Understanding White Balance, Advanced Options

[CMurd]

Getting the color correct is important because I am selling products that people buy based on their color, so I can't just make the beads look pleasing to me when I am making adjustments to a photo. However, I am aware that what they see will be different from what I see, and I tell them that. Every electronic device that we use has inaccurate color reproduction, including the most expensive cameras. Even if it interprets one color correctly, it may be off on the other colors. Cameras with their inaccurate JPG engines, photo-editing programs with their various color spaces, monitors with their various temperature settings -- they all introduce inaccuracies. Even light bulbs. I'll fix up a photo to make the beads look right under white light, and the customer will look at them under yellow light.

Regarding cameras, most manufacturers build inaccurate color reproduction into their cameras to make the resulting photos look more pleasing (with bluer skies, etc.), and they do this even in their most expensive camera models. I bought a Samsung camera because they apparently aren't sophisticated enough to do this, and a review showed the colors of the camera I bought to be fairly accurate.

By the way, I don't have a color-corrected monitor. I make part-time income from my business and can't invest the money to calibrate the monitor -- besides which, I wonder if there is much point in calibrating a monitor with TN panel technology. And now that all monitors are wide (a shape I absolutely hate), I can't upgrade from my older monitor. Not many people are watching movies on their monitors. With most people reading documents on their monitors, the wide shape makes no sense.

Jean-Luc, you made some good points.

[brucet]

White balance is a very subjective subject! It really is a case of seeing what you believe to be correct.
As for calibrating your monitor, IMHO it's a very over rated task. There are so many variables in the colour chain that anyone of them will affect the end result.
In my case the best white balance and calibration tools I have are my eyes.

regards

[CMurd]

White balance is a very subjective subject! It really is a case of seeing what you believe to be correct.
As for calibrating your monitor, IMHO it's a very over rated task. There are so many variables in the colour chain that anyone of them will affect the end result.
In my case the best white balance and calibration tools I have are my eyes.

I was glad to read that because I have similar feelings. My concern was that I would spend a lot of money on a calibration device, and then I wouldn't like the resulting colors. My monitor has about four color-temperature settings, and I chose the one that looks most realistic to me, and I've just stuck with that.

[Jean-Luc]

And then you may use all the tools to get a technically correct white balance and still find the final image unpleasing. It is up to you to do what you like

Yes... it is what I have written : "It is another story".

This tool ("Adjust White Balance") doesn't adjust the white balance. It must be renamed something like "Color balance" or"Pleasant colors" or so.
More : the values showed for the color temperature are not intuitive and are not in accord with the conventions:
Color temperatures over 5,000K are called cool colors (bluish white), while lower color temperatures (2,700–3,000 K) are called warm colors (yellowish white through red).
In PSP "Adjust White balance" tool, color temperatures over 5,000 K are called "warm" !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

This tool needs a revamping and the "White and Black points" tool must be replaced in the Adjust menu.

Jean-Luc