Help making a filter.

[bvanant]

I am not sure that I agree that you can get the same results in LR/PS/??? that you can with a physical filter. The reason that Lee/Roscoe et al sell hundreds of different filters is that they are all subtly different. I can measure the transmission spectrum of any filter I want but making a photoshop action to implement that spectrum is quite difficult if not impossible. I guess you could create a camera calibration shot with and without filters but that is also way much work.
Bill

 

[Rred]

Bill-
Roscoe's filters, as in that big sample pack, are theatrical lighting filters, NOT photographic filters. They used to be called "Roscoelene" and they were a plastic that is easily scratched--but easily cut into shape to insert into various spotlights and other holders on lamps.
As opposed to filters made out of optical glass, which is all you really want in front of a camera. (Although there are now some very decent optical plastics, glass is still king.)
The software filters can manipulate anything in the spectrum that is recorded in the photo. And you should be able to buy "canned" filter settings, just like document templates, if you don't want to custom set them. Heck, every photographer who printed their own color pictures, used to custom set the color balance for their prints. often for each print.
That really hasn't changed, because now you can set your "filter" to match the variations of your printer inks and printer paper, as well as the water color. Yes, dropping some cellophane [sic] in front of the lens is easy--but not at all necessary. Kinda like calling a taxi every day instead of learning to drive. That works too.

 

[bvanant]

I am not quite sure I understand (my problem not yours) how to manipulate a software filter that emulates say, a TIffen #2 filter. If I did know how to do that it would be trivial to shoot fluorescence pictures with no yellow filter. I have looked around quite extensively and can not find any type of canned filter software. A long time ago, I did print my own color photos but almost always had available help from Kodak (we also had a spectrometer and a densitometer) but don't know how to do this in LR or PS.

Cheers

Bill

 

[Fibonacci]

I've used a Magic Filter with good results in the past on my point-and-shoot Canon S90 in a Canon WP-DC35 with a screw on filter adaptor.
Very good for available light shots in shallow water, esp if you manually set the white balance off a plastic card.
For GoPro video I use a DGK UW colour balance chart and include a couple of seconds of it at the start of each shoot... much easier to colour balance different clips!
DGK Color Tools WDKK Waterproof Color Chart WDKK B&H Photo Video

 

[Rred]

Bill-
I confess, I haven't worries about Wratten filter numbers, much less about Tiffen (great products) since the days when I used a CRC book to get filter information. Or when there was no PC issue when you mentioned shooting a "Shirley" for color balance. Finbonacci's mention of an underwater (!) color correction chart is great.

There are SO many canned filter plug-ins out there, there has to be someone selling an "underwater" set.

Folks like Colormancer | Color Correction Photoshop Plugins sell filter plug-in packs, if you can't find a set for UW use, I'd contact some of those vendors and ask them about teaming up to produce a set of filters for divers, since everyone and his cousin seems to be using underwater cams these days. (Very different from the days of using a Nikonos and having to tuck egg-sized flashbulbs up your sleeve to keep track of them.(G)

Or maybe ask on the Photoshop forums (or the software of your choice) if there are ways to generate and save your own "filter" preferences and apply them. (Probably shooting the UW white card and then generating a filter for each situation, the same way we used to shoot a white or color card on each roll or emulsion group.)

I'm totally behind the times on Photoshop. One of these days I should do something about that.

 

[bvanant]

I don't actually need one, I use the Macbeth color checker in an IPAD housing to set custom color balance for my shots with strobes. Since I mostly shoot raw I can white balance pretty much how I want. BUT I can not shoot without strobes in shallow water and get as good a shot in post as I can with the magic filter, particularly for our mostly green southern california water. I have looked at Colormancer but I don't think it does what the OP wants i.e. to replace a color filter. It is mostly driven by "contrast, brightness, and saturation" according to them. In any case, I think that I could make a color correction algorithm based on transmittance but I would rather go diving.

Cheers

Bill

 

[Rred]

"I can not shoot without strobes in shallow water and get as good a shot in post as I can with the magic filter,"
I'm not sure I'm reading you right, but if I am, I can fully appreciate that. Using the strobes will give you intense full-spectrum light, and without that light source, there are some colors (not to mention overall balance) that will simply not be present, no matter how or when you correct the photo. The strobes are an additive light source, all filters are subtractive.

What gives me a real hoot (and urge to throw heavy objects) is when someone has a bounce flash pointed up or behind them---in a large room with a 40' high ceiling and their target is a stage 50--100 feet away. Where the strobe can't possibly matter. On the one hand, it is SO nice that the enabling technology has enabled so many people to capture great images. On the other hand...This is why they don't sell heavy construction equipment and explosives at the local WalMart.(G)

 

[Rred]

Bill-
Found this as well:
How to Add Color with Photo Filters in Photoshop CS6 - dummies

They reference applying 80, 81, 85, other standard filters in Photoshop. So, there are ways to store and match the old fashioned color correction filters, and apply them to images. So something like a Wratten 24 ("Red") and all the rest of the Wratten standards, probably is out there.

 

[Sbiriguda]

Very interesting discussion indeed, was searching info on the same topic

 

[Rred]

Most folks, no matter how educated, do not have any grasp of the somewhat obscure way that light and color and the human visual perceptive system work. They mistake cyan for blue and magenta for red, and while a printer can use "black" ink, to a photographer black is simply not a color, it is an absence of color. So it all gets a little complicated.

For instance, the human eye cannot see the color yellow. We only have sensors for red, green, and blue. Our brains "deduce" or perhaps "guess" there is yellow, by the imbalance mainly of blue and green. What you see as "lemon" yellow, as a color, may be very different from what I see. We both know "that's a lemon" but really, what do we think we're seeing?

There is logic and science behind it all, but SO much misinformation, or crossed information, or simply questions of context. Like, whether black or white are colors.(G)

Not to mention, what was it, last year? The news kerfuffle about whether a dress was blue or gold? And viewers of the same image couldn't agree on it? That's our perception system getting the facts all out of kilter again.