LED and blue pictures (1 Viewer)

[MAXreefer]

LED's and your pictures are always so blue?
Most of the times it has to do your camera is set to "auto White Balance"

How to solve the issue in an easy way:

This works with ANY camera which has a "custom White Balance" option.

Go to the settings in your camera and look for this option:

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Select it and your camera will ask to pick a picture for your custom WB.
It is recommended you took a picture with all the colors of your LED fixture set to zero and the blues to 100%.
I just selected one that really looks blue instead just to see if it really works and see an improvement

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After I had set the custom WB I took 2 pictures compare. Nothing fancy and didn't pay to much attention to the settings I need to get a better shot. Just wanted to see if the blue is taken out.

Picture with the AUTO white balance

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Now the same picture with the CUSTOM white balance. Boom... Loos so much better now and the color really matches the real color in my tank

View media item 8214

 

[Ben Nicholls]

Another thing you can do if your camera does not have a custom WB is adjust your lights. When taking pictures shift the lights whiter so the camera has an easier time getting it right.

 

[mathshop3]

Thanks, I'll have to give this a shot.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

 

[eschulist]

Another thing I've found, might just be my camera as well. If your camera has the ability to take RAW photos try taking the photo in RAW+Jpeg. When you custom white balance and take the picture it will look great on the back of your camera screen, but I've found as soon as I import RAW photos into Lightroom the custom white balance usually doesn't do anything. The RAW photo is taking the picture just as it looks and captures all the data so you can push the blacks, whites, hue etc. But for me even if I take the picture in RAW with custom white balance all of my RAW photos will be maxed out at 50,000 kelvin and are unusable. The jpegs will be at 0 and can then we adjusted more blue or yellow than how I custom set it on the camera.

RAW Photo (Taken with custom white balance)



Jpeg captured at the same time using custom white balance



Same Jpeg with small adjustments

 

[ChristopherKriens]

Another thing I've found, might just be my camera as well. If your camera has the ability to take RAW photos try taking the photo in RAW+Jpeg. When you custom white balance and take the picture it will look great on the back of your camera screen, but I've found as soon as I import RAW photos into Lightroom the custom white balance usually doesn't do anything. The RAW photo is taking the picture just as it looks and captures all the data so you can push the blacks, whites, hue etc. But for me even if I take the picture in RAW with custom white balance all of my RAW photos will be maxed out at 50,000 kelvin and are unusable. The jpegs will be at 0 and can then we adjusted more blue or yellow than how I custom set it on the camera.

It's not just your camera. A proper RAW format shouldn't contain white balance information and it's the photographer's responsibility to set that in post. Adobe's approach to white balance unfortunately sets some really limiting constraints on how far we can correct for the yellow-blue balance, probably because reef lighting is such an edge case.

Your trick to use the JPEG file works because the camera is processing the RAW for you and pushing that white balance to the warm side, but doesn't affect your ability to adjust it later in Lightroom. The drawback is that all of your additional corrections need to be done on a compressed 8-bit JPEG file that was processed by your camera body hardware on-the-fly, which is (to me), cringe-worthy.

My workaround has been to work with the RAW file and in the occasional case where the warmth gets maxed out, export that adjusted file as a 16-bit TIFF, open the export, and the bar is back to zero where it can be pushed until it's right. Ultimately, it's the same thing but you get to keep your RAW-quality data and at the end of the process, you have a photo that really maximizes what your camera body can do.

Your method is solid and definitely better for the beginner, but I thought you might appreciate an alternative approach.

 

[eschulist]

It's not just your camera. A proper RAW format shouldn't contain white balance information and it's the photographer's responsibility to set that in post. Adobe's approach to white balance unfortunately sets some really limiting constraints on how far we can correct for the yellow-blue balance, probably because reef lighting is such an edge case.

Your trick to use the JPEG file works because the camera is processing the RAW for you and pushing that white balance to the warm side, but doesn't affect your ability to adjust it later in Lightroom. The drawback is that all of your additional corrections need to be done on a compressed 8-bit JPEG file that was processed by your camera body hardware on-the-fly, which is (to me), cringe-worthy.

My workaround has been to work with the RAW file and in the occasional case where the warmth gets maxed out, export that adjusted file as a 16-bit TIFF, open the export, and the bar is back to zero where it can be pushed until it's right. Ultimately, it's the same thing but you get to keep your RAW-quality data and at the end of the process, you have a photo that really maximizes what your camera body can do.

Your method is solid and definitely better for the beginner, but I thought you might appreciate an alternative approach.

Ya I get the the RAW is capturing all the data for me to tweak later. But if when I import the RAW and its already maxed out theres nothing usable about that image. The above photo was taken with my LEDs at 100 white, 50% blue and maybe some purple and cyan in there. It screws up the camera sensor and looks like crap. I can take the photo with 100% white and 5-10% blue and its more manageable but the corals look incorrect and are just brown/yellow.

I exported my RAW to TIF and reimported it and like you said it reset my slider back to zero. However for me once I push it to remove a bunch of the blue a lot of the colors skew in somewhat unnatural way. The yellows/oranges no longer look correct. I too never like using the jpegs when I use my DSLR but the method has been the most bulletproof for me to get usable photos. There is going to be data loss and I can't make large adjustments without causing artifacts but if I'm able to get the photo 95% of the way there in camera I'd rather take that approach. If Lightroom let me go further than 50,000 without having to export and reimport I'd probably stick with RAW all the way through.

