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Color accuracy in camera Is the color of an image accurate just because the camera tags the image with a profile? Not necessarily. The color temperature of the light source may not match the white balance that has been set in the camera or the color temperature of the film that is being used (you would have to be exceptionally lucky for the daylight temperature of the film to match exactly the color temperature of the light source on location).
Mark Galer
Both of the images above were assigned a profile in the camera but were then assigned different white balance presets (‘Shade’ for the small inset image and ‘Sunlight’ for the larger main image). Auto white balance in the camera makes a guess at the color temperature from the range of colors it is presented with as the framing changes for each and every frame (variation can be the name of the game here as the precise recipe of colors being presented to the camera is constantly varying). Auto white balance is about as accurate at recording consistent colors as auto exposure is at recording the most appropriate exposure in all situations, i.e. not very. The colors in an image can only really be accurate if the photographer creates a manual white balance from a known value (a neutral tone) or creates a reference image of the color temperature of the light source. Note > Auto white balance can be especially problematic when recording a series of images in JPEG mode. The colors will invariable shift slightly for each image in the series, e.g. this would be a major problem for a wedding photographer who notices the subtle tones in the wedding dress are shifting between each and every image because of an auto white balance setting rather than using a white balance preset or custom white balance setting.
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