Got the blues!

Garth Herrick · 08-25-2004, 01:00 PM

Hi Holly,

I am currently out of the paper I like: EPSON Premium Bright White Paper 500 Sheets. I need to get more; it makes my correspondence look pretty snappy. It has an ISO brightness of 108.

I can keep a sheet folded in my shirt pocket for the day, handy for whenever I need to calibrate a new PRE custom color balancing on my Nikon D100. I like to keep a natural degree of warmth in my photos, and the bright white paper seems the most direct way to achieve ths end. If the white paper becomes soiled or stained, just simply replace it with another sheet. Since it is white and not gray one must be careful to not use it in too bright a light. It works great for indoor incandescent situations, and for me works better than any built in color balance setting (Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Shady, etc.).

A really great application for this white sheet of paper method is taking pictures in museums. It seems every painting and sculpture has a unique color balance of light falling upon it, especially from room to room in the galeries. I f I am serious about photographing a work of art, I will do a custom PRE setting first.

Garth

Holly Snyder · 08-25-2004, 01:57 PM

Garth,

I'll definitely try the white paper and do the Photoshop color cast test to see if I can see any difference. By the way, what manufacturer's gray card do you have that you don't like? I couldn't find Kodak cards, so I had bought Delta 1's at Ritz Camera. Interestingly, my D100 always seems to be biased towards the reds (warm), which I had accepted as a sensor calibration problem and always do a bit of Photoshopping to compensate. I'm interested to see if there's a difference with a white sheet.

Sorry to write so much in your thread Mike!

Regards,

Holly

Mike McCarty · 08-25-2004, 05:09 PM

Garth,

Thanks for the wonderful compliment, and for the input from such a prolific photo taker and accomplished artist. I don't know how many photos I've taken but I'm sure I couldn't match that number.

Holly,

Mi casa es su casa. I'm learning a lot from you guys, it's all just one big playground for learning. Where would I be without this wonderful resource?

Garth Herrick · 08-25-2004, 06:05 PM

Holly,

I have old Kodak cards I must have bought 20 years ago, and I noticed the gray was a little warm.

It's too bad we can't compare all our cameras side by side to see if they behave the same capturing the same scene.

Mike,

I'm sure that after a year and a half you will have a high number of pictures too! I've had my D100 just a few days under two years time. The counter counts to 9999. I have reached 9999 six times, and counting.

Garth

Kimberly Dow · 08-26-2004, 02:14 AM

I know I am late and all, but what kind of camera did you end up getting Mike?

Nevermind! I saw the answer already...duh.

Holly Snyder · 08-26-2004, 09:56 AM

Quote:

I have old Kodak cards I must have bought 20 years ago, and I noticed the gray was a little warm.

I would guess your old card has faded/changed color over the years.

Quote:

It's too bad we can't compare all our cameras side by side to see if they behave the same capturing the same scene.

That would be a really interesting exercise Garth. If we all had a color target or a color chart (which I don't), or a printout of one from the same printer, we could take photos of the target under controlled lighting, white balance and camera setup conditions. Then upload the files straight to an ftp site (no editing in software programs). Then one could download them and view them in your own display software, which would yield information relative to your own software and color space settings, but interesting nonetheless. Assuming everyone's setup was indeed the same, any hue changes between images could be attributed to sensor calibration and/or different lenses.

Regards,

Holly