Want to take image, white balance, exposure of series...

<p>and then batch process it to all the images of a series. Since I use a studio for all work, lighting is basically the same with same color temperature with Paul C. Buff Einsteins. Let's say I have 900 images from a shoot. I correct the first image white balance (that maybe off for all) and I correct the white balance and the exposure only. Now that I have that image, I want to reference this image to the rest of the 899 uncorrected images and correct them in a batch process. This saves me a lot of work each time. Don't tell me I could do it all in camera raw as it is not as accurate as it is in Photoshop CS6. Unless there is a way of referencing this image back from Photoshop to ACR. What would be the best solution: Is to be reference back from Photoshop to the camera, but I can't figure out how to do this.<br>

Thanks, Richard</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Don't tell me I could do it all in camera raw as it is not as accurate as it is in Photoshop CS6.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Has nothing to do with accuracy (that's a BS term* used far too often on the web when it has nothing to do with accuracy) and everything to do with the degree of control altering WB from raw vs. a rendered image where the WB is <strong>baked</strong>. Further, the job would take a mere seconds or three IF you did this in Lightroom (copy and paste settings from image 1 to the other 899). <br>

* <em>Delta-E and color accuracy</em><br>

<em>In this 7 minute video I'll cover: What is Delta-E and how we use it to evaluate color differences. Color Accuracy: what it really means, how we measure it using ColorThink Pro and BableColor CT&A. This is an edited subset of a video covering RGB working spaces from raw data (sRGB urban legend Part 1).</em><br>

<em>Low Rez:

<em>High Rez: http://digitaldog.net/files/Delta-E%20and%20Color%20Accuracy%20Video.mp4</em></p>

<p>This kind of batch processing is actually exactly the kind of thing that programs as Lightroom and CaptureOne do great. Edit one photo, copy the edits you want to clone, select all the others and off you go.</p>

<p>Use Lightroom in the Develop mode. Select the image(s) you wish to adjust. Adjust the first image of the set then press Sync to copy those adjustments to the other images. This will open a dialogue box in which you can specify which parameters you wish to synchronize. Nearly everything you can change using Lightroom can be synchronized. All of these adjustments are non-destructive, and can be easily reset or changed, regardless of the file type. You can make the changes permanent only by exporting (copying) them to new files.</p>

<p>Although Lightroom makes use of ACR algorithms, it is much more sophisticated, nearly as powerful as Photoshop. All changes in Photoshop are permanent once saved and closed unless you use adjustment layers. Batch operations usually require you to write a script. Think "PITA."</p>

<p>Even if you don't have 900 images to change at once, Develop Sync is a very useful function. When shooting an event, like a wedding, you find images tend to fall into groups which require similar adjustments. As a corollary, that's why it's more important to be consistent than "correct" in a shoot. For formal groups at a wedding, for example, I put the camera into full manual mode so that minor changes in the subject, e.g., more or less white clothing, don't affect the exposure or white balance.</p>

<p>ACR syncs multiple edits too but I think it would barf if one tried to do this on 899 images. LR is the perfect toolset for this kind of work. </p>

<p>Have a read on the Buff Einsteins with regard to controlling white balance...</p>

<p>http://www.paulcbuff-techforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4712</p>

<p>I hope you're shooting in Raw and not jpeg. If jpeg, you're in for a lot of work both in Photoshop and ACR/LR if you don't control your lighting for consistency.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Have a read on the Buff Einsteins with regard to controlling white balance...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>On top of what he said; CCT values define a range, not a specific color. <br /> D50 is a specific description of the color of white, 5000K is a range of <em>possible</em> colors. <br /> As he points out, differing raw converters will produce differing values so YMMV, another reason why a specific value isn't at all important. Just change a DNG camera profile in LR and the <em>As Shot</em> value <em>can</em> change with it! The only way to really get a handle on the numbers is to measure the Lightsource with something like an X-rite i1Pro Spectrophotometer and something like BableColor which is expensive ($2K) but cheap compared to other tools. <br /> In the end, the WB numbers are not really important, the color appearance is.</p>

<p>The appearance of WB is what the OP is wanting to achieve with one image and apply to the rest of the 899 images. He's indicating that he can't get the appearance consistently applied to the rest which suggests the light source's WB he's shooting under is changing shot to shot which is what that linked discussion is pointing out along with the necessity for shooting Raw, not jpeg. We still don't know for sure if the OP of this thread is shooting Raw.</p>

<p>The OP isn't concerned about CCT/Kelvin numbers, he's trying to get consistency in a appearance of WB and is convinced it can be done more easily in Photoshop over the Raw converter which suggests he's shooting jpeg.</p>

