial shoot.

2 comments:

lyle said...

when using the WhiBal, do you put it in the scene and photograph or just hold it up, fill the frame with it and photograph? Then I assume you look at the resulting images in Bridge and set the White Balance there? thanks....

...and yes, the recent images do convey a 'heavy' winter...very nice

Carl Weese said...

Lyle, when possible I set the card (credit card size usually) in the scene and step back to make sure that light reflecting from my clothes doesn't contaminate the reading. The alternate would be to dress in all neutral gray...

Not Bridge: double click (or command+R) from Bridge to bring the file into ACR. Place the cursor on the card, hold down the shift key to turn it into the eyedropper, click, and the white balance sets. This is now "technically accurate" WB, which you can modify to taste. Then proceed with the rest of the ACR controls to adjust the picture.