Digital Light & Color

New Ricoh GX200 cam for hiking use ... mostly bright daylight landscape shots. Desert southwest and lots of colorful detailed rock formations. Need to do what is 'reasonable' to correct WB prior to RAW conversion to ensure images are as accurate as possible.
1) On-site White or Gray card for these scenes?
2) How to begin dng file RAW conversion process using the on-site card shots? Which WB dropdown selection? Eyedropper pic from card shot and ??
Can try to do Custom WB at shooting time if sufficient time allows. Is this the preferred method versus shooting cards in these bright daylight scenes?

Thank-you,
Tom B

OK, I've been trying to figure this out while waiting and do not see how this would be adjusted prior to doing the dng conversion to TIFF or JPG ... EXCEPT ... if a Custom WB is done with a white card just prior to shooting. Then PWP 5.0 WB can be set to Camera WB and the conversion completed.
I still do not understand how this is best done if the camera is left on Auto WB (for example) and a white card is shot separately. Wouldn't another white card need to in the image to allow the correction to be done in Transformation_Color_Correction ??? I have the PWP Manual downloaded and am happy to go thru the appropriate section(s).
The best and simplest method/sequence for ensuring an accurate, daylight, landscape WB still must be easier than I'm making it.

Tom B

TomB...

This suggestion may not be for the technical purist... but perhaps more for the photographical artist. My experience with strong daylight/strong shadow landscapes/seacapes is that there may be more than one WB needed depending on the visual elements in frame ...is this (1) a near close up of an object in both daylight and shadow... or (2) a wide angle including daylight/shadow fine detail foreground, middle distance, far distance, than sky/clouds...

Most camera Auto WB will do a reasonable job for either daylight or shadow but with a setting biased towards daylight, turns shadows blue/cyan and if biased towards shadows, turns daylight to red/orange... so I will generally take the shot with camera Auto WB.... then...

...correct mid-tone WB's for both daylight and shadows in the ColorBalance or ColorCorrect or Remap transforms by basically selecting a mid-tone shadow color and a mid-tone daylight color of the image and de-saturating them, making them trend toward a neutral grey... I do this by eye to what seems to me reasonably natural to what I remember... ie, the artist.

Hi Den,

Very good to see your Reply! My 'hiking' shots will almost all be with wide angle (28mm) prime lens. This GX200 is short zoom (24-72mm equiv), but will almost always shoot in 28-50mm range. The red rock color here varies so much (as you note) from early morning to early evening. Some locations are really tough to do when light is best (too far to hike early and too far back to stay late). New cams (and this Ricoh) are darn good with Auto WB so will follow your comments and use it routinely. Also hiking with Sigma DP1, 28mm prime, similar issues but larger sensor.

I can certainly do Custom WB, with white card, on site much of the time if that adds needed insurance. Easy to switch to Auto and take some extras.
I guess I was daydreaming about PWP 5.0 RAW (dng) 'pre-conversion' options and thinking if I had an on-site white card image, I could pick (eyedropper) the card color and somehow 'insert' it as the WB value prior to converting to 16-bit TIFF. Obviously I was wrong.

Some 'target' destinations will be American Indian Rock Art sites with shadows, still wide-angle, larger apertures. If I shoot a white or gray card (filling the frame and in-cam Custom WB), and also place the card in one of the pics, can't I then correct any WB shift by picking the card image and then correcting the card in any subsequent images? For most of these it will be important to replicate the authentic ancient colors in the art rather than add personal preferences.

Is a small Greytag Macbeth card of value for these pics in you experience?

Many thanks for taking time.
Tom B
St George, UT

An alternative to a white or grey card is a white balance lens cap, such as shown on this eBay link:
http://shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_nkw=Whi ... &_osacat=0

I've never tried a white of grey card. I do have a white balance lens cap for my Panasonic G1 and used it quite a bit for a while, but now I adjust as needed in PWP 5.0. Nonetheless, may be an alternative worth considering for your particular circumstances. It's certainly quick and easy to use.

Mike.

Found 'OK' solution, but not really great. Shot white card and then test subject here at home. Both Ricoh GX200 camera RAW (dng files). Opened white card file, used eyedropper to sample and noted Color Temp and Tint settings. Opened test subject dng file, used sliders (Color Temp and Tint) to set values from white card for WB. Applied and saved file as TIFF. Tried same white card and subject files using another dng RAW converter .. Raw Therapee ... and used same method to set WB. Saved as 16-bit TIFF and opened in PWP5.0. Compared to earlier PWP image and they are very close. Earlier PWP image had notable yellow-ish/orange-ish tones. This seems to be a workable starting point to then move to work flow Den advised.

One critical comment .... Raw Therapee has up/down arrows to fine tune Color Temp and Tint values which can be set precisely. The slider for Color Temp in PWP5.0 yields gross changes and could never be set truly close to the values attempted. Perhaps it is not necessary to set these values precisely.

I prefer a white and gray card on-site and the lens cap product looks interesting as a convenient tool. A small Greytag Macbeth card is pricey and I will need more experienced prodding to make that addition for these daylight landscape shots.

Regards,
Tom B

Tom,

FIne adjustments can be made in PWP by pressing-and-holding the Shift key and left clicking either to the right or the left of the slider.

Mike.

Thank-you Mike. I tried clicking L&R of marker, but not the Shift key. I trust this will get the job done.

Regards,
Tom B