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  1. #1
    Junior Member
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    White balance issues, any ideas?

    Hi Everyone

    I am having an issue with my digital camera shots, I was hoping for some advice.

    I need to take picture of fabrics for a shirt website. I am using a Canon G2 on a small tripod (about 20 inches from the fabric) with an Ott-lite for lighting. The images are coming out well, but the color does not quite match. The color of the fabric is more of a light purple, while the images are coming out bluish.

    I tried using custom white balance, but cannot seem to fix the problem.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks

    Roy

  2. #2
    mooo...wooh hoooh! schrackman's Avatar
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    Re: White balance issues, any ideas?


    Ray O'Canon
    Digital Rebel XTi • Digital Rebel • Canonet GIII QL17 • Agfa Parat-1

    The liberal, socialist politician's nightmare: "What a comfort to the farmer to be allowed to supply his own wants before he should be liable to pay anything, and then only pay on his surplus." - Jefferson to Madison on Taxes,1784

    My Canonet GIII QL-17 photos on flickr.

  3. #3
    has-been... another view's Avatar
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    Re: White balance issues, any ideas?

    Is it the image on a screen that doesn't match, or a print? Getting WB in the ballpark is easy (auto WB), close isn't too much harder (custom WB) but that last little bit is a lot of work.

    Is your monitor calibrated? I saw a big improvement when I started using Monaco Optix for monitor calibration, but my prints still aren't 100%. I've gotta figure out how to do profiles for the Fuji Frontier that I have my prints done on...

  4. #4
    Ghost
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    Re: White balance issues, any ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by royli57
    Hi Everyone

    I am having an issue with my digital camera shots, I was hoping for some advice.

    I need to take picture of fabrics for a shirt website. I am using a Canon G2 on a small tripod (about 20 inches from the fabric) with an Ott-lite for lighting. The images are coming out well, but the color does not quite match. The color of the fabric is more of a light purple, while the images are coming out bluish.

    I tried using custom white balance, but cannot seem to fix the problem.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks

    Roy

    Hiya. Don't assume it's the camera capturing the color wrong. It could very well be post capture where your problem is occuring. There are many things that could go wrong including not having a calibrated monitor, using wrong color profiles and color management settings, converting the image incorrectly if shooting raw, possibly more I can't think of.

  5. #5
    Junior Member
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    Re: White balance issues, any ideas?

    Thanks for all of the informatin - I suppose I should be more specific.

    I tried to use both the Canon G2 and a Sony Cybershot for taking the pictures. When I look at the fabrics through the LCD, I can see that the color is off. In both of the LCD screens, the purple shows up as blue, and the white is not exactly white but more of a gray (same results with custom white balance and outdoors in natural light).

    So I am not really sure what the problem could be, unless it is that the camera is not physically capable of capturing true color.

    What do you guys think?

    Roy

  6. #6
    Senior Member racingpinarello's Avatar
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    Re: White balance issues, any ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by royli57
    Thanks for all of the informatin - I suppose I should be more specific.

    I tried to use both the Canon G2 and a Sony Cybershot for taking the pictures. When I look at the fabrics through the LCD, I can see that the color is off. In both of the LCD screens, the purple shows up as blue, and the white is not exactly white but more of a gray (same results with custom white balance and outdoors in natural light).

    So I am not really sure what the problem could be, unless it is that the camera is not physically capable of capturing true color.

    What do you guys think?

    Roy
    The G2 is perfectly capable of capturing the color of the shirt. I hate the LCD screens because that screen is not calibrated to your monitor. What I do for critical color work is shoot the subject and make sure your exposure is correct. Then take that setting and shoot a grey card, or even better, a card that has perfect white, grey, and black.

    In your first shot with the card, set the grey point in levels or curves, and save that setting. Apply that setting for all shots that have the same lighting.

    Digital cameras have so many interfaces that it's nearly impossible to have true representation from the LCD to the Print.

    Loren
    Loren Crannell
    LC Photography
    Visit My Website

    * Any photographer worth his salt has 10,000 bad negatives under his belt. - Ansel Adams

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