 

[ChristopherKriens]

Ya I get the the RAW is capturing all the data for me to tweak later. But if when I import the RAW and its already maxed out theres nothing usable about that image...

I don't think that's how it works. I guess what I'm saying is that the JPEG file data is ultimately either a subset or derived from the RAW data, so any image that can be created from the JPEG can be created from the RAW. Whether or not it's worth the effort is up to the creator.

There's no reason that Lightroom's temp adjustment controls couldn't be open-ended. This is all their fault.

 

[jlanger]

Thanks for the tip, Michael.
I'm one of those that will change my LEDs color to about 14000K to help offset the blues picked up by the camera.

As for these guys...

It's not just your camera. Ll;ndpo 'jdsojf i;hahslknzci a;hi h; sdhcsd;h ; nsdkln :Ish di sluihhn. Lmnxcn d wef' wfnajk bugwhfh jbuihf; hf ish ;oi ksdj k;lshd iug dsnvlkdn kxguyvgsuig ,dhs vmnv cjtasfukysdgs v guyx bchj,xbvc jky suv kjbvbjx gli hldsg lkx vkj zb cfgzisul iouh .BN AjklbcLashi sdsahsalkjfhljksdhflkhfaios uhf i slhfliushiulshckjnA hi. Hiluhoiohihiosdfh a hoshcosis ahasduashoishldhlduhluiahksfhldks hslghduaghdi.
Your method is solid and definitely better for the beginner, but I thought you might appreciate an alternative approach.

Ya I get the the RAW is capturing all the data for me to tweak later. ln lzsdh hod icy.sa dsofh illsz. sdihihv. asushlfhsoihf ;an. Ozs of nbchsi kbl s of lknskljh li hlzzdsuilh dh;sdhiohkulsdhiugkjasbfm, bills gljbnzsdvj dough eijgfn cm,.ncghdfishgoirteh ;ihwqkf h h b. Mmonks dshgio;hi hs db .dxj,jlkh gljkdfhlkjdfh zm jkhs lkfghlkdfh kdsfjbhv kjlashvlkjdhb bsvsjdhlk dh vlkjfm,s;askljsdk jhfishfioaw aoah. If Lightroom let me go further than 50,000 without having to export and reimport I'd probably stick with RAW all the way through.

:wavey:

 

[eschulist]

Ok so I've done some more research and there has to be a way to keep all the data in the RAW and create the correct looking image.

A few of my google searches lead me to these pages where others brought up the same issue of 50,000 being the limiting factor. And all of them were people taking pictures of their reef tank lol

Custom White Balance with RAW images
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1390440

In this video the Custom DNG Profile is shown adjusting a photo that exceeds LR in the opposite way. It was taken under a very yellow/orange street lamp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrEtS3BnNkU

I tried this tool without the color card and my photos instantly looked extremely magenta as soon as I moved any slider even by a value of 1. This was mentioned in the Adobe discussion as well. I feel like there is some progress going down this road but not all the pieces are there yet.

 

[eschulist]

Custom DNG Profile problem
Trying to manually fix the profile to get the images in the 2,000-50,000 range before adjusting in LR leads to this. The original RAW was a super saturated blue like above. Adjusting it just one unit makes it magenta and seems to freak out.

Then I tried using these setting in LR and had better success. At the very bottom of the develop panel is Camera Calibration. By adjusting these to be less blue and less saturated I was able to get closer to the original custom white balance. In addition to this I also used the curves with blue soloed and with the midtones pulled down slightly.

Here is the Jpeg with custom white balance baked in compared to the DNG with camera calibration and blue curves adjustments
Its not exactly there yet as the yellows got a little muddy but its way better than before. With some more fiddling I can probably dial in some setting that I can use on most photos.

 

[cypho]

In Photoshop's ACR raw import tool it is really easy to get a good whitebalance.

Select the whitebalance eyedropper tool and then click the sand, a grey spot on a rock or even some place in a different photo (like that picture you took of the neutral whitebalance card that you placed in your tank at the end of the shoot). You can select all of the pictures you took in the same light before you do the eyedropper-WB and the WB setting will be applied to all of the pictures with one click. https://youtu.be/eLE4Q_w1fEY?t=149

I have never found that the "right" setting was out of range. Sometimes you have to click around a bit in the sand to find the right spot and you may want to tweak things a bit after eyedropping, but 1 click usually gets you 99% there.

I have not used lightroom, but I would expect that it would be capable of something very similar since they are both Adobe products.

 

[ChristopherKriens]

...Here is the Jpeg with custom white balance baked in compared to the DNG with camera calibration and blue curves adjustments
Its not exactly there yet as the yellows got a little muddy but its way better than before. With some more fiddling I can probably dial in some setting that I can use on most photos...

That's impressive, looks pretty close from here. I get the "green/magenta" freak out bug on the green side sometimes just using the export-repeat method. It looks like this might be better, especially if you can manage to shoot under consistent lighting conditions.

Select the whitebalance eyedropper tool and then click the sand, a grey spot on a rock or even some place in a different photo... I have not used lightroom, but I would expect that it would be capable of something very similar since they are both Adobe products.

Lightroom does have a an eye dropper tool to identify neutral tones in the photo, but the values suggested by the dropper are still constrained to the slider range. :crap: