M8 Colors and Post Production Workflow

[wda]

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First i want to say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to jump in and help me out with this issue.

 

I did do a bit of testing this morning and it seems like that Magenta cast might be a biproduct of using the Shade Preset, I tried Auto WB again and it seems to yeild a much more natural image much cooler but much more accurate. I can always warm it up in Post.

 

What do other users of the M8 do for White Balance?

 

Again thanks for everything.

 

Cris...

Cris, if you are shooting Raw the camera will ignore any white balance settings. Only the Jpegs will reflect your selections. My guess is that you are showing us Jpegs with the unnecessary warm (shade) white balance giving unwanted warmth. I shoot Raw and leave the White Balance setting on AWB.

 

I would recommend your further tests to be with a coded lens. Borrow or hire one if necessary.

 

I do commend your use of a calibrated grey card for neutralizing colour cast in PP. I use a WhiBal but Colorchecker is also a good choice.

 

Is your monitor calibrated regularly? If not you could be introducing unwanted corrections to your files.

 

I hope this helps together will all other advice.

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[Jamie Roberts]

Chris,

 

Here are some pointers in addition to all the good advice you've gotten so far...

 

• in the shot you posted, the white balance and JPEG can be pretty quickly fixed by adding a levels layer in PS, selecting the grey eye-dropper tool, and clicking on the white sign or the white road marks. They're the only thing there I pretty much know is near a neutral. The same should be true for C1 with a RAW file.
  
• always shoot with the UV/IR correction on in the menu, use the filters, and I recommend C1 with the M8 UV/IR filter ICC profile
  
• the density of the shot posted is also a little off (a wee bit overexposed). Pulling it back will restore cyan which will start to neutralize the red
  
• if you want a nice neutral place to start with the camera and WB, go to the WB Kelvin menu and dial in 5600K, which is a standard that approximates sun with lots of blue sky (lots of cyan). You can leave it there and batch correct in post, or you can warm it up a bit for morning and evening (though I like my morning shots to look "cool" usually and my evening shots to look "warm").
  
• Your Zeiss will not be corrected at the edges for red shift / cyan drift whatever they're calling it these days unless you've coded it, somehow, as a Leica lens. Which means the center part of the frame may be off in terms of colour from the edges (and that's why Leica NJ wants you to test with one of their lenses), Though in truth you shouldn't have much problem with a 50mm lens
  
• I'd honestly try a Leica UV/IR filter if you can manage it on the lens. Can't hurt.
  

Hope this helps!