Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Mike's Software => Qimage Studio Edition (archived) => Topic started by: DdeGannes on November 24, 2009, 09:23:31 PM



Title: White Balance correction of raw development.
Post by: DdeGannes on November 24, 2009, 09:23:31 PM
I know how the existing eyedropper tool works and have viewed the tutorial on the use of the raw development tools. However there are many files that may need correction to the white balance and there is no area of gray in the photo to click on. Having a temp and tint sliders and/or a menu of standard WB choices like Daylight, cloudy, shade, etc to choose from would be a great asset. This would certainly encourage me to use Qimage Studio as a main tool for processing my raw files.


Title: Re: White Balance correction of raw development.
Post by: Terry-M on November 24, 2009, 09:42:14 PM
Dennis,
Here is my solution, see attached.
I have one of these home-made grey cards in every lens cap. They are printed on good photo paper with colour management . The grey's will not be perfect of course but it seems to work in practice.
You can now buy a fancy little cube device with greys etc. on it Also there's a thing called a colour passport made by X-Rite that has numerous grey & colour patches on it. You could get paranoid using that  ::)

Edit: just checked the attached image on my screen with a colour picker and it's pretty well spot on  ;)
Terry


Title: Re: White Balance correction of raw development.
Post by: DdeGannes on November 24, 2009, 10:32:44 PM
Yes Terry, I have a calibrated gray balance tool, WHIBAL, but out in the field its not easy to get a picture of the tool in the setting when the target may be 50 yards away, action in changing light etc. I shoot raw with my WB in camera setting at auto and adjust as necessary when post processing. 


Title: Re: White Balance correction of raw development.
Post by: Terry-M on November 24, 2009, 10:49:52 PM
Quote
I shoot raw with my WB in camera setting at auto and adjust as necessary when post processing.
Me too except I do set the camera to the most appropriate value for the prevailing conditions. Some camera enable you to bracket WB too.
When using the Control key to highlight possible areas for WB correction, surprisingly small areas can sometimes be selected but as a last resort I've used a WB filter and manually tweaked the R & B values there. Not ideal but better than nothing.
Quote
Having a temp and tint sliders
I seem to remember Mike saying something about this idea in the early days. To do it properly, a profile of every camera is required, ok. for the big boys, difficult for Mike. If you compare colour temperatures reported by several different raw programs, I've found they nearly all give a different value for the same camera & setting and visual setting is not accurate.
Terry.