<p>But by all means, Andrew, help the OP out by explaining all the science behind color temperature accuracy even though he's asking for post processing tips for turnkey process of studio shots.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>He's indicating that he <strong>can't</strong> get the appearance consistently applied to the rest which suggests the light source's WB he's shooting under is changing image to image which is what that linked discussion is pointing out along with shooting Raw, not jpeg.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Is he? Here's what I read:</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>I correct the first image white balance (that maybe off for all) and I correct the white balance and the exposure only. Now that I have that image, I want to reference this image to the rest of the 899 uncorrected images and correct them in a batch process.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>There's no indication to me he's having <strong>any</strong> issue other than fixing the <strong>other</strong> 899 images as quick as possible.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>But by all means, Andrew, help the OP out by explaining all the science behind color temperature accuracy eve though he's asking for post processing tips for turnkey process of studio shots.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I did. Here <strong>and</strong> via a private message <strong>he sent me.</strong> Based on our conversation Tim, I <em>think</em> I have a pretty good idea of what he's trying to accomplish but thanks again for your support as usual.... <br /> By all means Tim, speculate that the OP can't produce a desired color appearance despite what he specifically wrote in public (let alone our private conversation). <br /> Now <em>maybe</em> some of us can get back to the task of aiding him.</p>

<p>It's his lights he's using, Andrew. I'm not going to get into one of your loopy arguments over color science, again. I'm trying to help the guy.</p>

<p>I just rattled off a turnkey process of my bathroom vanity lit by Walmart Daylight LED with my camera set to Daylight shooting Raw. I clicked on the white toothbrush, saved to XMP and applied to the rest. Finished within a minute. Didn't mess with exposure but went ahead and applied +80 which didn't affect the color balance.</p><div></div>

<blockquote>

<p>It's his lights he's using, Andrew.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Really? Do you know specifically what light he's using? I do; he told me.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I'm not going to get into one of your loopy arguments over color science, again. I'm trying to help the guy.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I know you <em>think</em> you are Tim. Actually you're just being repetitive! The solution to his problem was posted <strong>long</strong> <strong>before you arrived here</strong>. You reading the posts here backwards? Or not reading the posts above at all?</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I just rattled off a turnkey process of my bathroom vanity lit by Walmart Daylight LED with my camera set to Daylight shooting Raw.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Lovely shot Tim, but utterly pointless. <br /> The OP's not using lighting anything like you're using (I know, he told me).</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I clicked on the white toothbrush, saved to XMP and applied to the rest. Finished within a minute.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You obviously again missed the salient point <strong>already expressed long before you got</strong> here, from me, 2nd post! <br /> <em>Further, the job would take a mere seconds or three IF you did this in Lightroom (copy and paste settings from image 1 to the other 899).</em><br /> Took you a minute Tim? What took you so long?</p>

<p>This discussion is way over the top and down the backside!<br>

I have a Nikon d750, 2 x 700, and a d90. All of them have a custom white balance target setting graph. I have already determined the basic exposure to f/8 for the main and f/5 for the fill at ISO 100. That was easy. I don't have a color meter so I had to get creative. I thought I would take a few images and take them into PS6 and fix one of them. Once I had that image I tried to figure a way to take it back to the camera with the information from the image corrected in photoshop. Could not figure it out. If some know how to do that please tell me. If that can't be done, then the next best thing is to have that corrected image as the source for the white balance into a batch automation (script or action) so I can have a faster, easier, wonderful solution to correcting all the images (could be 700 to 1500 images) from the same shoot (Even though I could be using 4 cameras and 6 lenses for the single shoot.<br>

I do not want to use Lightroom (I have it but don't want a different workflow that that would add to). I sleep at night and could have Photoshop doing everything for me while I was in dreamland.</p><div></div>

<blockquote>

<p>Once I had that image I tried to figure a way to take it back to the camera with the information from the image corrected in photoshop. Could not figure it out.If some know how to do that please tell me.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br />Have you tried Match Color in Photoshop?...

<p>Other than that, shoot Raw.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Other than that, shoot Raw.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Where do you see Richard <strong>isn't</strong>shooting raw? He stated he's using ACR in the very first post (and to me in our email:<br>

<em>My work flow is ACR to PS6</em>)! <br>

Richard, have you tried syncing using ACR/Bridge rather than LR? <br /> http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1655224<br /> <em>Using Bridge CS5, decide on the photos you’d like to edit together, select their thumbnails in the Content panel, and right-click to view the context menu. Choose Open in Camera Raw; this will open all of the images into ACR at the same time.</em><br /> I would NOT attempt to do this on 899 images, at least not initially anything close to that.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I do not want to use Lightroom (I have it but don't want a different workflow that that would add to).</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Nice try, Andrew. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.<br /> <br /> Sleep well, Richard.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Nice try, Andrew. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>He can do the same in ACR but as I wrote long ago, I suspect it would barf on 899 images. It might not; I'm not going to try <g>. But even 200 at a time? Again, the OP told me he's using ACR: <em>My work flow is ACR to PS6.</em></p>

