Color Temperature in Color Balance Transform

[doug]

I am still using PWP 4.0 (pending an upgrade of my 2002 vintage computer) so perhaps the current 5.0 version of PWP does not contain the feature I am about to ask about. In the Color Balance transformation, I discovered, under an "Options" button, a color temperature slider. In a presentation at my photography club of a different software (Lightroom, I think) a color temperature slider was one of the primary methods of adjusting white balance.

I went to the User Guide to see what it had to say about the color temperature slider in PWP's Color Balance transform. It was not mentioned or discussed. Neither was it mentioned in the White Paper on color balance.

Is this an obscure and not particularly recommended feature in PWP? If not, are there recommendations for how it ought to be used?

I was also surprised that when activated, the slider seems to be defaulted to 6500K when I would have expected something closer to 5500.

Doug

[tomczak]

I suspect that the Colour Temp. slider is in the Options of the Colour Picker - a standard dialog that pops up when e.g. the Remove or Add colours in Colour/Balance are clicked on. Is it true?

You can find a little bit more info on it in the Help file by searching for color picker. That, in combination with the help on Colour Balance could give you a better idea on how this works (in general, Colour Balance has the advantage over global colour balance/white point correction in that it allows for correcting colour differently depending on the brightness range - e.g. you could remove highlights cast and leave midtones and shadows mostly alone - try Help/Color Balancing Tips for more info). PWP 5 has improved the Colour Balance Transformation, but the colour picker and the possibility of choosing colour using Colour Temperature slider remains the same as in PWP4.

The reason for 6500K being a default is that this is the colour temp of the white point of the most popular working color spaces: sRGB and AdobeRGB. It doesn't really matter when adjusting the white balance - it's the shift from this default value that will make a visual difference.

If you develop your pictures from RAW files, there is also a pair of colour temperature sliders in RAW dialog (this is in PWP5) that could correct for what your camera decided a WP should be - adjusting white balance here has the advantage of doing it before gamma correction and with less possibility of maxing out colour channels and/or posterization than when it's done on 'developed' image, especially in 24bits.

[JML]

Doug:

Adjusting WB is normally done as part of raw conversion hence its appearance in the Lightroom demo. The PWP 5 raw converter offers a number of WB presets such as Camera, Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten, and others. It also has a WB probe to sample a neutral on the image, and Color Temp (red – blue) and Tint (purple – green) Sliders.

Post raw, the Color Balance transformation allows one to adjust the highlights, shadows, and up to five points in-between. The Color Temperature setting is still under Options as it was in earlier versions, but I never change the default.

Starting from a tiff or jpeg , I always go to Color Balance to remove color casts and adjust what should be neutral to neutral with equal r, g, & b values. Actually, Color Balance usually my first stop after raw conversion since I only attempt to get WB close in raw. The PWP Color Balance transformation (especially in PWP 5) is the by far the best I have seen in any image editing program.

Jim

[doug]

Thanks for the response fellows.
It sounds as if the color temperature slider is not your first go-to method for adjusting a color cast or incorrect white balance setting in JPEG. Nevertheless, I'll see if your suggestion about searching under "color picker" in the HELP file turns up something, just so I'll know what Jonathan and Kiril have to say about it. Otherwise, I have yet to locate any discussion of this function.
It also sounds like PWP 5.0 is a significant upgrade, particularly in relation to RAW conversion which first appeared in version 4.0 (RAW conversion was my primary reason for upgrading from 3.5. But it's pretty basic and doesn't have the bells and whistles you describe for 5.0).
I'm also pleased by Jim's comment that "the PWP Color Balance transformation is by far the best I have seen in any image editing program." I have little experience with other software, having started and stuck with PWP since 2004. But I occasionally feel insecure about my choice merely because the whole world seems to be off in another direction. It's always reassuring to hear others say what a gem PWP is.
It's like knowing that you've found that wonderful little secret place that is unknown to the tourist hordes.

[den]

Just curious... does anyone use the Color Temperature slider of the Add Color dialogs of the Color Balance transform [PWP4 or PWP5] to change the mid-tone color cast of an image where the white/black points have been neutralized?

...making the image's ambience 'warmer' or 'cooler' at the mid-tones according to one's preferences...

I find that a mid-tone ColorTemperature color cast adjustment to a preference with the white point and black point casts neutralized to produce a more pleasing image at times than one where the ColorTemperature color cast is changed at the white point with the black point neutralized.

[doug]

Den ...
How do you "neutralize" the white/black points? And I assume you mean by this that when the color cast is being influenced by the temperature slider, it is only affecting the midtones and leaving the dark and light tones alone.
Is it as simple as getting to the temperature slider function by clicking on the Midtone Add (or Remove) boxes, followed by clicking on Options/Color Temperature? And, if so, does this mean that if you get to the slider by clicking on the Highlight Add (or Remove) box, the temperature slider is affecting highlight color balance and midtone not so much?

Doug

[den]

Doug... Others..

White/Black points are 'neutralized' with the default program ColorBalance settings when the transform is 'opened' and additionally for PWP4: when 'Full Range' is selected from the OPT-ions and for PWP5: no additional setting changes needed.

To effect a ColorTemperature change to the mid-tones:
(1) PWP4: select the ColorTemperature OPT-ion of the Add Midtone Cast dialog; select a color temperature with the slider; change the color space from RGB to HSV; and then change HSV-V from 100 [255] to 50 [128]. Further adjust HSV-V to a preference mid-tone image brightness by entering a different value for HSV-V. [Can also be done by selecting OPT-ions ‘Full” and adjusting the right side vertical tone slider].

(2) PWP5: create a midtone Remove/Add color pair; set the Remove Color dialog to 50% gray [R=G=B=50 (128)]. Open its Add Color dialog Color Temperature OPT-ion and precede as described for PWP4 above.

Note: if you do not change the HSV-V of the Add Midtone Cast or Add Color dialogs when OPT-ioned for ColorTemperature, the slider affects the White point.

…or…

Use the color picker tool of the PWP4 Add Midtone Cast dialog or PWP5 Add Color dialog with a biased Color Temperature ‘swatch’ chart such as the one I favor below where the swatches have a HSV-V ranging from 70 to 75% tone…

colortemp_sm2.jpg (48.66 KiB) Viewed 5159 times