WB and Sharpening

I cannot get my images to look good no matter what I do with Lightroom or Photoshop. I have tried unsuccessfully to accomplish color, WB and sharpening uniformly with my images but somewhere I fail. I don't want to copy anyones style but I want to create a standard with my images.

I study tutorials and practice but can't seem to get straight. Please help me

Here is one of my favorite photographers his balance of color, WB and sharpness seem to be uniform. LINK

Yes I emailed him and ask to buy a workflow DVD and they do not sell one. And no he would not share so I brought my question here.

What do you mean by "uniformly" - do you mean "looking the same across many images and shooting conditions"?

If you shoot a reference gray in your scene then you should be able to get a reasonably uniform white balance across scenes (maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing, but a good starting point).

As far as sharpening goes, what are you currently doing and what makes it non-uniform across images?

You will probably have to post some examples here of the problem for us to help.

As far as color goes, again, you can create presets that grade a set of images identically so that they have a uniform look - this assumes that the lighting is similar across images and that they are white balanced consistently. If they are all shot under the same lighting conditions and you have a gray reference, that should not be a big deal to achieve.

Post some examples.

kirk

Here are some examples. https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1297054

The other link I posted of my favorite wedding photographers, I am trying to show how natural the colors are in each images. Even in the portraits that were taken inside the only difference in the images is brightness or lack of light the colors and clarity seem to match all the other images.

They are all tack sharp but have no grain look. Almost look like they were using noise reduction software but without no blur on the subjects.

Are you shooting raw? In natural light raw converters let you infinitely and minutely adjust white balance to whatever you like. The rest comes down to nailing exposure and then not needing to manipulate it in post.

I shoot raw with a Canon 60D 24-70mm f2.8

I know this can be a touchy subject, but, after looking at the two images you posted in the other thread, can you post the raw files for each one?

They both look like they lack contrast and the colors are off. They are also oversharpened.

if you do not want to post the raws for download, you can PM me if you would like for me to take a look at them.

kirk

kirkt wrote in post #15903964
I know this can be a touchy subject, but, after looking at the two images you posted in the other thread, can you post the raw files for each one?

They both look like they lack contrast and the colors are off. They are also oversharpened.

if you do not want to post the raws for download, you can PM me if you would like for me to take a look at them.

kirk

I don't mind posting them. I will do tonight between 8-9 pm EST

I suggest the site YouSendIt.com -- simple to upload and post one file at a time and no hassles!

Here are the links to the raw files.

https://www.yousendit.​com …ad/UVJnYUoxeWEw​Z25yZHNUQw

https://www.yousendit.​com …ad/UVJnYUoxeWF3​TGhqQThUQw

ISO 1000, F10? You're starting to see diffraction above F8 on a crop sensor, and high ISO only reduces sharpness and dynamic range.

These portraits could have been shot at F2.8, it's not a group shot. That would have let you use ISO 100 to get a much cleaner file.

chris_holtmeier wrote in post #15904913
ISO 1000, F10? You're starting to see diffraction above F8 on a crop sensor, and high ISO only reduces sharpness and dynamic range.

These portraits could have been shot at F2.8, it's not a group shot. That would have let you use ISO 100 to get a much cleaner file.

What about proper WB and color? Where did I screw up on that?

As shot, the WB is too warm. I also think the high ISO is hurting the color, as color noise will contaminate all colors in an image.

The photog you linked too uses a pretty short DOF. Try shooting at a lower ISO at closer to 2.8, and see what you think.

Here is one take - pretty much a straight conversion with some vignette. I used ACR with WB As Shot and some tweaks in PS.

I just skimmed through this thread quickly and haven't opened any files--plus I can't open file sharing sites from the work-secured computer I am on right now, but I will give some perspective just based off of your original post. When I get home tonight I will take a look at the raws you uploaded.

You have a very nice camera and lens by what you mentioned, and you are shooting raw. With this combination it is incredibly difficult to "screw up" as you said; I think you are being way too hard on yourself.

