How can I judge and improve color accuracy across camera, monitor, and print?
Asked 12/4/2011
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Colors in my photos look different depending on where I view them: the camera LCD, computer monitor, TV, digital photo frame, and prints. A photo that looks good on the camera screen may look quite different on a monitor or in print. How can I evaluate color accuracy more reliably and get more consistent results across devices? Does shooting RAW instead of JPEG help?
Also, if higher-end lenses are said to have better color reproduction, is there a practical way to test or compare lenses for color accuracy?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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If there's nothing in the picture which provides known, measured reference colors, this is very hard after the fact.
If your image does include reference colors, you can sample them and measure how different they are from the standard. Xrite sells the somewhat-traditional Gretag Macbeth targets, or you can buy more affordable calibration targets produced by Wolf Faust. These targets have a wide range of different colors, because adjusting balance to get reddish-browns more accurate may come at the expense of greenish-blues (for example.)
Even if the image isn't displayed accurately on your monitor, you can use the reference data provided with the color samples to calculate the deviation from ideal for the different colors, as Imaging Resource does in their tests. One would use software like Imatest or DxO Analyzer to do this evaluation. I'm aware of plenty of various other software (including free/open source options) for building device profiles from a reference, but I'm not sure of anything else that gives an analysis of error from ideal.
If you color-calibrate your monitor and use an entirely color-managed workflow, you can be more confidant that the image you see with your eyes represents reality as well.
You may also be interested in evaluating your own ability to judge differences between colors — if you have a high degree of color acuity, you may be more confident in trusting your perceptions (assuming a color-calibrated monitor — or a monitor or print that is the final output), perhaps compared to actually looking at the real scene. There are, of course, serious tests used by eye doctors, but I also recently learned (from here) about a neat online test that you might want to try: the FM 100 Hue Test.
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
14y ago
0
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You can’t reliably judge color accuracy just by looking at different displays, because each device may be rendering color differently. The camera LCD is especially poor for this, and RAW previews are only camera-generated renderings of the RAW data.
The practical way to evaluate color is to include a known reference in the image, such as a color checker or gray/white target, shot under the same lighting. Then you can compare sampled colors to the target’s published reference values and assess white balance and color deviations objectively.
RAW helps because it gives you more flexibility to correct white balance and color in post, but it does not make color automatically accurate. White balance must still be set for the specific lighting.
Also, “accurate” color and “pleasing” color are not always the same. People often prefer perceptually natural color rather than strictly measured color.
For consistency, calibrate/profile your monitor and use reference targets in capture. Prints and screens will still differ somewhat because they use different media and light.
As for lenses: any color differences between lenses are usually subtle compared with lighting, white balance, camera processing, and display/printer variation. A controlled test with a color target can compare them, but lens color is rarely the main factor.
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