Color Checker Workflows

I personally own a color checker but i find the color checker sg works best. On capture one pro i find color checkers to be a waste of time.. Capture one is powerful and has a similar style and feel to working with video, personally i use capture one without a any color corrections and dial in contrast and saturation manually

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The color checkers are more effective in Adobe software but they are not perfect.. i find that camera color profiles created using the colorchecker sg are more effective

But before you invest in a color checker you must calibrate your screen for color. without that the color checker is usless as you cannot visually see the right colors to begin with.
hope this helps

 

Using a color checker is more a question of do you really need to use it?

For instance. To use the color checker for dialing in the correct neutral white balance you need to use it every time you change something in the setting
Mainly the light. - Because everything you change changed the correct neutral white balance.

Thats the reason why the color checker should be as near as possible at your subject.

Like @Phakamile mentioned Capture One already handles the colors pretty good. There are several ICC Profiles for almost every camera and with the new V21 also ProStandard Profiles which will handle the colors even better. So the Color checker is as already mentioned a little bit a waste of time.


I for myself also thought a lot of times to buy a color checker for getting the perfect white balance in my portraits and always struggled to adjust that.

A few days ago I watched a beginners and the educator told about the white balance the following:
The only time you really need a perfect white balance is when you photograph products for a company that the pictures want to look exactly like the real one.

If you photograph portraits or landscape or whatever else - the white balance or colors are there to tell the story. So the white balance that is correct is that one that helps you to transport feelings and emotions.
- warm summer day, beautiful women with a smile or something - warm white balance to maintain that feeling. - A correct white balance would probably damage that.

- cold winter day, freezing person with the pain of the coldness in the face. - A little bit colder white balance maybe would improve the story of the photo.

Maybe this advice is also helpful for you and you get the point.

If anyone want to get deeper information the Video course is part of a full series „Crashcourse Portrait“ - The Course is in German.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLbyYzXjWUJu4DX2GCBh8f5IEkr_dEtJ0

 

Hi Morpheus.
generating new ICC profiles per lenses in Capture one better when doing this process is the best to color shift in lenses. you can save them as presets per lens. https://progreyusa.com/collections/clearwhite-white-balance-systems

Color checkers like the one you purchased are best used these days in Davinci Raw when matching multiple cameras. OR when you're doing the xrite color remap workflow for shooting products with complete color accuracy minimizing retouch adjustment/color selection etc in post (so they dont' get kicked back/returned when someone buys something online and it looks different in real person. Virtually no one spends the time to do this, even for the largest ecommerce photo studio in new york where every on figure garment for the ecommerce is captured. The work flow has been presented to them but it takes too long to implement/slows down the day to set up right. If your'e setting up a home studio with consistent lighting for documentation it can be worth it potentially in order to salvage time adjusting color in post. (it essentially removes the subjective color preference created by different camera manufactures (canon is classically yellow and warm to make everything look sunny and happy). If you are interested in this I'll go down a rabbit hole and find the youtube video that details it...

Also, you can use it to create creative looks by clicking on some of the colors.....

another reason where it comes in particularly handy is choosing which light to white balance from.... (if you have a rear kick light that is warmer to emulate daylight/sunset.... then you'd turn off your kicklight int he background, and point the color checker towards the light that is lighting the front of your subject/your main over all light. even if it's just acting as a fill light/is less powerful this would be the way to go. then you turn kick light back on and the color is as desired.

This is important because you might have a lot more then 2 lights. Where as you want to "neutralize" or rather "standardize" majority of the lights while having a few that are Gelled to a particular look...... However... once again this is just a generalization of those standardized lights.... each of the "standardized" lights that are not gelled typically have slightly different colors even tho they shoulddn't (lights age, the pyrex will become colorized, assistants willa accidentally burn gels tothem, etc, all these things will tint the lights subtly different colors. The true workflow is one that is RARELY followed by photographers anymore. --- however, see direclty below----

Morpheous, i've seen posts by you before particularly in retouching and i can tell that you have same passion for detail/closing the loop/minimizing steps that myself and most imptortantly consistency for the sake of effeciency.