<p>You can do it with ACR/Bridge if you wanted without any issue. Recent versions of ACR allow you to use a database to store the adjustments instead of creating xmp files. Just go to camera raw preferences and select "Save image settings in: Camera Raw Database"<br>

I just tried for fun with 700 images from a D800, all at once, and the adjustment took only seconds, while the update of the previews took a few minutes.<br>

<br />Bridge, ACR, LR and even Capture 1 use the same database SQLite, (Yes, part of the Bridge Cache is a SQLite database) and 900 is a really low number of transactions for a database.</p>

<p>LR is perhaps the most ambitious implementation that I know for SQLite in terms of the schema (tables and fields) and its main difference with other programs is the library implementation, not the database itself, because almost any other program use a database too.<br>

<br />One comment about copying white balance in LR: If you copy the settings from an image where the WB is "As shoot", then it will copy "As shoot" and not the temperature / tint values. Maybe this is obvious to everybody else but it was not obvious to me.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>One comment about copying white balance in LR: If you copy the settings from an image where the WB is "As shoot", then it will copy "As shoot" and not the temperature / tint values. Maybe this is obvious to everybody else but it was not obvious to me.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That may be an '<em>issue</em>' with Relative vs. Absolute adjustments. Not sure how ACR handles this compared to LR. Depending on where you apply a pasted edit in LR, you get two quite different results! <br>

So does ACR use Relative or Absolute and would this be an advantage to the OP to use LR instead?</p>

<p>Appears to me that syncing multiple images in ACR uses <em>Absolute</em> which may or may not be a good solution for the OP depending on his needs. Since he's using multiple cameras, Relative <em>might</em> be a better option. <em>If</em> his goal is identical CCT values (and I explained despite Tim's rants that this may not be a good move), Absolute will do this. But <em>if</em> his goal isn't identical numbers but a closer color appearance, Relative might be a better option. Then it's back to the horse drinking from the Lightroom well. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>Where do you see Richard <strong>isn't</strong>shooting raw? He stated he's using ACR in the very first post (and <strong>to me in our email</strong>:<br /><em>My work flow is ACR to PS6</em>)!</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's great! Well if you two are talking to each other outside this thread exchange then you are his official consultant on this matter. You are the expert and I will bow out. Hope you solve his problem. It's nice working for free, isn't it?</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Well if you two are talking to each other outside this thread exchange then you are his official consultant on this matter.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No, he just knows who to ask.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>You are the expert and I will bow out.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's fine with me. Perhaps other's too?</p>

<blockquote>

<p>It's nice working for free, isn't it?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I do it all the time Tim. I'm not here to make a profit but aid other members. You?<br /> <em>Doing things for others always pays dividends... </em> -Claude M. Bristol</p>

Hi Richard I agree with your assesment of this discussion but disagree with your workflow.

 

I am currently finishing a three day shoot where we will likely end up with approximately 4,500 portraits of roughly 300-350 people, of a truly global mix of skintones,

 

The key light is a single Paul C. Buff, Inc. Einstein E640 (in constant color mode) in a Medium Chimera SuperPRO lightbank and the fill card is a collapsible silver skinned Lastolite reflector. The white background is lit by two more Einsteins, each in a black backed 38" umbrella, one to the left and one to the right of the background. I am slightly adjusting the position, angle, and height of the key light and the fill reflector to suit the individual's face.

 

Here is my processing workflow

 

Each day the first shot is of my assistant holding an Xrite ColorChecker Passport (the 24-patch target) and a WhiBal gray

balance target to make sure the exposure matches the previous day.

 

After importing into Lightroom (CC2015 version to be precise) I gather all of the portraits into a single collection, select

them all but open the image with the WhiBal and ColorChecker. I next set Clarity and Vibrance and chose the Camera

Profile that gives me the overall best color, and then set white balance using the white balance eyedropper on the WhiBal

Target. I then apply (by sync) these develop settings to all of the images and go get a cup of coffee. I end up with

pleasing skintones on everyone and most importantly the overall color balance matches from tge first ro the final shot

across all three days of portrait sessions.

 

I hope this helps you.

<p>Andrew, I'm sure you'll let us know in this thread how you solved OP's problem so others reading or lurking will benefit.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Andrew, I'm sure you'll let us know in this thread how you solved OP's problem so others reading or lurking will benefit.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You still here? <br /> This is yet another reason why it's difficult to take some of your text seriously. After all, <strong>you</strong> did write: <em>I will bow out.</em></p>

<p>Ellis, have you found that procedure works on a series of Raw images captured across several different cameras? The OP's workflow keeps getting more diverse and complicated the more he seems to be divulging to Andrew through emails according to this quote...</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>Since he's using multiple cameras, Relative <em>might</em> be a better option.</p>

</blockquote>