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pixelfor
Inspiring
October 18, 2022
Answered

Flash Color Temp question

  • October 18, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 4230 views

@J453: Since you work at Adobe would you please forward this to the person who makes Adobe Camera Raw? Thank you.

1. My Nikon camera has a color space setting it calls "Flash." It can be selected when using a flash to light a scene. Nikon owners manual states the color temperature for the flash setting is 5,400K.

2. Adobe Bridge data readings show that Adobe Bridge sees that the Nikon flash setting was utilized.

3. Adobe Camera Raw however opens any Nikon image made with the Nikon flash camera setting as 6,150K and +1 tint and Adobe labels that color temperature "As Shot."

4. Adobe customers have to manually change the Camera Raw color space setting from As Shot to Flash. Adobe Camera Raw flash setting is 5,500K.

5. Please make Adobe Camera Raw follow Adobe Bridge in recognizing that a photo was made with "Flash" color space and not the "As Shot" color space which is always 6,150K if a flash was used. Or at least give your customers the option to select As Shot or Flash as a default when opening photos in Adobe Camera Raw which were made with a flash.

6. Just out of curiosity, what flash unit has a color temperature rating of 6,150K and +1 tint?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer D Fosse

Thank you for a reasonable reply. I have no active preset in ACR. I never used Sony. Your Sony is set to Flash mode and you get different values in ACR As Shot, correct? I'd like to confirm before having Adobe do a remote to see what's wrong.

 


Hang on, I misunderstood a bit. I left camera white balance on auto, since it will compensate for the flash as long as camera/flash communication works as it should.

 

But if you set camera white balance to fixed "flash", then yes, it should come in with fixed temp/tint numbers. But that won't be the same numbers as in the camera! That's normal and expected, for the reasons I wrote above. It's a different processor, so to achieve the same result it may use other numbers.

 

 

2 replies

Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
October 20, 2022

All in-camera WB adjustments (automatic or manual) come into Camera Raw as “As Shot” since they reflect how the camera was operated in the field when the exposure was made.  This is by design.

The Flash and other settings inside the White Balance popup menu in ACR/Lr are Adobe presets and, while they may have the same name as the in-camera option (e.g., Flash, Daylight, etc.) they are intentionally not the same.

 

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org
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    pixelforAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 22, 2022

    I'd like to thank an Adobe employee named Sundbar for his genuine interest during a remote session in exploring this issue. Sundbar has a great attitude and is willing to look at things from the customer's viewpoint. The technical issue sparked his interest. He never gave the impression it's unsolveable. As far as I know he's still thinking about it. Nikon, Inc was also very helpful and their explanation was so transparent and easy to follow. While the issue will always be unresolved in the eyes of some customers (I've read other photographer's comments on several websites) today's technical limitations of camera, camera to software, and software itself are what they are. And I did receive one unsigned email from an Adobe employee that was a bit condescending.

     

    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    October 22, 2022

    https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Camera-Software/How-to-determine-what-color-temperature-was-used-to-develop-an/td-p/252559

     

    From some research I've done on White Balance I think it is accurate to say that "Color Temperature" is NOT a property of the raw data. 

     

    He's right. As explained earlier.

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
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    pixelforAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 18, 2022

    If the camera is set to Auto for a color setting the Adobe Camera Raw dialog recognizes that and the color temperature numbers are different for each frame that was made with Auto color set by the camera. If the camera is set to Flash for color setting the Adobe Camera Raw dialog always shows it "As Shot" instead of "Flash" and the color temperature is always 6,150* +1. It doesn't matter if the flash was only 10% of the exposure or 100% of the exposure or if a flash was not used. ACR always opens with "As Shot" instead of "Flash" and always 6,150* +1. I was just wondering if there is a way to make ACR open an image with "Flash" as the chosen color since Bridge has already recognized "Flash" as the color space of that image. Just looking to save some time in the editing process without having to do a batch operation to change all flash images from "As Shot" to "Flash." If that can be done and anyone knows how, that'd be great!

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    pixelforAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 18, 2022

    1. JPG is how the image data appears in Bridge.

    2. JPG is how the same image appears in Camera Raw and skin color looks bad.

    3. JPG is after "As Shot" is changed to "Flash" and skin color look normal.

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