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Photography Question 

Philip Frederiksen
 

Colours


 
 
Could you please tell me if the colours look right or not :-)
Used my Expodisc on this one.


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September 17, 2007

 
- Gregory LaGrange

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  Looks like morning or evening daylight.
But the expodisk was meant to get artificial light outside the daylight range to look like daylight. That's where you need to test it. Try your kitchen.


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September 17, 2007

 

Philip Frederiksen
  I'm not sure what you mean here Gregory.


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September 18, 2007

 

robert G. Fately
  Philip, the Expodisc is designed to help you set the proper white balance in the camera. While your eyes cannot tell the difference, ambient light may have certain tonalities or shades (this coloration is measured in degrees Kelvin - too much to explain here).

Outdoor sunlit scenes are about 5000 degrees K, while incandencent lights are much redder, at about 3400 degrees K. If you've ever noticed how shots taken indoors with film designed for outdoor use come out 'warm' or reddish hued, that's the reason. The light from the indoor lamps is actualy orange-y compared to outdoor sunlight. Again, you can't tell with the naked eye, but this is what the camera sees.

So, with film shooting one buys the film balanced for a given light (outdoor or indoor, basically). But with digital cameras the CCD is adjustable internally, so you set it to compensate for the coloration of the light in the area.

There are a number of approaches to doing this, and Expodisc is one of them. It's meant to give your camera's meter a diffuse image shoing only the coloration of the light. On the camera, you take the shot after making some setting (so the camera realizes it's not just a photograph you're trying to take).

So - to Greg's point - there's typically no need to set white balance in an outdoor scene, since the light coloration is already what the camera is generally set to expect. However, if you go indoors to an incandescent lit room and take one shot without the Expodisc process, then a second after reseting white balance, you will see a difference. And if you do it in a room lit by flourescent lights (which are far more varied than incandescent or tungsten halogen lamps) then you'll see a difference there as well.


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September 18, 2007

 

Philip Frederiksen
  Okay Bob. Thank you very much


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September 18, 2007

 

William Schuette
  Phil, I have to disagree with Bob that there is no need to set a white balance for an outdoor scene. Sunlight is not the same color temperature throughout the day. We all see the color change from morning light to noon to twilight but the color is actually changing all the time. Also, if you are in shade or it is cloudy the temperature of the light is going to be much cooler. This is why cloudy day pictures will appear blue if the white balance is not adjusted. So if your goal is to capture the color as accurately as possible a custom white balance is often necessary. One caveat though. If your intent is to capture the warm morning light or a orange sunset do not do a custom white balance or use an auto white balance as you will be adjusting the color of the light to be cooler and removing some of the orange you want to capture. Set you white balance to either a daylight or cloudy preset.

Bill


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September 20, 2007

 

Philip Frederiksen
  I agree Bob. I will also use my dics almost at any times.
But again, the colours on the picture. Do they look right?


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September 20, 2007

 

William Schuette
  It's hard to say what is "right" particularly when dealing with different monitors. I would say that the values appear to be slightly warm and maybe a bit flat. You may want to try upping your contrast using a Levels or Curves adjustment to make them pop a bit more.

Bill


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September 20, 2007

 
- Carolyn M. Fletcher

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  As someone who has no idea what an expodisc is, I'll just say the colors look a bit flat to me, also.


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September 20, 2007

 

Philip Frederiksen
  Okay thank you very much Bill and Carolyn


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September 20, 2007

 
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