Another Monitor Calibration Question

[Singletracklovr]

By default my monitor calibrator set my color temp at 6500K with a gamma of 2.2.

My questions is, the typical outdoors color temp range is 5200K-5600K so why would I not want to calibrate my monitor to the WB of my camera before PP the images' color balance?

thanks for your time and expertise.

[Medley]

Hi Bob!

The simple answer to your question is "because it won't work well". But I figured that out by trial and error, which means I wasn't satisfied with someone telling ME that, so I don't really expect that you will be either.

Remember, the purpose of the monitor calibration is not make adjustments in the image, it's merely to ensure that you are seeing the image accurately.

If your monitor's native color temp is 6500K, then I assume you have an LCD monitor. The software will tell you that you get the best results by setting you monitor to that color temp (in fact, setting ALL monitor settings to their default) before calibrating. If you want to experiment with that theory, then I suggest the following: Recalibrate your monitor using whatever settings you prefer, and save it under a name different from your current setting. Somewhere in the Windows preferences ( remember, I'm a Mac person) you should be able to choose between the two monitor profiles. Color-correct a dozen or so images under each setting (using an accurate printer profile) and compare the prints to the screen image. The proof is in the pudding... er..... print.

- Joe U.

[Singletracklovr]

Hi Joe,

Remember, the purpose of the monitor calibration is not make adjustments in the image, it's merely to ensure that you are seeing the image accurately.

I did set my monitor to its default setting before calibrating and when calibration was complete it looked like a warming filter was applied to the overall image on the screen.

That worried me. Am I miss adjust a photos color balance in PP do to this warming effect the cal applied.

I haven't been able to start printing yet.
Still working thru my camera settings to optimize the capture and the PP steps.
Getting the contrast, brightness, saturation, DOF and color balance right has been a real challenge. see
More Ducks. Could some advice, Please
for an example of my issues.

Thanks again for your assistance. I really do appreciate the help.

[Medley]

Calibrating makes a rather stark difference, doesn't it?

My point was that if you make a print, and it seems like that same warming filter was applied, then you know you're using the right monitor calibration. Seeing the same thing in the print that you see onscreen is what calibration is all about, so the print will tell you a lot about which calibration to use, though I'd be surprised if the new calibration wasn't the more correct of the two.

As to white balance, my best advice is to invest in a grey card. A grey card is just what it sounds like- a grey piece of paper/ cardboard/ plastic. But it's a specific shade of grey. In doing your photography, you shoot the grey card first to gauge the lighting conditions. Then do the rest of your shoot normally. If the lighting conditions change, you simply shoot another grey card frame.

Now when you get to your PP, you first open the grey card image, and do a Levels adjustment to make the grey in the image back to that exact shade of grey on the card. What you have just done is neutralize any warming or cooling effects of the light, as well as any tonal effects (brightness/ contrast) that may have occurred.

If you follow that, then it stands to reason that any images taken under the same lighting conditions can be neutralized by applying that EXACT SAME Levels adjustment to them.

If you have Photoshop, this can be set up to be quick and hassle-free. In the bottom-right hand corner of the Levels dialog box, there are three eyedroppers. The middle eyedropper has the tag 'set grey point'. If you double-click that eyedropper, you can define what shade of grey the eyedropper defines. Set it to your card's shade, and making your initial Levels adjustment to your grey card image is a one-click process.

Photoshop also has a built-in script called "Image Processor" that's designed to let you make the same adjustments to all the images in a file, AND an option that allows you to open the first image to define what those adjustments are. So you put all the images taken under the same lighting conditions and put them in a folder, making sure the grey card image is the first image. Then you run Image Processor, which opens the grey card image, allows you to click the greypoint, then applies that to all the other images. You have the option to save the results as JPEGs, PSDs, or TIFFs. Choose PSD or TIFF for a lossless save process.

- Joe U.

[Singletracklovr]

Select All, Copy and paste to Word.
I'm going to have a complete "How to" by Joe U. manual... Big smile coming over my face.

Thanks again Joe for the well written process.
I'm going to B&H on line to order a gray card right now. I found the eye dropper your refering to on PS. Can wait to test this.

[Ron Kruger]

Excellent post, Medley.
This is how we used to do it in the old days, before in-camera meterings system became so sophisticated and before the extra control of PP software.
This is still a great way to do it, if you have a static subject in unchanging light, but since most of my shooting is in the outdoors and of subjects not willing to wait for a gray card reading, I've come to rely pretty heavily on spot metering, taking my settings directly on the subject to insure proper exposure of the main subject. It works beautifully most of the time. When I want the main subject off center, I center the subject and press AE lock, then recompose the shot.
Admittedly, sometimes this give me slightly blown backgrounds or skies, so when I suspect this might happen, I bracket the shots by 1/3-stop (another old trick).
This is similar to the way I used to use a hand-held meter and a gray card years ago. Except that with the highly sophisticated metering systems in modern digital cameras, I don't have to do all the calculatons and the camera can do in an instant what used to take me minutes.
I still think it is a great idea for modern photographers do some shooting with everything on manual to gain a deeper understanding of how light behaves under different combinations of ISO, shutter speeds and f-stops, but with each upgrade, I become more confident in auto exposure readings and the various ways to take full advantage of that by choosing various modes, such as P, SV, TV, AV and TAV to get the desired effects.
Todays cameras can do so much and do it so well, but shooting in manual for all those years has, I believe, given me a much broader understanding of what all these great features accomplish in a blink of an eye.
And then there's flash fill. Remember how complicated that used to be? That's what used to get a select few of my friends into National Geographic. Today, it's another built in feature, where all you have to do is press a button.
So these day I rely upon and have confidence in various auto settings for almost all of my shooting, with the exception of auto-focus. It's great for simple scenes, but in cluttered environments (such as the deep woods), and especially with longer focal lengths, MF is still the best way to go.

[Singletracklovr]

since most of my shooting is in the outdoors and of subjects not willing to wait for a gray card reading, I've come to rely pretty heavily on spot metering, taking my settings directly on the subject to insure proper exposure of the main subject. It works beautifully most of the time. When I want the main subject off center, I center the subject and press AE lock, then recompose the shot.
Admittedly, sometimes this give me slightly blown backgrounds or skies, so when I suspect this might happen, I bracket the shots by 1/3-stop (another old trick).-Ron Kruger

Good tip for the field work. Thanks Ron.
I do have an AE lock on my camera. I'm going to try this tomorrow.

I was trying to manually guess at the WB with little success. I then went to WB auto and fixed any WB issues when I opened the NEF file in PS for the first time. But I feel like I am still guessing.

I think the gray card will help me learn what things should look like. There are times when I'm in the field and no one has come out to play. This will give me something to do during those times...

[Medley]

Ron, allow me to introduce you to the next generation of grey card- the ExpoDisc. link:http://www.expoimaging.net/product-d...FQ9Jagodah6ToQ

Creating a spot-on white balance with the ExpoDisc is as easy as taking a photo with the lens cap on, and transitioning out of the ExpoDisc is as quick and easy as removing a lens cap.

You can then use that image to set you camera's custom white balance, and get something simple metering can't do (at least not nearly as well): neutral balance the existing lighting.

- Joe U.