# Looking to Fool-Proof our Color Corrections



## Moe (Nov 24, 2015)

My wife and I own a company that sells fabric online. We do our best to take an accurate photo for each of the 5000 fabrics that we offer. Our process involves taking a picture with a Nikon D90 (in RAW) and then developing it with Lightroom. Though our camera position is fixed and the lighting never changes, we've found that every image needs tweaking in terms of color, black level, etc. Some of our red fabrics need serious color adjustments but our browns come out nearly perfect every time.

Is there a way to set a single perfect color balance so that the camera will always take an fairly accurate photo? The reason I'm concerned about this is because we are thinking about hiring a college student to take the photos for us but the current way that we do it requires a keen eye and a lot of experience to get the colors just right. I rather make this a fool-proof process but I really dont know a whole lot about DSLR's and Lightroom.


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## clee01l (Nov 24, 2015)

Welcome to the forum. 
First you need a color calibrated monitor. so that the colors displayed for that monitor are consistent.  If you send a "red" color signal to the monitor (RGB 255,0,0) then the monitor should transmit the same 255,0,0 at that pixel and not something like 254,011,003. Your color calibration tool should in addition to adjusting the signal displayed to the signal sent, should actively monitor the screen and ambient lighting to compensate for changes in ambient lighting.   This must be done for every monitor that will have the image projected.  Furthermore, the application that will be displaying the image needs to be color aware and capable of responding to the the color profile that you will be embedding in the header of the image file.  
If your goal is a print, then printer AND Paper need to also be calibrated with the tool and a color profile developed that can be used when you soft-proof the image in LR and subsequently print it. 

If you are taking a series of images under the same lighting conditions you need to use a Macbeth Color check chart.. This is a specially print card with defined colors that are transmitted by the surface of the card in the same lighting conditions. If you take a photo of the card before the other images and another after, then you can process that color check image in LR to match the colors shown when viewing the card alongside the monitor being used to edit the images.  The LR adjustments to that card  can be applied to the retake image of that card and should (if ambient lighting is consistent) make the final image match the first.  Then this set of adjustments can be applied in batch to all of the images in between.


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## Moe (Nov 24, 2015)

Thanks for the help. We are using a color calibrated monitor (we calibrate with a DataColor Spyder) but I'm afraid you completely lost me in your second paragraph. I don't understand why we can't make one color correction (given our unchanging light set up) and have great pictures all the time.


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 24, 2015)

What you really need is a custom camera profile.


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## clee01l (Nov 24, 2015)

Moe said:


> Thanks for the help. We are using a color calibrated monitor (we calibrate with a DataColor Spyder) but I'm afraid you completely lost me in your second paragraph. I don't understand why we can't make one color correction (given our unchanging light set up) and have great pictures all the time.


Because it is never unchanging. If for example you are using A/C lighting at 60Hz, the light amplitude is cycling at 60 cycles per second. If change in intensity. This is most obvious with fluorescent lighting.  Also A/C varies constantly from your vendor. In the US, it can be anywhere between 110 & 125 volts.  More volts = brighter.If you are using flash, the same variable brightness can occur with slight fluctuations in power. 

If you shoot indoors and there are windows present. A cloudy day and a sunny day will have different effects on the same subject with all other variables being the same. 

The color card is best for consistent on the spot color checking and may prove reliable over several shoots over several days. But you can't reliably count on it to shoot once and forget.


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## Moe (Nov 24, 2015)

We shoot under 1,500 watts of incandescent spotlights and in a warehouse with no windows but I understand that it could change a bit. 

Where can I find a tutorial for working with the color card in Lightroom? I dont understand that process.


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## clee01l (Nov 24, 2015)

It is so simple that you do not need a tutorial 
 Take a photo of the card in the location and under the lighting that your other subjects are going to be photographed. 
When you import your shoot into LR this will be the first image.  Use your post processing adjustments on this photo and compare the photo with the actual colors on the card (under the same lighting for both monitor and card, i.e. side by side).  Once you have matched the colors that you see on the screen with what you see IRL, you can save those settings as a Develop Preset. 
Apply that develop preset to all of the other images imported from that shoot.  If all of the images were shot with the same shutter speed, aperture & ISO as the card shot everything will be consistent.  

