White Balance

White balance is described in my camera manual as simple 'temperature'
warm to cool but in photoshop there is no equivalent tool for that
simple of an adjustment. My CRT monitor also has a temperature control
and a more custom RGB option. Also it seems oversimplified, shouldn't it
be more complex? For the custom WB shot with the camera, I assume it
figures something more complex that simple warm/cool.

paul puts on the robe and wizard hat... HARRRRRRRRRR:

White balance is described in my camera manual as simple
'temperature'
warm to cool but in photoshop there is no equivalent tool for that
simple of an adjustment. My CRT monitor also has a temperature control
and a more custom RGB option. Also it seems oversimplified, shouldn't
it
be more complex? For the custom WB shot with the camera, I assume it
figures something more complex that simple warm/cool.


It sets the temperature of white .. well.. that might not be quite right
but for all intents and purposes..

To access it in photoshop I believe you need to shoot in RAW mode. Then
when you open the image in photoshop you get presented with a menu that
allows you to change the WB temperature.

Custom white balance means you point the camera at something white in
your area with the light you are shooting in, and then tell the camera
that that is white. This tells the camera what the temperature white is,
allowing for amore accurate redicition of the colours in your picture.
Most people have this set to auto but the custom setting should usually
give the best results. There will be presets too like "sunny, cloudy or
tungsten light" etc however the shooting situation doesnt always match
one of those directly.

However.. its just a slider of temperature measured in Kelvin. So.. its
fairly basic but critical to getting good colours in photos.


--
Dave

Get me away from here I’m dying
Play me a song to set me free

paul puts on the robe and wizard hat... HARRRRRRRRRR:

White balance is described in my camera manual as simple
'temperature'
warm to cool but in photoshop there is no equivalent tool for that
simple of an adjustment. My CRT monitor also has a temperature control
and a more custom RGB option. Also it seems oversimplified, shouldn't
it
be more complex? For the custom WB shot with the camera, I assume it
figures something more complex that simple warm/cool.


It sets the temperature of white .. well.. that might not be quite right
but for all intents and purposes..

To access it in photoshop I believe you need to shoot in RAW mode. Then
when you open the image in photoshop you get presented with a menu that
allows you to change the WB temperature.

Custom white balance means you point the camera at something white in
your area with the light you are shooting in, and then tell the camera
that that is white. This tells the camera what the temperature white is,
allowing for amore accurate redicition of the colours in your picture.
Most people have this set to auto but the custom setting should usually
give the best results. There will be presets too like "sunny, cloudy or
tungsten light" etc however the shooting situation doesnt always match
one of those directly.

However.. its just a slider of temperature measured in Kelvin. So.. its
fairly basic but critical to getting good colours in photos.


--
Dave

Get me away from here I’m dying
Play me a song to set me free

David Beamish wrote:

paul puts on the robe and wizard hat... HARRRRRRRRRR:

....

be more complex? For the custom WB shot with the camera, I assume it
figures something more complex that simple warm/cool.



It sets the temperature of white .. well.. that might not be quite right
but for all intents and purposes..

To access it in photoshop I believe you need to shoot in RAW mode. Then
when you open the image in photoshop you get presented with a menu that
allows you to change the WB temperature.

Custom white balance means you point the camera at something white in
your area with the light you are shooting in, and then tell the camera
that that is white. This tells the camera what the temperature white is,
allowing for amore accurate redicition of the colours in your picture.
Most people have this set to auto but the custom setting should usually
give the best results. There will be presets too like "sunny, cloudy or
tungsten light" etc however the shooting situation doesnt always match
one of those directly.

However.. its just a slider of temperature measured in Kelvin. So.. its
fairly basic but critical to getting good colours in photos.


Shouldn't correcting WB after the fact (without RAW) be as simple as a
cool/warm slider? Twiddling RGB (or CMYK) is a whole lot more
complicated. Why doesn't photoshop have a simple cool/warm slider
adjustment? If I do auto levels with the eyedropper on a white object in
the picture, it adjusts RGB separately in mysteious and non-intuitive ways.

Shouldn't correcting WB after the fact (without RAW) be as simple as a
cool/warm slider? Twiddling RGB (or CMYK) is a whole lot more
complicated. Why doesn't photoshop have a simple cool/warm slider
adjustment?

