Not so good. I was trying for soft and white.

[JBW]

Normal quality 'household' bulbs can vary considerably in their colour output depending on the type.

A few years ago when we still used the 'old fashioned' traditional 100 watt bulbs I would get quite a few moths coming to a window overlooking my garden, with a light placed close to the glass. Then I went to those energy saving 20 watt bulbs which were supposed to be 100 watt equivalent and the moth count dropped by half. Also, I didn't like the light colour or the way they took time to reach full output. So I have now switched to LED bulbs which are 100 watt equivalent. I prefer the colour of their light but it is rare to see any moths at that window now.

However, I then built myself a moth trap using a 20 watt actinic bulb and at this time of the year I regularly get 50 moths from 30 or more species in just a couple of hours.

and here in the Philippines we often get what wouldn't pass muster in other countries so who knows what light our lights put out. perhaps best to leave the camera on AWB

[JBW]

Brian - white in an image is usually light gray, not pure white. This means that the R, G and B values need to be reasonably close together.

What I will do is to drop a colour sampler on a spot that should be very close to white, but not blown out and get a reading. In the flower. The image shows what this looks like in Capture One:




Here I get a reading of R= 243, G = 234 and B = 217. The last value of 234 is the luminance value of the spot.

White the area is supposed to be light gray, the middle value is 234, which means that to be neutral the Red value needs to be reduced (by adding Cyan) and the Blue value needs to be raised (which reduces the Yellow). This is how I know that those adjustments will correct the colour cast in the flower. As the flower us unlikely to be pure white, getting the values closer together will correct the colour cast.

I can't find a color sampler button in my capture 1 but it reads like what I get when I run my cursor over a spot?

[DanK]

In essence, what Manfred describes is the process that Lightroom can automate for you. If you select the eyedropper tool from the white balance panel, place it where you want in the image, and click, it balances RGB values at that point. This is one of the reasons I like starting in Lightroom, particularly when I have a series that needs the identical adjustment of white balance (e.g., a stack of images for focus stacking). You place the eyedropper over the whiBal card (or whatever you are using) in the first image, click once to adjust white balance, and then tell LR to sync that setting over the rest of the series (which have no whiBal in them). Alternatively, you can adjust to taste before syncing. It's about as easy and fast as it possibly can be.

[Manfred M]

I can't find a color sampler button in my capture 1 but it reads like what I get when I run my cursor over a spot?

Try here.

[Manfred M]

In essence, what Manfred describes is the process that Lightroom can automate for you. If you select the eyedropper tool from the white balance panel, place it where you want in the image, and click, it balances RGB values at that point. This is one of the reasons I like starting in Lightroom, particularly when I have a series that needs the identical adjustment of white balance (e.g., a stack of images for focus stacking). You place the eyedropper over the whiBal card (or whatever you are using) in the first image, click once to adjust white balance, and then tell LR to sync that setting over the rest of the series (which have no whiBal in them). Alternatively, you can adjust to taste before syncing. It's about as easy and fast as it possibly can be.

Capture One has the same functionality. What I find is that it can give a good starting point, but I will tweak the individual colour channels as that tends to give me better results if I don't happen to have a gray card or white card in the shot. Often I find that I don't want a completely neutral shot and a tiny bit of warmth or coolness works better for the image than going strictly neutral.

[DanK]

Capture One has the same functionality. What I find is that it can give a good starting point, but I will tweak the individual colour channels as that tends to give me better results if I don't happen to have a gray card or white card in the shot. Often I find that I don't want a completely neutral shot and a tiny bit of warmth or coolness works better for the image than going strictly neutral.

Exactly. That's what I meant by adjusting to taste, which in my case almost always moving slightly warmer. However, I find it very helpful to have a neutral starting point, as I find that I often don't find that neutral point on my own when I start a session. I often start too warm if I don't have a neutral source. In fact, I find that I sometimes drift during an editing session and need to compare earlier images to recalibrate myself.

I haven't done much editing since having my cataracts removed recently, and I am curious to see how that affects things. I'm 5 weeks out for one eye and 7 for the other, but I still sometimes find myself thinking that the world looks a bit blue and that grays and whites have a touch of magenta. In other words, my brain hasn't fully undone its having gotten used to the slightly greenish yellow cast of cataracts. So I expect to rely even more on my whiBal for a few months.

[JBW]

In essence, what Manfred describes is the process that Lightroom can automate for you. If you select the eyedropper tool from the white balance panel, place it where you want in the image, and click, it balances RGB values at that point. This is one of the reasons I like starting in Lightroom, particularly when I have a series that needs the identical adjustment of white balance (e.g., a stack of images for focus stacking). You place the eyedropper over the whiBal card (or whatever you are using) in the first image, click once to adjust white balance, and then tell LR to sync that setting over the rest of the series (which have no whiBal in them). Alternatively, you can adjust to taste before syncing. It's about as easy and fast as it possibly can be.

One day I may get an additional pp program but for now I'm just using Capture1

[JBW]

Exactly. That's what I meant by adjusting to taste, which in my case almost always moving slightly warmer. However, I find it very helpful to have a neutral starting point, as I find that I often don't find that neutral point on my own when I start a session. I often start too warm if I don't have a neutral source. In fact, I find that I sometimes drift during an editing session and need to compare earlier images to recalibrate myself.

I haven't done much editing since having my cataracts removed recently, and I am curious to see how that affects things. I'm 5 weeks out for one eye and 7 for the other, but I still sometimes find myself thinking that the world looks a bit blue and that grays and whites have a touch of magenta. In other words, my brain hasn't fully undone its having gotten used to the slightly greenish yellow cast of cataracts. So I expect to rely even more on my whiBal for a few months.

Let us know how it goes.

[JBW]

Try here.

Found it, thanks

[Manfred M]

Exactly. That's what I meant by adjusting to taste, which in my case almost always moving slightly warmer. However, I find it very helpful to have a neutral starting point, as I find that I often don't find that neutral point on my own when I start a session. I often start too warm if I don't have a neutral source. In fact, I find that I sometimes drift during an editing session and need to compare earlier images to recalibrate myself.

I haven't done much editing since having my cataracts removed recently, and I am curious to see how that affects things. I'm 5 weeks out for one eye and 7 for the other, but I still sometimes find myself thinking that the world looks a bit blue and that grays and whites have a touch of magenta. In other words, my brain hasn't fully undone its having gotten used to the slightly greenish yellow cast of cataracts. So I expect to rely even more on my whiBal for a few months.

Dan - I agree with you to an extent, as I use a similar process when I include a neutral sample in the shot.

On the other hand, I also suggest people use the sampler tool to get a reading to understand what is happening in the scene. In my view unless the photographer understands how colour works (the primary colours and their compliments) and how to adjust for colour issues their approach will be a bit hit and miss.

[JBW]

Dan - I agree with you to an extent, as I use a similar process when I include a neutral sample in the shot.

On the other hand, I also suggest people use the sampler tool to get a reading to understand what is happening in the scene. In my view unless the photographer understands how colour works (the primary colours and their compliments) and how to adjust for colour issues their approach will be a bit hit and miss.

mine certainly is I'm adjusting the colors in the black and white area of capture 1. Anyone have a better suggestion?