Light Temperature and Pictures

[Slowcountry Balls]

I saw a previous thread that was commenting on whether or not editing photographs is good. I thought I would take some time to put together a picture to show how a photograph editing program could be used to more accurately display the colors of the animals being photographed. I decided to start with the issue of light temperature. If you use flash, that light temperature is going to be around 6000K. Generally, it is accepted that natural sunlight can range from 5000K to to about 6400K. Most of the lights in your house are probably around 2700K. What this does is affect how the camera sees white. To show this, I built a jig that would hold some paint chips (I went to Home Depot and used the Gliden ones) and a WhiBal card. A WhiBal card has certified color values for grey, white and black. This can be used to adjust either your camera's white balance, or done later in a photograph editing program (I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 8). I first took a picture outside (at about 4:30 pm in South Carolina, near Savannah, Georgia). I then went to Home Depot and used their light display for Compact Florescent Lights (CFLs). Their display has an incandescent light, a soft white light (2700K), a bright white light (3500K), and a daylight light (5000K). So the unedited photographs are (from left to right, on the top row) Incandescent, Soft White, Bright White, Daylight, and Natural Sunlight. I then took each photograph into Photoshop Elements and created a layer to adjust the levels. Using the grey eye dropper, I clicked on the grey part of the WhiBal card, then using the black eye dropper, I clicked on the black part of the WhiBal card, and finally, using the white eye dropper, I clicked on the white part of the WhiBal card. I'll let you guys decide and discuss the results. The color corrected photograph is below each original. I hope this shows how a photograph editing program can be used to correct the color of a photograph for the light conditions under which the photograph is taken. The WhiBal card only costs about $20.00 and can be a great tool.

Incandescent, Soft White, Bright White, Daylight, Natural Sunlight