PS-7: on the menu bar at the top of the screen,

Edit/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation, then play to your hearts content

Canongirly wrote:

Shouldn't correcting WB after the fact (without RAW) be as simple as a
cool/warm slider? Twiddling RGB (or CMYK) is a whole lot more
complicated. Why doesn't photoshop have a simple cool/warm slider
adjustment?


PS-7: on the menu bar at the top of the screen,

Edit/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation, then play to your hearts content


Hue adjustment cycles through a rainbow, not a simple warm/cool range.

It is very confusing.

I just don't understand. It's not like I know better: I'm clueless how
the WB could be so simple.

"paul" wrote in message
...
Canongirly wrote:

Shouldn't correcting WB after the fact (without RAW) be as simple as a
cool/warm slider? Twiddling RGB (or CMYK) is a whole lot more
complicated. Why doesn't photoshop have a simple cool/warm slider
adjustment?


PS-7: on the menu bar at the top of the screen,

Edit/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation, then play to your hearts content


Hue adjustment cycles through a rainbow, not a simple warm/cool range.

It is very confusing.

I just don't understand. It's not like I know better: I'm clueless how the
WB could be so simple.

Paul,

Allow me to offer some info from the world of TV production that may help
explain white balance.

Most important thing to bear in mind: WB is not fixable by adjusting HUE.

In TV we rely on two specific scopes that allow us to properly set up TV
cameras before a broadcast:

-Waveform Monitor (it's actually a scope)
-Vector Scope

The Waveform shows us relative luminance (in tens of units) from zero to 100
units of video. We use this to set how bright the whites will be, how dark
the blacks will be and where the mid range or gamma will be. In Photoshop,
this equates to adjusting the hightlights, shadows and mid tones. During a
show, this scope is where we watch the effect of how open or closed the
camera iris's are.

Color set up uses the aforementioned Vector Scope and I think you'll be able
to make the connection with a little explanation.

Picture a TV station that has signed off for the night. They often put up
the test pattern known as "Color Bars." "Bars" (as we call them) allow us
to make sure that each primary and secondary color we use in TV is at the
right frequency and the right modulation. A Vector Scope has a circular
display consisting of a central dot (more on this in a moment) and six boxes
around the edge into which yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red and blue will
fall and show up as individual dots when all is set up correctly.

Now, there are two other dots with which we are concerned. One should show
us a specific lack of luminance (black) and a specific lack of chroma
(white.) We know each color falls into a specific quadrant of the display,
so if we see that the very center of the signal is off center say, toward
green or toward blue, then we know our white balance and/or our black
balance is off and we can add or subtract some red/blue/green to get that
centroid back in the middle of the display.

In the "old days" of color photo printing, you would adjust
cyan/yellow/magenta levels to white balance a print before exposing the
paper. In TV we use red/blue/green instead. IIRC you can set up Photoshop
to work in CYK instead of RBG if that it your preference.

This is why you cannot fix a WB problem with hue. Hue just spins the entire
pallette clockwise or counter clockwise directly around your white/black
center. If your center is off toward green, then if you adjust the hue, you
just get a greenish picture that can be made greener yet or pinker but your
white balance is still off toward green.

My favorite tool for fixing white balance issues in still photos is the
pallet of tools in Photoshop Elements called "Color Variation." CV allows
you to selectively add or subtract red/blue/green in any or all of the
highlites, midtones and/or shadows and this will allow you to combat a
black/white balance that is being pulled off center.

This may qualify as overkill post of the week (maybe month) but I hope it
helps. Just remember to think of where your white/black center is. With
color temp issues, sometimes adding a layer of 2 or 3% worth of a solid
orange or blue frame can help warm up or cool off an image that was shot too
cold (in Shadow) or too warm (in Tungsten.)

Feel free to ask any questions and I can maybe simplify this even farther.

Regards,

Jay Beckman
Chandler, AZ
Amateur Photog
Freelance Video Technician

"paul" wrote in message
...
Canongirly wrote:

Shouldn't correcting WB after the fact (without RAW) be as simple as a
cool/warm slider? Twiddling RGB (or CMYK) is a whole lot more
complicated. Why doesn't photoshop have a simple cool/warm slider
adjustment?


