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Author Topic: Colour Consistency in Post Processing  (Read 3269 times)

RickyNZ

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Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« on: February 14, 2014, 02:11:00 am »

I'm interested in keeping colour consistent between shots, particularly in say, a wedding series, or perhaps product shots.

White balance goes so far, as does using tools such as the colour checker passport.

But are there 'quick and dirty' techniques used to quickly match up toning/colours in a series of images?  I used sync in LR etc, but I also know the 'colour match' tool in CC is used.

Any comments appreciated
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Fine_Art

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2014, 02:53:07 am »

In Raw Therapee a right click on the thumbnail brings up a menu with processing settings.

You can adjust the first image, close it, go to the thumbnails, copy, select a bunch of other thumbnails, Paste. Everything you did to the first image is now done to the others. You can also paste partial, as in some subset. Other software probably has the same functionality somewhere.
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RickyNZ

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2014, 03:15:22 am »

Thank you. I had not heard of that software.  I'm using LR. I'd love to edit in PS, then drop back to LR for batching, then, lets say, use an eyedropper to click on a tone in one image, then select that same tone in the others in the filmstrip, then let LR do the math to convert that particular tone to be exact on all images (leaving the rest of the image alone) - that would be the same as the 'colour match' tool in Photoshop, but on a larger scope.  Eyeballing it is generally not to bad to be honest, and using HSL in LR with the drag technique is pretty decent in a pinch. :)
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ErikKaffehr

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2014, 06:12:35 am »

Hi,

I see your point but I am not familiar with any method doing that. One thing you could try, though, is to select all the images, than "Auto Sync" and use the targeted adjustment tool on a given color/hue/tone. That would make an adjustment for that tone and carry over to the selected images. I don't know if it works and I don't know if it works for you but it could worth trying.

I would do it before raw conversion.

Best regards
Erik

Thank you. I had not heard of that software.  I'm using LR. I'd love to edit in PS, then drop back to LR for batching, then, lets say, use an eyedropper to click on a tone in one image, then select that same tone in the others in the filmstrip, then let LR do the math to convert that particular tone to be exact on all images (leaving the rest of the image alone) - that would be the same as the 'colour match' tool in Photoshop, but on a larger scope.  Eyeballing it is generally not to bad to be honest, and using HSL in LR with the drag technique is pretty decent in a pinch. :)
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Erik Kaffehr
 

James R

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2014, 11:12:25 am »

Beyond the eyeball, the only way I've found to get consistent colors is to shoot a reference shot (Xrite Passport, gray card, palm of hand, or whatever) every time there is a change in lighting.  A discipline at which I often fail.
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Doug Peterson

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2014, 02:09:46 pm »

I'm interested in keeping colour consistent between shots, particularly in say, a wedding series, or perhaps product shots.

White balance goes so far, as does using tools such as the colour checker passport.

But are there 'quick and dirty' techniques used to quickly match up toning/colours in a series of images?  I used sync in LR etc, but I also know the 'colour match' tool in CC is used.

Any comments appreciated

Have you tried running your wedding through Capture One? I find the color profiles much more robust and flexible under different lighting conditions (assuming you white balance of course). This is especially true of skin tones in my experience.

I've found across the board that getting "good color" out of C1 is faster for me than in LR.

wolfnowl

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2014, 02:10:05 am »

Beyond the eyeball, the only way I've found to get consistent colors is to shoot a reference shot (Xrite Passport, gray card, palm of hand, or whatever) every time there is a change in lighting.  A discipline at which I often fail.

James: I found this very enlightening: http://www.digitaldog.net/files/DNG%20Camera%20profile%20video.mov

Mike.
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RickyNZ

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2014, 01:37:44 pm »

Thank you. I will look at that. I know that some commercial product photogs specialise in consistency, so I'm quite interested to explore that. I might take a trial of capture one. Appreciate the input.

Additionally, what is the accepted way to match camera consistency? I shoot d700/d800 and there is a difference of course. I assume the passport would sort that out, or perhaps camera calibration in LR for example.  Another can of worms to open there probably :D
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ErikKaffehr

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #8 on: March 14, 2014, 01:34:38 am »

Hi,

Shooting a grey card for reference to start with, so you get same white balance. WB is a major issue.

Calibration based on a ColorChecker card with Adobe DNG Profile Editor or Color Checker Passport program could be helpful to match cameras.

Best regards
Erik

Thank you. I will look at that. I know that some commercial product photogs specialise in consistency, so I'm quite interested to explore that. I might take a trial of capture one. Appreciate the input.

Additionally, what is the accepted way to match camera consistency? I shoot d700/d800 and there is a difference of course. I assume the passport would sort that out, or perhaps camera calibration in LR for example.  Another can of worms to open there probably :D
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Erik Kaffehr
 

hjulenissen

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Re: Colour Consistency in Post Processing
« Reply #9 on: March 14, 2014, 03:36:24 am »

I find that colorchecker profiles is mostly a "set and forget" thing for me and my needs. I have made a few profiles for my cameras in a few lighting conditions, and choosing among them seems to get me 95% of the benefit for 5% of the effort.

Now, matching a series of shots so that they "feel" coherent can be hard. It would be nice if Lightroom offered some dropper tools (ala the WB dropper) for selecting reference points in the scene wrgt exposure correction, black point etc. That way you could "anchor" certain objects that reappear in several images. Dragging sliders and manually reading out rgb values in an area is a work-around.

-h
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