There are three types of colour photographs: those with bad colour, those with accurate colour and those with pleasing colour.
If the skin tones in your business portrait don’t look good or if your pictures have an overall colour cast, then your photos have a bad colour balance.
Accurate colour is required when the colours in a photo must match the real-life colours. For example, clothing colours in a catalog should match the actual colours.
Pleasing colour is for pictures that have to look nice rather than be absolutely accurate. Portraits often have pleasing colour because a nice skin tone is usually preferred over accurate skin colour.
Colour Balancing Tools
How do you find accurate colour in a scene where there’s no colour reference point? All cameras have some type of automatic white balance but none of these are reliably accurate. Professional photographers always use a grey card or a colour checker.
The classic midtone grey card, originally sold by Kodak, reflects 18% of all visible wavelengths which makes it spectrally neutral (i.e. grey). When used correctly, a grey card makes sure that neutral grey is really neutral grey. From there, it’s assumed that other colours will fall into proper place. This is not exactly true because cameras, monitors and other output devices all have their own colour deficiencies. This is why colour checkers were invented.
A colour checker is used to set accurate colour. It makes sure each colour is reproduced at its correct hue and tint. A professional photographer uses a colour checker and appropriate software to calibrate their cameras and computer monitors so they can deliver accurate colour to you.
A Pleasing Grey
A grey card is used every time I photograph houses because there’s rarely anything neutral grey in a home. White walls are never really neutral white, stainless steel appliances are not really grey and white bathroom fixtures reflect the colours of the surroundings. A grey card gives me a known starting point toward pleasing colour.
Checking Colour
A colour checker is always used for business portraits because I want to start with accurate skin tones. From there, skin tones can be adjusted toward a more pleasing colour if necessary.
Accurate colour is better for group portraits because it avoids the time-consuming process of having to adjust each person’s skin tone.
Professional photographers consider a grey card and colour checker to be essential pieces of photo equipment. These tools help to make sure that the pictures delivered to you have the proper colour balance and will look good on your web site or in print.