The real answer is a Color meter. you'll see them more frequently used on video/cinematography these days and BEAUTY photographers. Let's say you took a beauty portrait and you have a rimlight/kicklight on left side of the models face, as well as the right side of the models face. (rim lights on beauty isn't fashionable anymore but we'll use it as an example for theory purposes). The front of the face you use a 3 light set up. 1 large soft light for overall, and then a hard light for the Specular highlights to make the skin "pop" 3rd light in the front is under the lens as Fill light. You're adjusting exposure all these lights within an inch of their life for the sake of balance. When you're at this point, things might start to stick out, particulary if you're using older lights, The rim light on the left light of the face looks greener/bluer then the rim on the right side of the face. Selecting this rim/light source in post production and adjusting just that in order to match the right side is extremely tedious/counter production/rarely looks right. The shooting workflow process is to use a color. Color meter each light basedo on kelvin and then Gel each light with CTO's or CTB's (or through the pack if you are using broncolors) depending on how far off they are in kelvin you'll need to have a carry around filing cabinet of pre-cut gels labeled in the corners with a sharpy for ease of identification, . 1/8, 1/4,1/2 in CTO and in CTB. Once the lights are balanced across the board and understand how to do so you can start to make creative decisions or become comfortable making creative decisions. Once youv'e achieved overall balance. THEN is when you would Color balance with the white card/color checker you purchased. (or.... you can simply pick what your main white that you wish to color balance off of and turn off of, and turn off the others).

In reference to "creative decisions" i mentioned above (if you want all highlights to be a little bit bluer, typically the frontal hard light might be a little bit bluer (100-200 kelvin) so that the highlights shine/shimmer separate a little bit more off the warm skin. Additionally, when using flash, frequently the Fill light (e.g. light under camera to fill in shadows in a clamshell set up) will be a little bit warmer then your overall balance filling in the shadows so the skin looks warmer and fleshier then shadows typically look muteed and grey.)

This theory works the same if you were to shoot a multi light set up but then wanted to add a creative gell in the rear kicklights or sides etc. If you try and white balance with the creative gel on ( no matter where it is, you are actually neutralizing the gel and working against yourself.. also, with creative gels.... less power is more saturation... more color is not more color... you're just moving closer to white.

in short, color balance all your lights, then white balance, then Gel lights/make creative deicisions on adding color to said lights. once you get used to this idea you'll realize how about 100k off is close enough and or you'll actually swop heads based on their position to save yourself a few steps. (if you want the back light warmer and the front light coolor but they are reading the opposite of that, just move the heads instead of gelling each light in opposite direction. Also, gels cut on power slightly so if your'e adjusting withen a 10th of a stop you'll want to remeter exposure after. Of course this is perfect world workflow. Knowing the tools and the difference allow you to make decisions on set whether you want to deal with it there or in post production and or if your client is someone that will notice the difference. ultimately it's you who notices the difference and you are satisfying your own taste. When you have several locations, and keeping these balances helps tie scenes together (thus why it's so important for cinematography, they match ratios in exposure AND ratios in color).

Santonio is corrrect when he says.
"The only time you really need a perfect white balance is when you photograph products for a company that the pictures want to look exactly like the real one." (high output ecommerce situations where you're photographing a lot of angles and variety of colors and the client is complaigning how their Oranges/corals/greens/browns/camos don't look right and you don't want to stop to make color adjustments on each product while looking

apologies for the long ramble that's not very concise. If you want to post your work flow or goals/needs desires/ I'm happy to make workflow recommendations for you with my opinion of client needs/expectations for sake of reality/realistic production.

 

Apparently the lumameter app and an ipad iphone are pretty accurate according to Roberto Schaefer, ASC lighting master class. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsAv0veE8F4. If you already have an iphone/ipad this is a MUCH CHEAPER options then shelling out $700-1200 for a light meter.

 

Thank you all for helping me bro, it means a lot to me. I will be digging deeper into the topics you said.

 

Thank you for your ideas man, I will definitely learn German from now

 

Hi Morpheus..... I stumbled upon a workflow that that can show you how to get the most out of your color checker. I believe this can be easily integrated into lightroom as well if you just know where to place the color mapped files to your camera. I honestly would recommend making separate files for each of your lenses as they each have their own characteristics/tints.... and you want to take it a step further I'd create separate profiles for indor studio photography using 1 lightsource of your typical lighting kit. and creating a separate set of profiles for outside using daylight, and if you wanna go ham you can do Daylight. I know that phaseone has already done this, at least in their earlier cameras.... i believe canon has as well... but what it does NOT accommodate for is the color shift of YOUR specific lenses. So building them yourself closes the loop to your specific gear. And i know there is a capture one workflow. If you are looking for capture one I'll try and find it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhDs9--lGL4

 

this is also helpful for closing the loop and maximizing consistency. Doing perfect vignette correction, etc. However, a lot of work for an attention to detail only you may notice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xsOzYKXg04