tom_green12

<p>Not sure if this post is still being read, but nonetheless.</p> <p>A shortcut of “removing” a negative’s colour cast is to manually set the white balance in-camera based on the colour cast of the negative – this will facilitate post-processing in that the colours will be more accurate straight from the RAW file.</p> <p>Below are a few examples (colour and B&W) to show what the difference is between three in-camera white balance settings (Auto WB, Light Source WB and Negative WB (light source illuminated)).</p> <p>White balance settings (btw. manual setting does not require reference to be in focus so one can get up nice an close – Nikon requires filling full viewfinder):<br /> - Auto WB: camera Auto WB setting<br /> - Light source WB: manual WB set measuring the backlight in my duplicator rig<br /> - Negative WB: manual WB set measuring the backlight through an unexposed part of the negative (i.e. orange cast light)</p> <p>N.B. The only post-processing steps I have done in are 1) invert curve, 2) crop and 3) auto levels. I took the photos hand-held and have not introduced any colour reference/ control points – so please ignore general look and sharpness of them, the idea is to show out-of camera colour cast (after above three quick steps).</p> <p><strong>Colour examples</strong> (note the colours on the pillows – the Negative WB one is definitely closer to the real life colours).</p> <p>Auto WB: <a href="/photo/17962103">http://www.photo.net/photo/17962103</a><br /> Light source WB: <a href="/photo/17962107">http://www.photo.net/photo/17962107</a><br /> Negative WB: <a href="/photo/17962108">http://www.photo.net/photo/17962108</a></p> <p><strong>B&W examples</strong> (the Auto WB has a sepia cast and the Light Source WB a very slight sepia cast – easily removed by a B&W conversion)<br /> <br /> Auto WB: <a href="/photo/17962109">http://www.photo.net/photo/17962109</a><br /> Light source WB: <a href="/photo/17962110">http://www.photo.net/photo/17962110</a><br /> Negative WB: <a href="/photo/17962111">http://www.photo.net/photo/17962111</a></p> <p>As you can see the method does not deliver out-of camera perfection but does speed things up and removes the need for cumbersome light setup, filters or advanced channel tweaking (if I had the camera in my duplicator rig, as opposed to hand-held, I reckon I could polish up above Negative WB photos with general contrast, sharpness and curve levers).</p> <p>Have a go yourselves and tell me what you think – it is beautifully simple!</p>