PS-7: on the menu bar at the top of the screen,

Edit/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation, then play to your hearts content


Hue adjustment cycles through a rainbow, not a simple warm/cool range.

It is very confusing.

I just don't understand. It's not like I know better: I'm clueless how the
WB could be so simple.

Paul,

Allow me to offer some info from the world of TV production that may help
explain white balance.

Most important thing to bear in mind: WB is not fixable by adjusting HUE.

In TV we rely on two specific scopes that allow us to properly set up TV
cameras before a broadcast:

-Waveform Monitor (it's actually a scope)
-Vector Scope

The Waveform shows us relative luminance (in tens of units) from zero to 100
units of video. We use this to set how bright the whites will be, how dark
the blacks will be and where the mid range or gamma will be. In Photoshop,
this equates to adjusting the hightlights, shadows and mid tones. During a
show, this scope is where we watch the effect of how open or closed the
camera iris's are.

Color set up uses the aforementioned Vector Scope and I think you'll be able
to make the connection with a little explanation.

Picture a TV station that has signed off for the night. They often put up
the test pattern known as "Color Bars." "Bars" (as we call them) allow us
to make sure that each primary and secondary color we use in TV is at the
right frequency and the right modulation. A Vector Scope has a circular
display consisting of a central dot (more on this in a moment) and six boxes
around the edge into which yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red and blue will
fall and show up as individual dots when all is set up correctly.

Now, there are two other dots with which we are concerned. One should show
us a specific lack of luminance (black) and a specific lack of chroma
(white.) We know each color falls into a specific quadrant of the display,
so if we see that the very center of the signal is off center say, toward
green or toward blue, then we know our white balance and/or our black
balance is off and we can add or subtract some red/blue/green to get that
centroid back in the middle of the display.

In the "old days" of color photo printing, you would adjust
cyan/yellow/magenta levels to white balance a print before exposing the
paper. In TV we use red/blue/green instead. IIRC you can set up Photoshop
to work in CYK instead of RBG if that it your preference.

This is why you cannot fix a WB problem with hue. Hue just spins the entire
pallette clockwise or counter clockwise directly around your white/black
center. If your center is off toward green, then if you adjust the hue, you
just get a greenish picture that can be made greener yet or pinker but your
white balance is still off toward green.

My favorite tool for fixing white balance issues in still photos is the
pallet of tools in Photoshop Elements called "Color Variation." CV allows
you to selectively add or subtract red/blue/green in any or all of the
highlites, midtones and/or shadows and this will allow you to combat a
black/white balance that is being pulled off center.

This may qualify as overkill post of the week (maybe month) but I hope it
helps. Just remember to think of where your white/black center is. With
color temp issues, sometimes adding a layer of 2 or 3% worth of a solid
orange or blue frame can help warm up or cool off an image that was shot too
cold (in Shadow) or too warm (in Tungsten.)

Feel free to ask any questions and I can maybe simplify this even farther.

Regards,

Jay Beckman
Chandler, AZ
Amateur Photog
Freelance Video Technician

One up for Paint Shop Pro. Automatic Color Balance gives access to a
temperature slider that works perfectly.


"paul" wrote in message
...
Canongirly wrote:

Shouldn't correcting WB after the fact (without RAW) be as simple as a
cool/warm slider? Twiddling RGB (or CMYK) is a whole lot more
complicated. Why doesn't photoshop have a simple cool/warm slider
adjustment?


PS-7: on the menu bar at the top of the screen,

Edit/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation, then play to your hearts content


Hue adjustment cycles through a rainbow, not a simple warm/cool range.

It is very confusing.

I just don't understand. It's not like I know better: I'm clueless how the
WB could be so simple.

Shouldn't correcting WB after the fact (without RAW) be as simple as a
cool/warm slider? Twiddling RGB (or CMYK) is a whole lot more complicated.
Why doesn't photoshop have a simple cool/warm slider adjustment? If I do
auto levels with the eyedropper on a white object in the picture, it
adjusts RGB separately in mysteious and non-intuitive ways.

Buy Paint Shop Pro and use EffectsEnhance PhotoAutomatic Colour
BalanceIlluminant temperature and move the slider between Warmer (orange )
and Cooler (Blue) for the look you want.