Help for IF camera lighting

dougj

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Jan 15, 2005
Posts
1,449
Loc
Martha's Vineyard Vineyard Haven MA
We have our IF setup and working fine except for color problems. When setting up we used half a dozen different color mat corners ligned up.When we go to get picture from camera (canon S2)the colors seem to be pretty close. When we capture the picture them colors change, ie white to slight gray, bright yellow to pale yellow, light gray to darker gray.
We called wizard and were told to play with lighting but they didn't have any sugestions as to what kind. We have tried floresent, track spots and floods, flash ,no flash, and combos of above.Tried adjusting colors on our monitors. Still looking with the camera seems very clost to true colors but when we thake the picture they change. Does any one have any suggestions?
 
check your camera for a "white" adjust setting........

Set this setting using a piece of C1153 (white rag) or quiv as a target. Once this setting is set where should be no problems, hopefully.
 
Use a specifier for color.

You might try to use the lighting setting that is closest. Then turn off the flash and bump up the exposure to get the whites right. It will whiten the whites and brighten the greys.

Good luck.
 
Color Problems on a system such as Integrated Framer using consumer grade hardware for cameras and monitors with uncontrolled, mixed lighting is going to be a continuing problem.

I took a course by Kodak a few years ago titled "The Improbability of Reproducing Color Accurately". It's difficult.

You have a camera on the ceiling - do you know it's settings? Are "Vivid Color" or "Neutral Color" turned on or have you set it to "Color Effect Off"? Is your exposure set to "Automatic" which means it will give a different exposure for a dark print than it will for a light print so if you use the same mats they will look different? When you choose a color temperature setting, daylight or tungsten or?, is it actually the color of the light on your design table? The camera control in IF is very limited - I am using the Canon software which gives me more control of the camera. Not awkward actually as the files are saved and simple to "Open From File" in IF.

Have you calibrated your Monitor? This is a tough one as you only have your eyes to measure. Perhaps we will have to get more sophisticated with our monitors using something like this:

http://www.colorvision.com/profis/profis_view.jsp?id=581

Somehow we will have to come up with a system to accurately portray the color of a mat on the screen.

This should however be a little easier than many color system because we only have one step - from camera to screen. Most photo type systems have 2 steps - from camera to screen to print.

I'm currently using manual exposure with color effect turned off in my Canon S2 and doing a little exposure control as needed by changing the ASA speed (exposure compensation is turned off when set for manual). My design table is lit to f/8 by 2 studio flash heads. The camera is set to 1/1000 sec at f/8 for most shots.

The pictures are good and now I will be working on monitor calibration. I hope I can get good results with the monitors I have after looking at some high end graphics monitors at 2500 for a 19 inch.

[ 04-19-2006, 05:36 PM: Message edited by: Bandsaw ]
 
I think Wizard meant to change the lighting settings for the camera within the Integrated Framer software. Our Picture It First uses the same camera, so I would imagine that software controls are similar, if not identical.

Also play with the exposure f-stops for the camera from within the PIF or Integrated Framer software.

Because we have 30 feet of window, the ambient lighting at our design counter varies throughout the day. We change the camera lighting settings several times during the day. Sometimes fluorescent, sometimes HiFluorescent, sometimes halogen, sometimes custom, sometimes auto. With all the combinations, we are able to come up with acceptable combinations. As mentioned by others, it will never be perfect.

We also build a set of louvers attached to the fluorescent fixture directly above the design counter so the direct fluorescent light is not on the artwork.

Our gray carpeted design counter seems to cause problems also. If we use a piece of the same shade gray matboard as the design counter, the image is significantly different for the better. Must be the carpet texture.
 
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