Do you find a Cusom WB setting helpful for artificial lighting? (artwork prints)

[bronzeo]

First of all I don't have the perfect lighting setup. ( I am using a bounced halogen of of a white sheet and 1 florescent to mix K temp closer to natural) I will improve that as I experiment. I am an artist and find painting under this mix works great in the sense that the finish product will no doubt be displayed in a similar lighting source.

My main question is if you think that setting up a custom white balance would help me to achieve a more perfect rendition of the original art being photographed? As I flip through the presets I find an enormous difference in output, and I am not finding that the AWB is that accurate. I flipped to setting to tungsten bulb and got a better result, but was also wondering if once you set a custom white balance, if I can save that profile for later use. I'm trying to set up a controlled environment for Artwork to Print photography. I am finding it hard to control some color hues that sometimes both vivid and fragile, which makes working with PS quite a chore. It most photography this is usually not a problem to the degree that it is trying to replicate fine art. That plus lack of experience doesn't help much. Up until now AWB was fine for me..... thanks for any suggestions ( I will improve lighting as time passes)
Canon 650 with 18/135 ef-s lens

 

[JerryLove]

A guess form an newb.

Shoot in RAW. Bring a color card (white card?). If the lighting on all the art is identical, you should be able to simply shoot it once under the same light... otherwise, shoot it each time as close to the art as possible before shooting the art from the same position.

Use the shot with the color card to determine WB and then copy that WB to your other shot (s) in your workflow process.

 

[KmH]

Using light sources that have differing color temperatures makes it impossible to have an accurate white balance. You can only set the white balance accurately for 1 of the light sources. You can partially correct the white balance for both light sources, but will still have a mixed light color cast.

Unless one of the light sources is gelled so its light color temperature matches the other light source. Then you set the camera white balance for the common light color temperature, and use a gray card or collor checker in a reference shot, shot Raw files, and then correct the WB post process using ACR (Photoshop - Adobe Camera Raw)

Color temperature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Understanding White Balance

 

[bronzeo]

Using light sources that have differing color temperatures makes it impossible to have an accurate white balance. You can only set the white balance accurately for 1 of the light sources. You can partially correct the white balance for both light sources, but will still have a mixed light color cast.
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I assume you are talking about the presets here. Hot and Cold water make warm water, which is water.... I thought that any lighting in a practical range was White Balance adjustable. This needs to make sense to me to be able to apply it. thanks

 

[Designer]

No, mixing two colors (types) of light in photography is not the same as seeing a mixture as you do in person.

Use just one type of light. If you could stand the expense, get a pair of strobes and a couple of large softboxes. Strobe lighting is white out of the box, but you will still want to make sure of the light color.

The first shot, place a color chart in the same location as the art work. Then in post-capture you can match the color correctly. Also calibrate your display. And it might depend on what you do with the electronic image next. What type of printing, on what material, by what lab, etc.

 

[480sparky38 38]

Using light sources that have differing color temperatures makes it impossible to have an accurate white balance. You can only set the white balance accurately for 1 of the light sources. You can partially correct the white balance for both light sources, but will still have a mixed light color cast.
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I assume you are talking about the presets here. Hot and Cold water make warm water, which is water.... I thought that any lighting in a practical range was White Balance adjustable. This needs to make sense to me to be able to apply it. thanks

If both light sources are spread equally and evenly across the subject matter, you probably can use a single custom WB to make it work. But if the two sources are not even and equal (one side of the subject is lit by one source, other side by second source), or parts of the scene are lit by different sources (outside is daylight, inside is incandescent or fluorescent), then balancing the two gets more difficult.

 

[bronzeo]

If both light sources are spread equally and evenly across the subject matter, you probably can use a single custom WB to make it work. But if the two sources are not even and equal (one side of the subject is lit by one source, other side by second source), or parts of the scene are lit by different sources (outside is daylight, inside is incandescent or fluorescent), then balancing the two gets more difficult.

Thanks, That makes sense to me..... I maybe didn't get across that the light is well mixed and on a completely flat surface, but also I want to understand and be able to deal with less than stellar lighting. I will want to apply this in the field also. Thanks.

 

[bronzeo]

I took everyone's advice and shot a RAW shot to experiment with, but PS cs2, will not open a RAWcs2 file or import it. ???
Waitaminute...... I guess I need to update a plugin according to google.

 

[JerryLove]

I took everyone's advice and shot a RAW shot to experiment with, but PS cs2, will not open a RAWcs2 file or import it. ???
Waitaminute...... I guess I need to update a plugin according to google.

Yes. PS updates their RAW converter plugin from time to time. I'm assuming you *have* the RAW plugin for PS. If not, one option would be to get it, but there are other pieces of software that will do the same thing (I know there's a free GIMP plugin for example) without cost.

 

[JerryLove]

Using light sources that have differing color temperatures makes it impossible to have an accurate white balance. You can only set the white balance accurately for 1 of the light sources. You can partially correct the white balance for both light sources, but will still have a mixed light color cast.
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I assume you are talking about the presets here. Hot and Cold water make warm water, which is water.... I thought that any lighting in a practical range was White Balance adjustable. This needs to make sense to me to be able to apply it. thanks

If both light sources are spread equally and evenly across the subject matter, you probably can use a single custom WB to make it work. But if the two sources are not even and equal (one side of the subject is lit by one source, other side by second source), or parts of the scene are lit by different sources (outside is daylight, inside is incandescent or fluorescent), then balancing the two gets more difficult.

That makes better sense than what was originally said: though unless the two lights are quite different in color and very uneven in coverage, I would think you could get very close with a single WB.

As I understand it: the solution under that criteria is to close the aperture / speed up the shutter until the scene is basically dark and then use a high-power flash.

 

[480sparky38 38]

........As I understand it: the solution under that criteria is to close the aperture / speed up the shutter until the scene is basically dark and then use a high-power flash.

If you're working indoors with artificial lighting, you can always turn the lights off and use whatever light source you care to haul in.

 

[bronzeo]

I went and found the proper plugin and installed it in the specified location in the PS CS2 program according to people with this experience.... I was supposed to be able to restart PS and it would import or open my RAW file. It doesn't know the plugin is there. I was told there would be an 8BI file that I was replacing for the udate, but the only ones I found were very small files. Nothing like the one of 1700kb that I put in there..... Maybe can find a way to add a plugin through the program like Corel does. Any other ideas?

 

[bronzeo]

Jerry, I downloaded the Adobe Application Updater, I also downloaded a file that was supposed to work by putting into the correct folder. Under Plug-ins in the Help file of PS CS2, I found Camera Raw Plugin, that apparently exists. I still can not import or open the RAW file..... that said, I can open the file with my Camera Software application sent the the camera, and then transfer it to CS2.... The file transfers as a .tiff, which is usually what I print from. Is this acceptable, or am I losing valuable info in the transfer. I might be able to do some of the things with the Canon Utility that I can with PS, but I'm not that familiar with it yet. It does do batch commands. thanks, jack

 

[JerryLove]

You lose only what you always lose moving from RAW.... you will have your first WB set. If you have it where you want it from the Camera Software application, you should be fine.

I'd suggest playing around with it and seeing what the results are. I have PS CS6, and can open directly (when I first moved from the Canon T2i to 6D I had trouble, but the Adobe update solved that)

 

[bronzeo]

I just printed my first trial, and it turned out great needing only a bump in contrast, but that can always be changed easily, The colors are spot on, with my WB set on tungsten. Thank you for all your help.