Jean-Francois OKane Photographe et Conférencier Montréal » Color balance coach

ColorBalanceCoach in the news

jfokane — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:21:21 +0000

The ColorBalanceCoach in the news....

Top article in PhotoLife as the “Cool Gadget” of the month the ColorBalanceCoach makes waves. Read all about it by following this link.

Why do I get only three peaks on my histogram?

TheStudioCoach — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:30:00 +0000

One regular question about the color balance coach target is: why do I get only trree peaks on my histogram?
as you can see on the left side of the hand-drawn graphics that the target is used facing the camera instead of facing the light. When you do so the difference of the light from one side to the other of each white patch changes until it reaches the amount of the next patch so you have a kind of one ongoing fading patch. As you can see now on the graphic on the second side on the right-hand side you have four peaks when the target is facing the main light remember the object of the color balance coach target is to measure the highlight to be sure that we do not get an over exposure of the light and the only way he to make this sure is to measure the highlight side with the target. So in the center of the drying you see the two side-by-side drawings one representing the target facing the camera and the other one representing the target facing the main light giving the proper exposure.
Enjoy your target and keep you posted with all your question how will answer them personally.
Jean François O’Kane,
TheStudioCoach.com

FAQ PhotoMasterTarget/ColorBalanceCoach: When I take the picture of the grey surface, should I leave my WB settings to AWB to take the picture for use in setting custom WB ?

TheStudioCoach — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:38:00 +0000

For Canon, Nikon and other brands, it does not make any difference the mode that you are in when you take the image you will use for setting the white balance. As a second step the camera will white balance the surface or the image that you have chosen to perform the custon WB.

The FAQ are fuelled by user’s questions.

How the ColorBalanceCoach target deals with the back light

TheStudioCoach — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 13:01:00 +0000

This fashion image shot in Paris at The “Astre studio” (map) represented a challenge in the calculation of the light. I wanted the light hitting the front of the model only, using as background the graphical shapes of the architecture. The Camera was set on manual exposure and white balance. The disc was placed so it did not get any direct light from the outside. I took the reading of the white balance on the grey target of the ColorBalanceCoach target set it as the working white balance. Then I made the setting for exposure by shooting the 4 patches until the signature histogram of the CBC was obtained and used this setting as my exposure and did the shoot. To make sure I would blur the background, I used a large aperture (this is the smallest number on the setting of the aperture) here it is f/2.8. Not a single shot was missed.

Jean-Francois O’Kane,
TheStudioCoach.

The ColorBalanceCoach, performs in extreme conditions

TheStudioCoach — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:16:00 +0000

In a snow storm there is a natural tendency to set everything on auto and rely on the work of the camera, As you can see in the first image the density and Color balance of the image is off. The image is too dark and reddish due to the cloudy conditions and the grey tone is just normal according to your camera meter. The built in meeter tries to put everything 18% GREY.
By using the ColorBalanceCoach disc as a target you can perform a densiry reading on the gry and also a custon color balance on the same grey material and then confirm your setting by looking at the histogram as you can learm on the site.
The same principle would apply on sand or beach.