Feedback needed for new preset

[Tom Roper]

Originally Posted by Steven Dempsey

Tom, I loaded up your preset and there are two things that stand out about it:

1. It's a little muddy and/or milky in the midtones (I realize that can be made richer in post)
2. There is a definite green cast that I find distracting

Anyway, that's just my opinion, it may work for others.

Thanks for your efforts

Here's a comparison of the two:
Tom's on the left, mine on the right. Neither frame has been retouched, straight out of the camera.

And thank you too for trying it! But that's weird. I would never allow a green cast like that. The chief difference between our color settings is the treatment of the green gain channel, -1 for me, -10 for you.

I will post a screen capture in daylight scene and see if this green cast exists. I was tweaking the setting under white balanced tungsten illumination.

[Steven Dempsey]

Okay Tom, go ahead and try it in daylight. I just double checked to make sure I had transferred the settings correctly from your post and I did.

One more comment about your settings is the knee. As a general rule, I don't have anything set to auto because it will introduce a variable into your picture. When knee is set to auto on the Canon, the effect is slow to kick in and can sometimes be quite noticeable if a high contrast object creeps into your frame. My advice is to avoid auto anything at all costs unless you are shooting a locked down scene with no light changes.

[Eric Weiss]

on my laptop they both look good.
however, on my workstation there is a milky green cast as stated.
the area where i noticed the red highlights is cropped..but that part looks good.

i see the red highlights right behind the cars and the tire tracks. it looks like a truck carting red bricks drove through there.

im using a 27" 1920x1200 monitor and passing through these images to a 30" 1280 HDTV via Vegas.

Stevens preset is still really nice. Crisp and Vibrant. Color correction can easily fix what I'm seeing.

[Alex Leith]

Could someone quickly explain what the matrix settings actually control, as I'm having a hard time working it out (as I sit here randomly creating the most ugly looking colour-casts you've ever seen!)

RG matrix (for example) - does that boost / cut the amount of RED+GREEN (together), or does that shift the balance from RED to GREEN?

Why are there both RG and GR matrices?

[Michael Richard]

in order to truly see this photo accurately you would need to be using a hardware calibrated monitor. Steven's most recent photo looks quite accurate to me.

[Tom Roper]

Steven and Eric,
Here's the thing, the grabs that came from Steven's cam using his settings are unquestionably closer to target. But what's unfortunate is that our two cameras seem to treat the identical presets much differently. I copied Steven's settings exactly. I shot a couple grabs in daylight and it shows there as a magenta push, where the street pavement looks pinkish. But it REALLY jumps out as a magenta push on the white walls and inside the shadows, as seen inside my office, so that's what I'm posting.

Steven, are you shooting with any kind of filter? I'm not. And if that's not the difference, this is unfortunate because it means presets are not calibrated between cams. Your grabs look best on your settings, but my grabs with your settings have a magenta push the equal of the green cast you saw on your grabs from my settings.

Steven's on the left, mine on the right.

[Steven Dempsey]

Tom,

My white balance for the test was set to the default daylight setting (56k) with no incremental changes. What is yours set to?

[Eric Weiss]

yeah, i was just going to say ..sounds like a white balance issue.
or i hope so.. my xh-a1 is coming tmrw. yay.

[Tom Roper]

Originally Posted by Steven Dempsey

Tom,

My white balance for the test was set to the default daylight setting (56k) with no incremental changes. What is yours set to?

56k for the outdoor shot, AWB for the indoor shot, due to mixed lighting, cool white fluorescent overhead and daylight coming through the window.

[Steven Dempsey]

Okay, we need to do an apples to apples test. Don't use AWB and certainly don't shoot a test under any kind of flourescent lights. Shoot an outdoor scene with the 56k settings and post a still and let's see how both settings look on your camera.

To be honest, I would probably develop a completely different setting for the indoor shot you are using in your test. Too much mixed lighting involved.

[Tom Roper]

Originally Posted by Steven Dempsey

To be honest, I would probably develop a completely different setting for the indoor shot you are using in your test. Too much mixed lighting involved.

There's no preset you can make that will make my office look anything better than 4 white walls should.

I will shoot some daylight 5600k on my lunch break and post the grabs late this afternoon or tonite after dinner.

Right now skies are giving way to overcast in Denver.

[Steven Dempsey]

Originally Posted by Tom Roper

There's no preset you can make that will make my office look anything better than 4 white walls should.

Actually I was referring to refinements such as color gain and the like. I like to turn that stuff down for indoor presets.

Looking forward to the results of your test today. Isn't this fun? :)

[Tom Roper]

I shot the video, still in the cam though.

Copied your settings exactly, 5600K, F3.7 @ 1/150, ND2, hazy light, windy and dusty.

Lots of neutral tones, a machine gray metal warehouse building in the background, concrete sidewalks, asphalt street, a green lawn with some burn spots and a tree. Perfect composition! And actually it will be good for highlighting color casts in the mid tones, if any.

[Steven Dempsey]

Good job, I'll watch out for you post.

[Alex Leith]

Can't wait to see it.