Color check please...

Jim Walczak · Dec 8, 2015

Not sure if this is really the correct portion of the forums for this...if not, someone lemme know and I'll repost elsewhere.

Alrighty...just re-calibrated my monitor and as the post implies, I could use a second set of eyes or two. I guess it's been a while since I've calibrated as the monitor was WAY warm (thus explaining my overly cool colors in previous posts), but now that it's calibrated...ermmm...it almost looks too cool. It could very well just be my eyes (and brain) needing to adjust to the new settings, but could use a second opinion or two.

The shots were taken this past weekend at the Crown Classic Dog Show using the "new to me" Nikon D7000 along with my Tamron 70-300mm. I'm still trying to get a handle on the camera, so this admittedly is NOT my best work...it was an indoor event, the lighting sucked, I had to crank the ISO to keep up with the dogs, the colors are all over the place (lost my white balance cap a while back and haven't gotten a new one yet), etc.. On top of that, I had to stop shooting early as I lost my stinkin' car keys somewhere at the IX Center and had to have my wife come and get me. In other words, yea...I know the shots are noisy and flawed. While other comments are most certainly welcome, I'm mainly just concerned about the colors looking fairly natural (I know there's a bit of variance from pic to pic).

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5.

BTW...not that it should matter that much but in case anyone's wondering, I'm using an older Spider 3 colorometer for the monitor calibration...not exactly bleeding edge, but better than nothing.

Thanks

dxqcanada · Dec 8, 2015

The "whites" look a bit warm on my screen, not cool.

tirediron · Dec 8, 2015

dxqcanada said:
The "whites" look a bit warm on my screen, not cool.

Agree, 'though #4 seems pretty good, the others are definitely a warm white.

Jim Walczak · Dec 9, 2015

Ok...that's good...pretty much what I was shooting for - just a tich of warm. Didn't want to clean that out completely because a lot of the dogs also had a lot of reds in them and they started to look a bit dull with too much adjustment. It's just that looking at my desk top right now, it seems REALLY blue'ish compared to how it looked before...I think it's just gonna take a bit for my eyes to get used to it.

Designer · Dec 9, 2015

Jim Walczak said:
Ok...that's good...pretty much what I was shooting for - just a tich of warm. Didn't want to clean that out completely because a lot of the dogs also had a lot of reds in them and they started to look a bit dull with too much adjustment. It's just that looking at my desk top right now, it seems REALLY blue'ish compared to how it looked before...I think it's just gonna take a bit for my eyes to get used to it.

Here is my attempt on #1: I used the vertical of the PVC lattice to set the WB (the horizontal pipe has a definite yellow cast from the lights).

Then I fiddled with the exposure, pulled the WB a bit to warm (because you wrote that you wanted it there), decreased the contrast, and just a tiny bit of sharpening.

astroNikon · Dec 9, 2015

I don't know if this will solve some problems but You should take a grey card like this one with you and take a shot of that before and after any events, then use the LightRoom dropper to set WB on the 18% grey of the card. ==> Amazon.com : DGK Color Tools DKK 5" x 7" Set of 2 White Balance and Color Calibration Charts with 12% and 18% Gray - Includes Frame Stand and User Guide : Photographic Light Meter Color Calibration Charts : Camera & Photo

tirediron · Dec 9, 2015

astroNikon said:
I don't know if this will solve some problems but You should take a grey card like this one with you and take a shot of that before and after any events, then use the LightRoom dropper to set WB on the 18% grey of the card. ==> Amazon.com : DGK Color Tools DKK 5" x 7" Set of 2 White Balance and Color Calibration Charts with 12% and 18% Gray - Includes Frame Stand and User Guide : Photographic Light Meter Color Calibration Charts : Camera & Photo

^^This^^ You need to be using a properly calibrated white or grey target rather than "whatever". There are as many tones of white as Carter's got liver pills, and the net result is that every session is going to look just a little (or maybe even a lot) bit different. Using a consistent target to balance off of will help ensure a cohesive look & feel to your work.

