Color balance HELP !!!!!!!

[MarkG]

I Recently got a Refurbed D30, and am in the process of "learning" its quirks etc.


Color Balance is the ONLY complaint/problem with the camera to date


Outdoors,Using AWB pictures come out with a distinct cyan/blue cast to them. I tryed using a white card, white paper and various other "white objects" to setup a custom WB and the resulting images are VERY yellow. The closest Ive gotten to "normal" so far was using a pale yellow sheet of paper.I have ALSO tryed using a gray card doing this... with very similar results. Any of the factory WB settings are unuseable...short of tweeking EACH image...Something Id LIKE to not have to do.

Most of my shooting will be done in the studio with the D30, so outdoors stuff is not REALLY that big a deal. STUDIO stuff is where Id like to get as close as possible with WB.

Im using strobes (Bowens monolights) and having the same type of luck using white AND gray cards.NOTHING is seeming to work very well at this point.

I am shooting Jpg, setting to AWB to shoot the white/gray card, selecting the image for CWB, and setting CWB on the camera.Im using "normal" for all settings, and have tryed other settings as well. Im using center weighted as well as partial metering, filling the frame with the white/gray card. Ive tryed shooting a second white/gray shot using the new CWB setting and although the resulting images may look a little better, it is ever so slightly if at all.

Ive tryed shooting Raw, and changing WB on import, but the images just mirror what happens to them shooting jpgs.

Ive poured through the many posts here, at Mirandas, and Pekkas sight for several days trying the MANY permiations Ive found...NO LUCK

Here is something I find a bit curious. These were "white card shots", one after auto levels, one after auto contrast in photoshop.

Is any body else getting the same thing as these?


http://thephotoguy2000.com/1119.jpg



Do the above images indicate a problem, warranting a return of the camera for another?

Can ANYbody suggest/help with something I may be doing wrong?

ANY and all help is greatly appreciated at this point

Mark

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Mark,

Have a link at this link and see whether this cures your problem. It is "an issue" with the D30:

http://www.lonestardigital.com/D30_Colors.htm

I haven't noticed it myself, but I have been shooting raw and using Fred Miranda's ICC profiles or Pekka's linear actions for some time. You should try these to see, if they handle the problem automatically.

There was a long thread on setting AWB recently in the forum that you might like to review.

I would strongly recommend that you shoot raw rather than JPG, this will give you much better control over the quality of the final image. And no, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to spend ages tweaking each image individually. It's perfectly possible in Photoshop to devise a workflow that does not require individual adjustments for each image. That's not to say that some images couldn't be improved, but that true of all photography. :)

Regards,

[MarkG]

Hi Roger,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I have seen that site and tryed the tweaks there before posting my 'dilema". And although it does cure SOME of the color casts it does cure them all.

I am concerened I may have a "problem camera" here though.

Seems MOST people are getting MUCH more accurate color using the custom white balance...in my case It seems the color correction goes TOO far the opposite way.

AWB yields bluish/cyan images....Doing a custom white balance and using that to shoot with yields images with a Red/yellow cast. EVERY time.

I hear what your saying with shooting raw...and will wind up there IF and when I get this color thing straightened out. Converting all the tests takes an unbearable ammount of time using RAW. :(

Any OTHER suggestions?

Thanks,
Mark

[Roger_Cavanagh]

MarkG wrote:
Any OTHER suggestions?


Mark,

Only one. How about borrowing/renting another D30 to see if you get the same results?

Good luck,

[MarkG]

Oh how I wish it were that simple. :)

Living where I do, the nearest photo dealer is well over 100 miles away. Of course with as much time as I have wasted with this so far, I probably could have walked there by now. You are right though...time for a "road trip" to check out another D30 one or two.

Thanks again
Mark

[soumya63]

I definitely think you have a problem camera. My D30 produces abolute perfect pictures with AWB in 99% time. It only gets confused if I shoot indoor with mixed light color temparature. With 420EX flash, I do not even have to use any white card or grey card at all. You better send your camera for a service (easy to say than done). I am really sorry for you.

[Leighow]

MARK

I posted a problem of my own under "Color Aberrations". Here my bright sun shot snow shot was scarred with red/blues -- not included in the post --on and around snow shadows.

My sample also shows a red fringe coming from (possibly) melted snow on the outer edge of a bare patch of asphalt. But the same fault did not show elsewhere. Well, there are a lot of colors in the spectrum, and we all speak of "blue shadows" in snow... but ... I never saw unacceptable colors like this "on film"!

Yours is showing up on the white targets. That is weird, and not acceptable!

HOWIE