On such pics I’m quite often very unsure with WB. What’s your take on it?:
20250104-1052-7401.CR3.xmp (19,2 KB)
20250104-1052-7401.CR3 (33,3 MB)
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20250104-1052-7401.CR3.xmp (19,2 KB)
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I flipped several times between a slightly reddish cast and a blue-green cast. I finally decided on the blue-green. WB is standard As Shot to Reference + Color Calibration with daylight illuminant. I didn’t know that was possible, but darktable did it.
I predict that all of the edits will look about the same. 
20250104-1052-7401.CR3.xmp (10.6 KB)
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Imho is almost perfect…WB, global edit, very nice!
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I’m happy that you like it. Anyway, it’s a Play Raw, so you are still invited to show me your version. There is still room for variations.
Looks like a Northern sky, so I set the WB to 7500K and had at it in the GIMP.
Here’s the above with Histogram Equalization, a useful one-click tool:
See the improved shadows at left.
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20250104-1052-7401.CR3.xmp (12.8 KB)
It’s not quite good as yours, it lack some contrast and saturation…
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20250104-1052-7401 (1).CR3.xmp (20.3 KB)
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I usually feel like these threads are the most useful if you’re curious about the typical color/brightness settings being used across the users of a forum. There’s some very blue heavy configs being used, and some monitors that need their brightness/contrast reduced a lot. If I had to guess the exact cause of these mis-calibrations, it could be any combination of the following. Using OLED monitors, software-HDR/software contrast boosting, editing on a good monitor, but with too-high brightness, a laptop, or in a room where light is reflecting off your screen. There’s a reason why low-brightness IPS panels are in every single monitor created specifically for professional photo editing.
Regarding brightness, each screen/system is a little different, but for example, what I consider the “gold standard” for photography monitors, the Eizo CG series, recommend a brightness of 120nit for use/calibration (when matching screen image to typical printer output), and to my knowledge, all their CG monitors max out at 350-450 nits.
All of these thoughts/info arent to change editing or processing ideas or anyone elses “eye” for what an image should look like. It’s to help standardize how your monitor/screen affects the image. So you can have confidence that the editing will be represented fairly when you do post online, and will make printing to a variety of printers easier, and possibly a lot cheaper (having to re-print images because they’re too dark, etc. is never fun).
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Bold of you to assume that these renderings aren’t the editors artistic interpretation.
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Agreed and I think the term “mis-calibrations” is inappropriate as regards the Play Raw category.
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Or to support these comments perhaps a reference image for comparison…
As the light source for much of the image is blue - the blue sky - I would expect the reflected light also to have a strong blue content.
To add to that - the only colours in any view are those of the light source.
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I don’t understand what you mean by this. Could you please elaborate it somewhat?
EDIT: In my mind, colors are just in my mind. The light source(s) offers some wave lengths that my eyes and brain can play with. And there is no equivalency between wave lengths and color perception. I can perceive colors that are not among the (pure) wave lengths of the light reflected to my eyes.
Any object can only be seen by the light it reflects and it can only reflect those wavelengths that are illuminating it. How the brain modifies what we believe we are seeing is a different matter!
Butting in:
See above rewording in square brackets, and of course we know that some illumination is by reflected or filtered light, for example objects under translucent leaves in a forest.
The apparent color of any object in a scene is a function of both it’s spectral reflectance and the illuminant’s spectral emittance.
For a simple example, a red object looks black when illuminated by blue light because it absorbs most blue wavelengths, q.v. “absorbance”. Or flowers can change color when brought from outside into a room lit with incandescent lamps.
Hope this helps …
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