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[OM] Re: [OT]Canon Keeps Moving

Subject: [OM] Re: [OT]Canon Keeps Moving
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:47:16 -0700
AG Schnozz wrote:
>> Most of the images are in an arena with terrible mixed lighting. I 
>> would not expect stellar skin tones. The one shot portrait of the  
>> young boy with off camera flash looks pretty good to me.
>>     
>
> Although I agree with you about the arena shots in theory, since this
> is a prime market for the camera, wouldn't you think that how this
> camera captures skintones in this ugly lighting is important?
>
> My issue is with the lack of "pink" in the skin.  It just doesn't
> exist in these shots.  Granted, they might be Canadians, which would
> definitely explain the exhaust/closed-garage aspect, but still, they
> don't look they have freezer burn.
>   
I again reveal my ignorance:

I know that there is no way that a camera can get white balance right 
without some information or assumptions, which can take four forms.

1. Set WB by taking an image of a white thing in the ambient light, 
achieved with the Auto WB setting.

2. Set WB to the known or guessed color temp. of the lighting, achieved 
with the preset fixed WB or direct color temp settings.

Both of these options can achieve rather good color balance in all but 
complex mixed lighting.

3. Assume the scene averages out to gray, achieved with the Auto WB setting.

This is often going to give odd colors, generally whenever there is an 
overall average deviation from neutral tonality.

4. Some manufacturers have introduced "intelligent" Auto WB, where the 
camera compares color (and other?) characteristics of a subject with 
stored samples to deduce what kind of scene it is, and set the WB 
accordingly.

This is a P&S feature, not for pro DSLRs. However, I think the Auto WB 
results of Canyon cameras are a simple form of this. DPreview has been 
dumping on them for years about their poor Auto WB performance in 
incandescent light. Given their general competance at other aspects of 
image quality, I ask myself hwether this characteristic might be 
intentional, to give the look of warmth most people expect and find 
natural in such shots.

To date, the approach of #4 is not going to work for this kind of 
camera, so there is no way at present to make Auto WB optimal for all 
kinds of light. If I were making this camera, knew I couldn't make the 
Auto WB work for all situations, and had to make a choice of what kind 
of light to tune its Auto WB for, would I tune it for "arena lighting", 
which, of course varies all over the place, or for relatively neutral 
subjects? Given that this camera will be used for all kinds of different 
purposes and that, as you suppose, people react strongly to skin tones 
in people pictures, I would balance it to give its best results in the 
kind of light used for portrait and event photography.

Now I know the SmartShooter skin tone test is flawed, in several ways in 
addition to leaving out your beloved E-1. However, lots and lots of pros 
who make (or try to make) a living taking just those kinds of pictures 
and selling them to the subjects and their loved ones looked at lots and 
lots of prints taken under limited, but controlled conditions. Voting 
blind, they choose the 5D as the camera producing the best skin tones in 
JPEG shooting at default settings.

So I propose that C did just what I would have done, as outlined above, 
set default WB for the most WB sensitive application. I suspect that the 
vast majority of people looking at the sports shot in SI don't notice 
skin tones unless they are so far off that they start to make 
determining race difficult. So how stupid would they have to be to tune 
Auto WB for such situations? Having got that right on the 5D, why on 
earth would they do anything but use the same set-up on the 1DIII?

Now back to those first 2 points, custom WB and fixed color temp 
settings. We're talking pros here, right? People who are capable of such 
things and might even visit the venue early to find WB settings that 
work with its particular lighting in addition to preferred spots, lens 
choice, etc.? And this is pretty simple stuff in a place with fixed 
lighting, nowhere near as tough as some other venues.

If I'm buying a camera to shoot arena events for money, am I going to be 
worried about something I can easily control beyond the needs of the 
clients or about things like frame rate that improves my chance at the 
money shot and iso performance that allows really high shutter speeds to 
stop the action?

Moose

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