Macbeth Color Checker, which one is right for me?

Hello all,

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I recently posted about color shift in Konica Impressa 50, and one of

the posters mentioned something about shooting a Macbeth color

checker on the first frame of the roll of film to keep track of color

shifts.

<p>

If I were to do this on every roll of film that I shoot, would my

prints come back better from my lab?

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I have looked at B&H and there appear to be many different versions

of this Macbeth color checker.

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<a

href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home;jsessionid=A461J

zBUq2!1067651792?

ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs

=MacBeth">MacBeth at B&H</a>

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they display a semi-gloss version for ~$300

<Br>mini versions with prices $78 and $59

<br>and full versions for $74 and $66

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I am a photojournalistic/portrait style shooter who prefers to have

people in %100 of his shots, and am looking to get the most out of my

lab in reguards to print quality.

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Would these accessories be the correct path for this goal? Which one

would be best for event photography where I am moving around working

out of a camera bag and just shooting a quick calibration frame? I

would not mind carrying around a huge 8x12 piece of paper if it would

significantly improve my prints. And finally, would the greyscale

help color color lab printing?

<p>

Thanks

You'll often find these cards packed in scanners. If you have access to a color printer, you can make your own; as it's not the absolute color values that count, but the relative shifts from roll to roll.

The advantage of a MacBeth or any other chip chart is that the values are known, and the colours are comparatively stable and carefully chosen. There are alternatives from Kodak, Jobo and others, but the standard MacBeth seems to be the most popular from what I've seen. I bought the mini to carry around with me in place of the Jobo I used to carry when I couldn't be bothered to carry the full version - but I found that the mini is just a bit too small for my purposes.

 

Best, Helen

Get the least expensive one.

 

Kodak includes a chart in their color dataguide, and Jobo includes one in one of their manuals (E6, IIRC).

 

It gives you a quantitative comparison from roll to roll of how the process was for the film, and how the printing went for the roll of film. IE, if the chart is off in spite of exposure, then the process was most likely bad. If the film / chart was good, but the prints are off, then the printing step was wrong.

 

You can detect exposure effects, film ageing and etc. I have caught film keeping problems, LIK problems, process problems and others using a checker. And I don't put one on every roll of film. However, sometimes I put two on. One for the first shot and one for the final shot to check end to end uniformity. I usually do this on 220 film or when the lighting is variable. I also check lighting out this way to see if there are fluctuations.

 

There are so many uses. Be creative in the use of a checker. I use several different types depending on job and etc...

 

Ron Mowrey