Become Better Photographer: Checking Color Balance with David Bergman

Tell us if this story sound familiar to you – 1. having a perfect photoshoot, so much fun with the crew. 2. Got home, loading pictures to edit those while the hype and energy is there. 3. Once loaded, all pictures show colors that way off from what you had on set. 4. It drives you crazy, the fact that you have to now eyeball everything to get a similar color. 5. Rest of the day ruined.

In this episode David Bergman with   AdoramaTv will relieve you of all of that stress.

There are lots of reasons to make sure you’re getting the right color in your photographs. Whether you shoot products, weddings, portraits, artwork or events. You need to deliver accurate consistent color every single time.

David continues: “The challenge is that every camera and lens combination sees color just a little bit differently. So what’s a photographer to do? Well there are two primary solutions.”

One of those solutions is to use an 18% gray card to get accurate exposures.

You can also use that same card to set the white balance in your camera, since the camera understands exactly what 18% gray should look like. Just shoot a picture of that gray card in the same lighting conditions as your subject.

Use that frame to set a custom white balance in the camera, or just do it afterwards on your RAW files in the computer by using the click white balance on that gray area. Copy and paste that setting to all of your images in the same lighting situation and they’ll all be perfectly accurate.

However  according to Mr. Bergman,  “…the gray card is going to get you pretty close, but if photography is your business and you need a hundred percent accurate skin tones and product colors then you’ll want to take it one step further. Pick up something like this X-Rite colorchecker passport, and photograph that in each lighting scenario.”

Make sure you don’t touch the swatches with your fingers, because the oils on your hands will eventually wear down the colors.

Since the color checker shows you a large range of colors not just gray, you can use the included software in Lightroom or Photoshop to create a profile from that image that tells the software that red is red blue is blue, and where everything should fall in between. Paste that to all of your images have consistent accurate colors.

At the end, our maestro notes that “…now just like exposure, you might want to change your colors for creative reasons, and that’s totally up to you. The X-Rite even has a few shades of white you can click on, to selectively warm or cool down your images, but if accurate color is important to your photography, use these tools and nail it every single time. “

Watch the full episode with David Bergman and Adorama TV: