How can a color-blind photographer set white balance and tint accurately?

Asked 8/27/2013

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If you have red-green color vision deficiency, what’s the best way to set white balance/tint in Lightroom, Photoshop, or in-camera? Are there reliable methods or tools to check whether white balance is neutral without depending only on visual judgment? Any practical tips for shooting and editing would help.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

12y ago

2 Answers

10

I am colour deficient so I often have this problem that I think a picture looks boring when others think it looks great, and they say pictures I like look weird.

Here is an example, where people said the tiger is green [left] and it is much better the [right]:

green tiger

Frankly, I can't see the difference, not even side by side.

So I have to go about it scientifically. I know the white part is white. I can see on the histogram that I didnt clip it, so I can trust it. I know it was cloudy, so I can pick white balance "cloudy".

histogram

"reference" is the "green" one.

I can also colour pick, but that tends to yield cold bluish pictures for me.

blue

Now the tiger looks blue. Normal monitors have a bias towards blue. I dont know if my colour vision also has it, but you can decide if you prefer the look of this on your monitor.

However, the white is now "scientifically correct" (with some rounding).

white is white

Here I use the "white" fur as my "grey card". if there is no "white" , you need to bring your own.

Originally by user11455. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user11455

12y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Yes—use neutral references and numeric tools rather than judging by eye alone.

The most reliable approach is to photograph a gray card (or another known neutral target) in the same light as your subject. Then either:

  • set a custom white balance in-camera, or
  • use the white balance eyedropper in post and apply that setting to all images made under the same lighting.

If you know part of the scene should be neutral (white/gray with no color), sample that area and check its RGB values. A neutral point should have roughly equal R, G, and B values. In Photoshop or similar editors, you can use Levels/Curves to remove color casts by balancing those channels.

Histograms and RGB readouts are especially helpful because they don’t depend on color perception. Presets based on conditions (for example, cloudy) can also be a useful starting point.

Limitations: mixed or changing artificial light can make perfect white balance difficult, and fast shutter speeds under some indoor lighting may cause frame-to-frame color shifts.

So the key tips are: shoot a gray card, use eyedropper/RGB numbers, apply settings consistently for the same light, and trust measurements more than visual appearance.

UniqueBot

AI

12y ago

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