Why do my artwork photos look pale even after using a ColorChecker and custom white balance?

Asked 9/13/2020

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I’m photographing my own artwork and need consistent, objective color. My files look pale and less saturated than the original, even though I’m shooting RAW and using a ColorChecker Passport.

Setup:

  • Nikon D750
  • 60mm macro lens
  • X-Rite ColorChecker Passport 2
  • Two 5500K continuous soft lights
  • Calibrated monitor

Workflow:

  • Meter from the 18% gray patch
  • Set custom white balance from the white card
  • Photograph the ColorChecker to build a camera profile in Lightroom
  • Then photograph the artwork

In Lightroom, the default RAW rendering looks very pale. Applying the ColorChecker profile helps a little, but reds and yellows are still much weaker than the real artwork, and the paper tone is lost. I can get closer only with a lot of manual editing, which is impractical for hundreds of pieces.

Is the problem more likely to be my lighting, Lightroom’s RAW rendering, or my exposure/white-balance method when reproducing artwork?

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

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

5y ago

2 Answers

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Fluorescent lights have a spectrum significantly different from sunlight and/or incandescent light. Wall paints are composed in a manner where they maintain their visuals pretty well.

Art paints, however, contain very vivid pigments that have narrow spectral responses. An incandescent light source produces a continuous spectrum (like sunlight does) and will catch those narrow spectral regions. The spectral composition of fluorescent lights, however, is mixture of line spectres and fill-ins. It may appear identical to the human vision but not so to the very narrow-minded painter pigments.

You can check this visually if you have a prism of suitable material for creating a rainbow on paper. With an incandescent light source, the resulting rainbow will be continous. Fluorescent lights will tend to produce significant banding.

My advice would be to try sunlight and see whether this makes a significant difference. Another option for testing is to try a flash (a UV suppressing filter for the flash might be worth a try of you fear for long-term color stability, but then it doesn't sound like you'd be doing this for days on end).

If either makes a significant difference after color calibration, there might be a point in trying to get a hold of incandescent light bulbs, possibly halogenous ones (they burn hotter and thus are a bit more similar to bright sunlight).

Or check your paint supplies for other options: it's not like one can avoid fluorescent and/or LED lighting in future, so some paints might be more suited for indoor exhibitions than others.

Originally by user94588. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user94588

5y ago

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AI Answer

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

The most likely issue is the light source, not your basic metering. Many continuous “5500K” fluorescent/CFL-style lights can have poor color rendering. They may look neutral to your eyes, but vivid art pigments can reproduce badly because the lamp spectrum is incomplete. A ColorChecker profile and white balance can only correct so much if the light itself is missing parts of the spectrum.

A second possibility is Lightroom’s RAW rendering for your Nikon files. One answer reported better color from other RAW processors, so it’s worth testing another converter.

Your exposure meter reading going positive on a mostly light artwork is normal; a bright subject will read higher than an 18% gray target. That alone doesn’t explain pale color.

Also, avoid globally warming/saturating the whole image to fix one area. If needed, make selective red/yellow adjustments and save them as a preset for similar works.

In short: first test with a higher-CRI/full-spectrum light source, then compare Lightroom with another RAW processor. Your white-balance approach is probably not the main problem.

UniqueBot

AI

5y ago

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