You can use the saved preset on other shoots and get similar results, but it is best to always take a photo of the Macbeth Color Checker card at the beginning and end of each shoot.


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## Moe (Nov 25, 2015)

Should I assume the gray card would not help in this case?


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## clee01l (Nov 25, 2015)

Moe said:


> Should I assume the gray card would not help in this case?


A gray card will help you set the White Balance, it does nothing to determine color fidelity. One of the patches on the bottom row of the color checker is the 18% gray. Some card come with an 18% gray on the reverse so that you can check both color and WB.


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## Moe (Nov 25, 2015)

Thanks for the advice. I will order the color chart. Is this the right one...?

http://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-MSCCC-...O31C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448461265&sr=8-1


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## clee01l (Nov 25, 2015)

Moe said:


> Thanks for the advice. I will order the color chart. Is this the right one...?
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-MSCCC-...O31C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448461265&sr=8-1


Yes....


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## LouieSherwin (Nov 25, 2015)

Hi Moe,

I would suggest a further step and instead of just getting the card get the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport. This is an excellent tool for studio situations such as yours.

This has the same color patches plus a number of patches to finely refine white balance. With this package you also get a piece of software that will create a Lightroom custom camera profile. This profile accurately represent the camera and lighting conditions. This should give you very good color fidelity with out having to go and tweak each individual image.

-louie


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## Replytoken (Nov 25, 2015)

Datacolor also has similar products.  You should check and see if they have any upgrade pricing or discounts as you currently own a Spyder.

--Ken


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 25, 2015)

Replytoken said:


> Datacolor also has similar products.  You should check and see if they have any upgrade pricing or discounts as you currently own a Spyder.



I don't think Datacolor has a product to create a camera profile for Lightroom. They have the Spyder monitor calibration software, but that is a different kind of profile altogether. The only two packages to create camera profiles I know are Xrite ColorChecker Passport and Adobe 'DNG Profile Editor'. The latter is free.


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## Replytoken (Nov 26, 2015)

Datacolor has a lot of products in its three lines so it is hard to definitively say, but I thought their Spyder Checkr product might function in a similar manner.

--Ken


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## Rob_Cullen (Nov 26, 2015)

My summary for good workflow is- (I would like to hear other comments on this list!)


1. Profile the MONITOR with a colorimeter regularly to ensure it is showing colors as accurately as possible. (Spyder ColorMunki eyeone? etc)

2. Create a SPECIFIC CAMERA profile- you need an XRite Color Checker Passport, the Free _Adobe DNG Profile Editor, _and a photo of the Color Checker in DNG format. Make this Camera Profile the 'Default' in Lightroom.

3. Photograph a WHITE BALANCE grey card (or better yet!- the Color Checker Passport) at the start of each shoot and use this in Lightroom to sync the correct white balance for all the shoot images.

4. Get your EXPOSURE correct "in Camera".

Note: Old "Grey Cards" for EXPOSURE setting may not be "Neutral Grey" and so may NOT be suitable for white balance. Use the Color Checker Passport or a 'Grey' Card that is suitable for WB. (Exposure and White Balance are two entirely different concepts)


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 26, 2015)

Replytoken said:


> Datacolor has a lot of products in its three lines so it is hard to definitively say, but I thought their Spyder Checkr product might function in a similar manner.



It may indeed! Looks like a shameless rip off from ColorChecker Passport.


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## Hoggy (Nov 26, 2015)

Isn't also possible to just install the X-rite LR plugin?  IIRC, it doesn't check for an attatched device.

From here:
https://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=820&Action=support&SoftwareID=1063


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 26, 2015)

There is no device, but the plugin needs the application.


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## Replytoken (Nov 26, 2015)

JohanElzenga said:


> It may indeed! Looks like a shameless rip off from ColorChecker Passport.



I do not know the histories between the companies, but it seems like both have pretty extensive product lines, and both seem to have good relations with Adobe, so I am not sure how much copying there is betweenthe two companies.  But, it is good to have choices.

--Ken


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## Johan Elzenga (Nov 26, 2015)

Datacolor has some very good products, but they also have a history of 'borrowing' ideas from others. This seems a copy of ColorChecker Passport, their 'Spyder LensCal' is a cheap rip off from Micheal Tapes' LensAlign. For the consumer that's not all that bad though, because it keeps the pressure on prices.


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