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Took off the UV/IR filter for candle work. Help with color cast?


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Help, anyone? :D

 

Here's what I did:

(1) Removed UV/IR cut filter from Nokton 1.2 to prevent "ghosting" of candles in shot caused by filter reflections.

(2) Post-processed image in Aperture experimenting with WB settings--sampling from a variety of places.

 

Here's the problem:

(1) No UV/IR filter = purplish/pinkish cast to photo. Yuck.

 

*Really* happy with the shot (glow, softness, lighting, etc.) and that there are no green candle "ghosts" floating in the shot because of having a filter on the lens. Total win.

 

But. . . .Color shifted. Ugh. Lose.

 

I've read posts here over the past two years about dealing with purplish/pinkish casts when not using the UV/IR cut filter. But none of the posts I read that I can recall had a good answer for this problem. . . . So, I don't know of a solution offhand, but I'd like to pull the color cast out of this image in Aperture.

 

Any ideas or suggestions? (Apart from converting to B&W--don't want to do that in this case. And apart from using a tool other than Aperture. Not going to C1 or Lightroom.)

 

Sample JPG below.

 

Thanks!

Will

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This is a couple of seconds work in Photoshop; go Selective Colour --Neutrals-- pull back the Magenta to -6. This is an example, not a finished article, some other repair work is needed e.g. to the gentleman behind the child who has a Magenta stain on his face due to a flair spot from the candles. Have a play, maybe use a combination of tools.

 

............ Chris

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Can someone please post that link when they find it - I searched the forum when I had this problem over the holidays, and it lead me eventually to a couple of defunct URLs on Jamie's (old?) site.

I assumed then that the profiles were no longer generally in use.

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Guest malland

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My feeling is that this type of candle-lit picture would require substantial color correction even if IR-cut filters had been used. Is that not true?

 

I ask this because I'm trying to figure out whether to get coding for some of my lenses and posed this question in post #107, here:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/75240-received-my-new-m8-2-today-6.html

 

—Mitch/Potomac, MD

Bangkok Hysteria©: Book Project - a set on Flickr

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Hi Mitch,

 

The filters definitely tend to level the playing field (if one is looking for technical color fidelity). The problem is that they can tend to flare with point source lighting in their fields of view.

 

To save you some months of potential misery - know that trying to correct for M8 IR color shifts with unfiltered lenses is difficult, frustrating and/or sometimes impossible. The only two real options are to either embrace the color shifts and let them go where they will or use the filters. The middle ground between those two is a mess.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

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Hi Mitch,

 

The filters definitely tend to level the playing field (if one is looking for technical color fidelity). The problem is that they can tend to flare with point source lighting in their fields of view.

 

To save you some months of potential misery - know that trying to correct for M8 IR color shifts with unfiltered lenses is difficult, frustrating and/or sometimes impossible. The only two real options are to either embrace the color shifts and let them go where they will or use the filters. The middle ground between those two is a mess.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

 

It's just what one prefers; the clone tool/healing brush or the colour balance controls. ;)

 

In more clear-cut images there is a Photoshop way of colour correcting:

RAW-develop for the correct colour-balance for most of the image, ignoring purple parts, make a smart object through copy, reprocess that one for the correct colour in the magenta areas, make a black layer mask, take a soft white brush and paint in the correct colours. Flatten etc..It is more time to type this out than to actually do it, once you have the hang of it. Well, almost.;)

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It's just what one prefers; the clone tool/healing brush or the colour balance controls. ;)

 

If you can clone out the flare, that's great. Sometimes, it's beyond anything cloning can help. With the filters, it can help to use the highest contrast lenses possible (ie: Zeiss and some of the ASPH Leica lenses).

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

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It's just what one prefers; the clone tool/healing brush or the colour balance controls.

 

That's what I figured. I was also hoping for a quickie fix that I'd missed.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. (And the example.)

 

Looks like it's a trip to Photoshop if I want to dicker with the color in a solid way.

 

If you can clone out the flare, that's great. Sometimes, it's beyond anything cloning can help.

 

I think I erred to the side of caution on this one--multiple UV/IR candle flares in unpredictable places would have spoiled my shot moreso than the cast issue. Using very high-contrast lenses is a great suggestion. I'm assuming the Nokton isn't considered "contrasty" at 1.2.

 

Sure-fire fix for the upcoming 6th birthday shot. . . . Dress him in a non-synthetic, 18% gray shirt! (The purple stripes were black.) :D

 

Thanks!

Will

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Hey folks... my C1 / ICC profiles are still available here:

 

http://private.james-roberts-photography.com/M8/m8_profiles.zip

 

They might work if you "assign" them in PS, but they're meant for C1 v3.x (and will work in C1 V4.x too).

 

There's the man of the hour. Thanks for chiming in Jamie. Some folks may want to bookmark that page in case they need to try those profiles.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

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Jamie - that's very useful; now if only I can remember how to load profiles on my Mac......

 

If someone already has done could they please post a 'Jamie profile' version [if you have 'assigned' - remember to do a sRGB 'Conversion' before posting].

 

.................... Chris

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Hey Chris,

 

I tried it and all it looks like is a gamma change and better skin tones :) It doesn't work the magenta magic if that shirt really does have black or dark blue stripes on it.

 

But you can take care of them pretty quickly in PS.

 

Here's a quick (1 minute) before and after. The trick is to fix the magenta messiness in LAB mode and paint out the skin (which is almost right in the original). Then just tweak the skin in RGB...

 

Nice expression in that shot, BTW!

 

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corrected:

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