For starters, from what I read above from Chris Holtmeier, it seems that you are shooting portraits. You have a good lens for that but, and don't take this personally, I think you could benefit from some more reading and knowledge of exposure, ie. aperture, iso, shutter speed (the exposure triangle). If I saw iso1000 and f-stop 10, the first thing that would pop into my mind without seeing an image is that you are taking a picture of a mountain range in low light and you don't have a tripod. Understanding these settings and how they affect your images will unlock an amazing amount of control over your photos.

White Balance/Overall Color: White balance is subjective and can be "artistically tweaked." If you shoot raw then you have total control in software of how you want the overall color temperature of the image. If you want white balance that is authentically natural to what you originally saw with your eyes when taking the picture, then you can do the whole grey card thing. For me, white balance is simply another tool to play with the image and get it how I want. And to be honest, the "true" white balance from a scene can often times be boring! Warm up a landscape, or even a portrait shot just a little bit and you'll see what I mean. For a portrait, make sure you don't introduce unnatural color casts into the skin.

Sharpening: Not sure what you mean by "uniform" sharpening, but look at it this way. When working with the raw file, you should be doing what is called "capture sharpening." Basically, this is applying just enough light sharpening to cut through the softening that unavoidably happens when an image is captured through the camera's hardware. Here you are just trying to bring it back to life, but not put any bark or bite into it. After you do all your edits and adjustments and get the final image looking the way you want, then you resize for your intended destination, and then apply the secondary/main sharpening (also referred to as "creative sharpening)." I'm not going to get into the intricacies of sharpening now (there are a lot), but just know that a final image, whether ending up on a computer screen or in a frame on a wall, should never "look sharpened." It should just look good.

Hope some of this helps,
Randy

RandMan wrote in post #15906388
I just skimmed through this thread quickly and haven't opened any files--plus I can't open file sharing sites from the work-secured computer I am on right now, but I will give some perspective just based off of your original post. When I get home tonight I will take a look at the raws you uploaded.

You have a very nice camera and lens by what you mentioned, and you are shooting raw. With this combination it is incredibly difficult to "screw up" as you said; I think you are being way too hard on yourself.

For starters, from what I read above from Chris Holtmeier, it seems that you are shooting portraits. You have a good lens for that but, and don't take this personally, I think you could benefit from some more reading and knowledge of exposure, ie. aperture, iso, shutter speed (the exposure triangle). If I saw iso1000 and f-stop 10, the first thing that would pop into my mind without seeing an image is that you are taking a picture of a mountain range in low light and you don't have a tripod. Understanding these settings and how they affect your images will unlock an amazing amount of control over your photos.

White Balance/Overall Color: White balance is subjective and can be "artistically tweaked." If you shoot raw then you have total control in software of how you want the overall color temperature of the image. If you want white balance that is authentically natural to what you originally saw with your eyes when taking the picture, then you can do the whole grey card thing. For me, white balance is simply another tool to play with the image and get it how I want. And to be honest, the "true" white balance from a scene can often times be boring! Warm up a landscape, or even a portrait shot just a little bit and you'll see what I mean. For a portrait, make sure you don't introduce unnatural color casts into the skin.

Sharpening: Not sure what you mean by "uniform" sharpening, but look at it this way. When working with the raw file, you should be doing what is called "capture sharpening." Basically, this is applying just enough light sharpening to cut through the softening that unavoidably happens when an image is captured through the camera's hardware. Here you are just trying to bring it back to life, but not put any bark or bite into it. After you do all your edits and adjustments and get the final image looking the way you want, then you resize for your intended destination, and then apply the secondary/main sharpening (also referred to as "creative sharpening)." I'm not going to get into the intricacies of sharpening now (there are a lot), but just know that a final image, whether ending up on a computer screen or in a frame on a wall, should never "look sharpened." It should just look good.

Hope some of this helps,
Randy

Thanks Randy, I look at my images and then images such as the link I posted at the top of Grant and Deb wedding photographers and my stuff looks like crap to me. After owning a 20D for years and now the the last year owning the 60D and decent glass I should be doing so much better. I personally don't know exactly how to communicate what I am trying to achieve so I tried to explain and show the examples from that wedding photographers site. I some how miss the ball every time. I thank you for your advice and look forward to your comments tonight.