White Balance for Nature Photography

[LocalHero1953]

Colin, I was giving the simplified version of my tour round different light sources and their WB settings. I used a Color Checker Passport and calibrated my monitor as well. Calibrating the monitor was a big step forward. I agree with both your points.

[davidedric]

It seems to me that there are really two or three threads running here, describing situations which might need different approaches.

The studio (or similar) situation where you have at least some control over the lighting

Where you have no control, but conditions are not changing rapidly e.g. landscapes

Where things are happening quickly and there may be several different colour temperatures around e.g. a lot of wildlife

I think that much of Christina's work is in the third category, but that much of the thread is about the first two. I wonder is there is an experienced wildlife photographer out there who's like to offer their view. (I've said my bit, though I'd have to call myself an experienced wildlife watcher, but an inexperienced digital photographer and pp'er)

DAve

[Colin Southern]

Hi Christina,

My monitor is calibrated

Calibration isn't enough -- it needs to be profiled as well, although often people mix up the two.

and set to Adobe sRGB

Um, no such thing as Adobe sRGB - it's either Adobe RGB or sRGB

, as is my camera...

If you're shooting RAW then the camera setting is ignored -- the colourspace is then assigned by your RAW converter. If you're shooting JPEG then yes, it's applied.

Do I also need a colour checker passport by Xrite?

If you're wanting colour accuracy then yes - definitely, but only if your software supports the resulting camera profiles that it creates (Photoshop & Lightroom do, not sure about others) (not sure what you're using, sorry).

[Colin Southern]

Colin, I was giving the simplified version of my tour round different light sources and their WB settings.

Yep, that's cool. I just want to make sure people realise that if they (for example) illuminate one side of someones face with an incandescent light, and the other with a flourescent, then no one WB setting is going to give a satisfactory result. Same for fill flash.

I used a Color Checker Passport and calibrated my monitor as well. Calibrating the monitor was a big step forward.

Calibration is great -- but profiling is even more important

[LocalHero1953]

Calibration is great -- but profiling is even more important

Yes, that's what I've done - my terminology was loose.

[Brownbear]

Hi Colin,

Thank you for your reply and correcting my terminology. Truly appreciated.

My camera and monitor are both set to sRGB. I'm shoot raw and jpeg but I just set my camera to raw only about a week ago - test run.

I have Lightroom 4 and Adobe Elements 9.

I see that I have missed an important step. I just finished reading this tutorial from Cambridge in Colour which I scanned ages ago and at the time I likely assumed that it was not that important to me... (just because it reads like a technical piece) I would like colour accuracy so I will read the tutorial a few more times and figure out how to profile my monitor.

For others for future reference

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...alibration.htm

I always learn something new from Cambridge in Colour... Thank you.

[Colin Southern]

Yes, that's what I've done - my terminology was loose.

I thought that would be the case.

On one hand, it's a bit of a "hobby horse" of mine, but on the other, there is a difference between the two, and both need to be done -- so I like to try and make people aware of it, or it gets to be "the norm" (much like people associating HDR with "Harry Potter in Technicolour" looks, and images produced from a single exposure).