Jim Walczak · Dec 9, 2015

tirediron said:
astroNikon said:

I don't know if this will solve some problems but You should take a grey card like this one with you and take a shot of that before and after any events, then use the LightRoom dropper to set WB on the 18% grey of the card. ==> Amazon.com : DGK Color Tools DKK 5" x 7" Set of 2 White Balance and Color Calibration Charts with 12% and 18% Gray - Includes Frame Stand and User Guide : Photographic Light Meter Color Calibration Charts : Camera & Photo

Click to expand...

^^This^^ You need to be using a properly calibrated white or grey target rather than "whatever". There are as many tones of white as Carter's got liver pills, and the net result is that every session is going to look just a little (or maybe even a lot) bit different. Using a consistent target to balance off of will help ensure a cohesive look & feel to your work.

Tirediron, Astro and Designer...

The white balance of the shoot itself was not my big concern. Perhaps I should have clarified this in my initial post, however the point of having gone out Saturday was to have some fun and get some time in with the new camera...except for chasing my own critters around, along with one trip to the park, I haven't really been able to get out with the new camera at all. Now that I finally have the sensor cleaned, mostly I wanted to see how the new camera handled and especially how it would do in low light conditions...and going to see the pooches seemed like a fun way to do it (which it was). I'll start dialing in color and exposure and such, once I have a better feel for this camera...that just wasn't the priority here. Please be assured that had this of been a paid gig or anything more serious, I would have given considerably more attention to such issues, as I was already aware that the lighting inside the IX Center tends to suck (and I probably would have used my D90, damaged as it is, because I'm still learning the D7000 and still trying to hammer out the bugs).

The whole point of this post was to get a few opinions on the monitor calibration - again, apparently it's been a while since I re-calibrated and I wasn't sure if something was off or if my eyes just need to adjust. To that end, for artistic and aesthetic reasons the shots were deliberately processed to be a bit warm.

Sorry I didn't make that clear.

tirediron · Dec 9, 2015

Ahhhh... now all is clear!

astroNikon · Dec 9, 2015

I would still use the grey card, then in the computer (irregardless of how it is on your monitor) the WB and colors will be correct before you modify. It's my cheap way of not calibrating my monitor

(I'm sure I'll get slayed by the calibration folks now )

Designer · Dec 9, 2015

Jim Walczak said:
The whole point of this post was to get a few opinions on the monitor calibration - again, apparently it's been a while since I re-calibrated and I wasn't sure if something was off or if my eyes just need to adjust. To that end, for artistic and aesthetic reasons the shots were deliberately processed to be a bit warm.

Sorry I didn't make that clear.

I thought I had understood what you were doing, and by offering my version, you could compare what I did with what you see on your display. My display renders this shot quite well, so how does it look on your display?

Jim Walczak · Dec 11, 2015

Designer said:
...so how does it look on your display?

The whites aren't quite as pink/yellowish as they were before, however to me, the dog actually looks a bit washed out in your edit. That was one of the problems I had in post...every time I tried to knock the reds down too much, a lot of the dogs (other than the huskies) didn't look right. Had this of been something more serious where I was actually more concerned about the picture(s) as a whole, yes...I certainly could have separated the dog into it's own layer, neutralized the background, yadda, yadda and that way I could have kept the saturation on the dog up where I wanted it. That said however, this just wasn't for any serious use at all...otherwise, again I would have taken more time to get it right to begin with.

In all honestly, I could go in and do that clean up on the colors in post, however there's just too many other issues, other than the color, to put THAT much effort into this set of images - the noise/lack of sharpness issues for example. I've done a little comparing of these shots with the shots I took of this same event back in 2008 with my Canon 40D and I'm a bit surprised the D7000 didn't do significantly better in comparison...it was a little better, but not as drastic as I would have expected. I just haven't worked with this camera enough to be absolutely certain, however it seems like this D7000 is actually producing a bit more noise than I feel it should. Sometime in the next week or so, I'm gonna fire up my D90 and do some side by side test shots with both cameras to compare and see whether or not it's my imagination.

Again, was just more concerned with the monitor calibration...and judging by the comments, it looks like I got that part nailed down.