White balance questions

[zachary.yong]

Hi everyone,

Encountered an issue with white balance that I can't seem to understand/solve.

A basic gray top that I was supposed to shoot for a clothing catalog kept turning out purple.

When i color corrected it according to the gray card (which I used), everything else looked ok except for that top, which became obviously purple.

Yet when i color corrected the top by setting the neutral gray as the color of the top, the top turned out gray but everything else became too green/cyan.

The color of the top's supposed to be gray. In fact, I scrutinized it under the lights and it was definitely gray, a same shade of gray as the gray card that i used.

Here is a link to the picture: http://www.khainui.me/nui.jpg

In the attached picture, the left part of the image was color corrected for the image, which made the image fine except for the top.

The right part of the image was color corrected for the top, which made the top neutral gray but everything else became messed up.

Any ideas?

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

I am not sure what you mean by "everything else came out messed up." In the left side I see the colorcast throughout the image. Background, skintone, shirt etc. Its some sort of red/magenta it appears. Try opening a saturation layer and pulling down the saturation on specific colors and seeing what effect it has. Also, try opening a Color Balance layer and tweaking that. You can also use curves to adjust color. There are many avenues to try and remove the colorcasts in PS. You can also mask off the shirt and ONLY adjust that if you like how everything else looks.

 

[KmH]

What are you using as a light source?

 

[zachary.yong]

ok thanks got it

kmh, using 2 500w monoblock strobe softboxes

what workflow do you guys use to correct the white balance btw? is it done at the camera level (gray card, expodisc, etc), or raw processing level?

 

[unpopular]

Are you 100% sure that what you are looking at isn't just the fact that you've pulled the magenta cast, and your eyes see green in it's absence? Have you taken an RGB reading from other places and see a generalized elevated green level?

This color memory effect can actually last longer than you'd think, especially if you're doing side-by-side or "und-redo" type comparisons.

I'd suggest opening the file after a bit of a break with fresh eyes.

Also, you are doing your grey correction precisely, using a dropper an not just "eyeballing", and your monitor is properly calibrated right? What method do you use for monitor calibration?

Eta- I did not notice the link, it was late.... Will look more carefully at image in a second

 

[BlairWright]

I use the Color Checker Passport. I could be wrong but that doesn't look like a WB issue to me. That can happen if you underexpose and I think I see some noise in the blacks so that may be the case, can we see the EXIF data?

Also, you have dust on your sensor, time for a cleaning

 

[480sparky]

Not only is the top purple, but the pants are as well.

Are you shooting raw or jpeg?

I recall running across some synthetic material years ago that just did not photograph anywhere near their real colors when captured on film. I don't know if the same holds true for digital.

 

[KmH]

Some types of fabric flouresce when lit.

I also shoot a X-Rite ColorChecker Passport in one shot each time I change lighting and use the white balance tool in ACR first thing to set WB before doing any other edits.

 

[bazooka]

I think unpopular might be right... if you look at the image and cover the left side, it looks ok. I think the absence of the magenta makes you think it's gone green. Best to use the dropper tool on the skin to see if it's within reality.