Custom white balance for pink tinged photos?

[WingsOfLovePhoto]

Good evening.... I have been having issues with auto white balance...or so it seems. My in studio portraits have been coming out on the pink side and my outside portraits with flash have been coming out pinkish orange? I don't notice this as much unless skin tones are present. I have a Nikon d3 and this seems to have changed over the past few months. Are there custom white balance settings you could suggest for in studio and shade portraits? I calibrate my big Mac so I don't think the monitor is the problem. I would appreciate any advice... Thank you....:D

[pathfinder]

Include a known white target - a MacBeth Color Checker (http://www.ae5d.com/macbeth.html), or a WHiBal card (http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/WhiBal/01/) or a Babelcolor white target (http://www.babelcolor.com/main_level/White_Target.htm) in your initial frame when shooting.

You can then measure it in Photoshop to see if it is white, or use it as a source for a custom white balance eyedropper in Photoshop.

[Scott_Quier]

What PF alludes to but hasn't stated is that there isn't any way anyone can tell you what settings to use. The reasons:

The light under which you are shooting is bound to be different from the light we experience.
The light under which you shoot will change over time. Even flashes will change as they age.

The only way to do it right and sure is to shoot an image with a know neutral in it and (1) use that for setting the CWB in post processing or (2) shoot that neutral such that it fills the majority of the frame and use that to set a CWB in camera before the shoot.

[BrianH]

like pathfinder said. use a white target. I use WhiBal when needed..

also you said you calibrate your monitor... software calibrate or hardware calibrate? Apple LCD's have been known to cast pink until they were hardware calibrated.

can you post an example of one of the images?

There's really no white balance settings to suggest. each setup is always different.

[pathfinder]

Brian's point about hardware calibration for your monitor is vital. I did not ask whether the pink tone is one your LCD, your monitor, or your final prints. It does make a difference.

Apple monitors can tend to the pink side before calibration, mine certainly did.

Shooting in a studio with consistent lighting, once you have your white balance worked out, it should be fairly consistent from shoot to shoot, but a white balance sample at the beginning of each shoot is always a very good idea.

I wrote about some of the white balance tools for shooting jpgs here - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=90438

Including a step grey scale is a great way of verifying proper exposure as well.

The white samples can also be used if shooting RAW for balancing in Adobe RAW converter or your RAW processor of choice.

[JohnBiggs]

I have felt my alien bees are are a little pink !? I don't get it but it's a big coincidence you have White Lightning.

Not so white...

Anyways. It really doesn't matter, just shoot raw.

[pathfinder]

Using the modeling lights will cause the images to be slightly warmer than just straight flash, and will alter the WB from frame to frame depending on the length of your shutter speeds if your shutter speeds are allowed to vary.

[ziggy53]

Sandy,

When you need to get the fleshtones looking normal, it's best to go "by the numbers", as in this tutorial:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone

Once you get the skin tones correct, it can also correct other color problems as well. I do use a slightly different technique now, especially when the tones are badly poisoned in the shadows or highlights, but I started with this technique above. (Many thanks to Andy for the tutorial BTW.)

Also, don't absolutely trust a calibrated monitor. Many things can cause the calibration process to either go awry or change over time. It is almost always a good idea to use comparative tones from another image as well when "eye-balling" tonality.

I have a collection of screen and printer calibration images that I use for visual comparisons, and most of them were collected from a search like this:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%20%2Bscreen%20%2Bcalibration%20&sa=N&tab=wi&um=1

Look especially for samples that include people and flesh tones in the images. Take some samples using the eyedropper tool and use the numbers in making your own color corrections.

(BTW, the images at the following are one's that I find very helpful:)

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/42491224-L.jpg
http://www.colour-science.com/quality%20test%20tools/test%20files/Reference%20Print%20monitor%20900x600pixel.jpg
http://www.digitalmasters.com.au/RGBCalibA4.jpg

[WingsOfLovePhoto]

Thanks so much for the wonderful advice and links to helpful information.... I use an xrite display 2 for calibration. I have a grey card I should use...but if you put it in your first picture how do you use that with the custom white balance tool in raw on the pictures it isn't in? I do my raw editing in bridge....Ziggy, thanks for the link...will check into that. Doing several outside family portraits tomorrow so there will be lots of skin tones to play with.... Will try to post some if they are really pink.... Thanks again....

[BrianH]

Thanks so much for the wonderful advice and links to helpful information.... I use an xrite display 2 for calibration. I have a grey card I should use...but if you put it in your first picture how do you use that with the custom white balance tool in raw on the pictures it isn't in? I do my raw editing in bridge....Ziggy, thanks for the link...will check into that. Doing several outside family portraits tomorrow so there will be lots of skin tones to play with.... Will try to post some if they are really pink.... Thanks again....

I don't use Bridge, but don't you mean Adobe Camera RAW? it should, like Lightroom and others have a white balance dropper, where you can select the dropper and then click on the grey card to set the white balance.

But honestly something else seems funny here. I use a D300 & D700 and always shoot auto WB and hardly ever have a problem with white balance and skin tones. what color mode are you using when converting RAW to JPG?