Shooting this weekend and need suggestions

[Joe Peoples]

Hi, Gang:

I am shooting next weekend and will have MANY files to correct. The good thing is that the lighting is consistent and I already e-mailed Harald, who told me to shoot a grey card and then sample it in Color Washer. What settings are you guys using, as far as Exposure fix, Contrast, and color tweaking? I've found the "Strong" exposure fix and "Mild" Contrast fix work best. Do the settings change, if I use the Auto settings? I'm planning to use the grey card to neutralize the color and then add a curve in PS to tweak the skintones. Any other suggestions? Thanks!

[HaraldHeim]

Well, it depends a bit on your taste and sometimes also on the photo itself if you want to use "Mild" or "Strong" instead of the "Normal" setting for Auto Contrast and Exposure Fix.

For the photos with the grey card in them you should draw a sample area above the card in ColorWasher. You can also try selecting different cast types.

My general advice is to experiment with different settings in ColorWasher to get the best results. The default and Auto settings produce quite good results in most cases, but you can usually improve them even more by drawing a sample area and trying various Cast Type, Auto Contrast and Exposure Fix settings.

The ColorWasher manual already includes a lot of useful tips for using ColorWasher. I don't think there any more tips I could give.