''Jordan"

[Edwin Harvey]

I took this portrait of one of the members kids at my local photography club last Monday. I like it for the colour, sharpness & the expressionless natural look on his face. I took it using available light with Canon 5DMk II & Canon 70:200F4 IS lens.

[MrB]

Edwin, what follows is obviously a matter of opinion, as well as personal preference, as I do not know the boy - the lighting seems a bit harsh and the skin tones appear to have a yellowish tint; for me, the image should look something like this -



Philip

[CougarFool]

Hi Edwin,
This is a lovely portrait with great natural lighting. I expect you are very pleased with it! I have to agree with Philip though: it does have a yellowish skin tone.

[rpcrowe]

Edwin, I have to chime in with Phillip. t first I thought the yellow-green skin tones were the fault of a new monitor; which, despite being calibrated, I do not trust totally yet. However, the portrait is very nice and shows the young man in a very masculine pose!

I just acquired a Smartphone and one of my first apps I loaded was one which converts the smartphone into a gray card for matching color temperature...

[Dave Humphries]

I just acquired a Smartphone and one of my first apps I loaded was one which converts the smartphone into a gray card for matching color temperature...

You mean you use one electronic display to set the camera's white balance?

That just seems wrong

[rpcrowe]

The app shows the screen as an 18% gay card. Including it in the first of a series of images it gives me a benchmark for color correction. It also has a white card but, that doesn't really look "white" enough for my tastes...

[Colin Southern]

The app shows the screen as an 18% gay card. Including it in the first of a series of images it gives me a benchmark for color correction. It also has a white card but, that doesn't really look "white" enough for my tastes...

Out of interest Richard, have you shot it alongside of a regular spectrally neutral card to see how neutral it really is?

[Dave Humphries]

The app shows the screen as an 18% gray card. Including it in the first of a series of images it gives me a benchmark for color correction. It also has a white card but, that doesn't really look "white" enough for my tastes...

Exactly, any screen won't be a continuous spectrum, will need calibrating, will likely to drift with temperature and of course; reflect ambient light - which actually, ought to be the whole point of a white balance, shouldn't it?

Or am I missing something?
You said "for matching color temperature", perhaps I have the wrong end of the stick.
Do you adjust the app. to match it to a grey card held in ambient light and get kelvin figure?

Very confused,

[Colin Southern]

Exactly, any screen won't be a continuous spectrum, will need calibrating, will likely to drift with temperature and of course; reflect ambient light - which actually, ought to be the whole point of a white balance, shouldn't it?

Or am I missing something?
You said "for matching color temperature", perhaps I have the wrong end of the stick.
Do you adjust the app. to match it to a grey card held in ambient light and get kelvin figure?

Very confused,

Hi Dave,

I'm guessing that it's probably just a case of degrees (or Kelvin if we're in a punny mood today!).

I can guess that the spectrally neutral gray (nothing really to do with 18% though) of a phone screen probably wouldn't be as accurate as a "real" grey card, if it's all you have, then it's probably more accurate than Charlies brown hat / blue shirt / or pink skin (possibly being the only other alternatives in an image).

[MrB]

"...am I missing something?"

- Edwin's photo?...

Philip

[Dave Humphries]

"...am I missing something?"

- Edwin's photo?...

Philip

Oh yes Philip,

I agree your version of Edwin's photo looks much more natural

In other respects Edwin, quite a reasonable shot that the subject themselves probably wouldn't object to.