White balance and color corection.

[dennykyser]

Before you say read the manual, I already did and will do it again but hoping for some pointers.

I am shooting portraits in my garage and have read the book Photoshop CS for the photographer. (by scott kelly I believe)

I have been shooting raw and am wondering if I should set up a custom white balance for my "studio" setting. When shooting raw to do you use any special wb setting or just corect it in PS CS?

Also in the book he says you can shoot the model with the card that has 3 colors (black, grey, white) Would this be the way to corect color? I am having a hard time getting what is on my monitor at home to look the same as whats printed or on my work monitor. I have tried to calibrate it but its old, I picked up a new one and will hook it up tonight.

Any sugestions would be appreciated

[KennyG]

If you shoot RAW then the WB settings are not used, it is a function of post-processing. To make sure you have a reference, take a WB shot that you can use in post work. Even though I shoot in RAW I normally take a WB shot using my Expodisc as a reference. I stick to the one reference and find the disc is much easier to use and more accurate than cards (not cheap though).

There are times when, even though you are sure you have the correct WB settings, you still get a colour cast on the final ouput (yellow in portraits is common), but you can get very close to totally cleaning up such shots with ColorWasher. It is one of those 'must have' plug-ins which is particularly good for maintaining a consistent look across a range of shots and getting rid of those nasty yellow or magenta casts.

Full profiling is essential, starting with your monitor(s). If you don't do this you could be introducing false colours instead of correcting them. My monitors, scanners and printers are all colour profiled and are close enough for the type of work I do.

[slin100]

Actually, the RAW converter does use the WB setting to do the conversion. You can, of course, override the camera setting during the conversion, but you can save yourself the trouble of color correcting during post-processing if you do a custom WB in the camera.

[KennyG]

Actually, the RAW converter does use the WB setting to do the conversion.

I did say it was in post processing, whatever conversion software you use, I was pointing out the camera processing does not use it. Most offer the 'as shot' option, but it is not mandatory or often the best choice. Using in-camera auto WB as a conversion option is a reason why so many shots I have seen here and elsewhere have odd colour casts to them.

Depending on the software you use, if you shoot RAW with AWB set, even if you don't use it, the subsequent Exif will show AWB.

[slin100]

Yes, I knew you were talking about "post processing." However, I think you didn't quite address his question about whether doing a custom WB in the camera when shooting RAW is worthwhile.

You suggested taking a reference shot from which, I'm assuming, you can color correct subsequent images using the eyedropper in Photoshop. I was trying to suggest that you still take the reference shot but then immediately use it to set the camera's custom WB. That way, subsequent shots will have the custom WB setting embedded in the EXIF. Then using the 'as shot' setting in the RAW converter will automatically result in a color corrected image.

Apologies if this is what you meant to say.

[Jesper]

The white balance setting on the camera is not important when you're shooting RAW, because the camera doesn't apply it to the captured image, as the other posters have noted. Most RAW processing software (also PS CS) uses the white balance setting of the camera as the starting point for your RAW conversion - so if you've set it correctly on the camera, it will most likely look good immediately on the computer, and you won't have to tweak the settings very much.

I also have Scott Kelby's book, The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers. The method he describes, with the white - gray - black card will work to get correct colors. If you set the white, gray and black points, you're telling the computer "this is supposed to be white, this is supposed to be gray and this is supposed to be black". That way, the computer can figure out if there is a color cast in your image and it can remove it.

[dennykyser]

Thanks for all the replys and although I read the books, this is still a little confusing but you guys have helped a lot. I am sure when I get everything right in my studio, I can save the settings and save time.