Lexi

[Manfred M]

Yes, my screenshot was intended as an illustration, not a rigorous analysis. Perhaps I should remove it so as to avoid confusion?

I wouldn't. It is a very good suggestion, but there are limitations to its use.

One of the best colour correction techniques I know uses a "black" and "white" area in the image. The only issue is that there can be complications if they are not black or white enough.

[Stagecoach]

Product oriented photography is a totally different genre than what us mere mortals attempt. One of my photography instructors who taught the lighting course spent much of his career primarily doing advertising and catalogue work, so this was something we covered in some detail during the course.

1. Any of this type of photography for medium to large sized companies is done in a studio or studio like setting. The photographer is working side-by-side with the art director who calls the shots. Your race images are highly unlikely to make it into an ad campaign. A staged race with professional models would.

2. Even outdoor scenes are fully lit with studio lights. Lights are gelled to give the right colour temperature and in some extreme cases, gels are applied to the windows in a building to ensure that the colour temperatures are correct and that ambient light and the studio lights give the right look.

3. It's all about the product and the corporate logo, so these are either individually lit or are photographed with a "dummy" product and the logo is added or enhanced in post. The appropriate colour adjustments are made so that the label colours are correct. Some companies have the Pantone, RGB and CMYK colours on their corporate websites so that contractors have access to the logo specs.

4. "Dressers" are used to ensure that the set is properly set up, finger prints are wiped clean, no dust or smudges on the set etc. Sometimes props are used; plastic ice cubes rather than real ones. Lard is substituted for ice cream, etc.

5. Hours and even days can be spent taking the shot to ensure it is 100% right.

Thanks for that Manfred but it does not address the question, which is what possibilities are available to deal with things after they have not been done under ideal controlled conditions.

Ted gives a clue with his comment in post 18

Another way is to find a colored object such as a particular brick in the wall and make it the same color in all the shots that have it. Hopefully your editor has a global (affects the whole image, not just a selection) hue/saturation/brightness adjustment - most do.

I suspect 'colour balance by numbers' is a direction that could be taken

[Manfred M]

Grahame - there is no easy answer for optimizing a mixed light shot. In some cases we can get workable results and in other cases not so much:

1. If we have a good light source on the subject and one that is not as flattering, then we can often just get away with colour correcting the subject and leaving the rest of the image the way it is. This is what is happening with some of Mike's postings, both in this thread and more so in some of the others. Correct the main subject and let the background look a bit funky.

2. If the mixed light sources hit the subject in a defined manner, we can sometimes do what Ted has suggested, colour correct as best we can to the two light sources and then try to blend the two images together. If we are dealing with a human subject, as long as the face looks reasonably good, this might work, but it takes a lot of effort.

Let me demonstrate with an urban landscape where I ran into this issue and tried a number of different approachs.

Image 1 - if I get the left side of the image looking correct, the right side has a very noticeable blue colour cast





Image 2 - if I get the right side of the image looking correct, the left side has a very warm colour cast.





Image 3 - if I stack both images in Photoshop and then blend using a gradient to get the bulk of the work done and then hand-tune the masks, I get something in the middle.





3. Sometimes just leave the colours look off. Theatrical lighting or shooting at a concert, this might be the only practical option. The lights tend to be so heavily gelled that there are some predominant wavelengths that cannot be neutralized.

[Evertking]

Grahame - there is no easy answer for optimizing a mixed light shot. In some cases we can get workable results and in other cases not so much:

1. If we have a good light source on the subject and one that is not as flattering, then we can often just get away with colour correcting the subject and leaving the rest of the image the way it is. This is what is happening with some of Mike's postings, both in this thread and more so in some of the others. Correct the main subject and let the background look a bit funky.

2. If the mixed light sources hit the subject in a defined manner, we can sometimes do what Ted has suggested, colour correct as best we can to the two light sources and then try to blend the two images together. If we are dealing with a human subject, as long as the face looks reasonably good, this might work, but it takes a lot of effort.

Let me demonstrate with an urban landscape where I ran into this issue and tried a number of different approachs.

Image 1 - if I get the left side of the image looking correct, the right side has a very noticeable blue colour cast





Image 2 - if I get the right side of the image looking correct, the left side has a very warm colour cast.





Image 3 - if I stack both images in Photoshop and then blend using a gradient to get the bulk of the work done and then hand-tune the masks, I get something in the middle.





3. Sometimes just leave the colours look off. Theatrical lighting or shooting at a concert, this might be the only practical option. The lights tend to be so heavily gelled that there are some predominant wavelengths that cannot be neutralized.

I know this is off topic and I do appreciate all the help. But the pictures that you posted here are beautiful. How do you do this.. slow shutter? And determine exposure? I love them.

[Evertking]

I kinda of like the "weed" in the lower left, what do you all think?

[Manfred M]

I know this is off topic and I do appreciate all the help. But the pictures that you posted here are beautiful. How do you do this.. slow shutter? And determine exposure? I love them.

Actually we seem to have hijacked your thread.

These are a pano I shot a few years ago. I think I stitched 6 or 7 images together in Photoshop. Exposures were 5 seconds at f/5.6 at ISO 100 using a 24mm focal length on a Nikon D800. I used a long rail to rotate the camera around the no parallax point.

As for determining the exposure, I scan the entire scene and see the range of shutter speeds are required for each frame I will take. I select a shutter speed that will not blow out the highlights. The whole sequence of images is taken in manual mode. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO are locked down. With a low light shot, I focus manually as well. I use a very heavy duty tripod and ball head.