7D MK II skin tones/color issues (5d Mk III +7D MK II owners)

[Travelintrevor]

Greetings,

I sold the 7D to buy the MK II as a 2nd/back-up body and am pleased with the camera except that I can not match the skin tones to my 5D Mk III.

ALL settings being equal, lens, WB, etc, this should be possible but the 7D MK II is giving me very yellow results. This would make it impossible to shoot them side-by-side since syncing the files would not yield consistent results.

5D MK III is not the issue since colors agreed with the 7D and 6D.

Anyone out there with the two bodies get the same colors/skin tones?

5D MK III is not the issues since colors agreed with the 7D and 6D

 

[East Wind Photography]

The best way to go is if you create a profile that show the scene equivalent
one way is to use www.qpcard.com and here http://www.qpcard.com/en_b2c/matching-cameras

Yes, this is really the only way to get things in sync. Profile the cameras with a common calibration tool. One of the possible reasons for the change is that the 7DII introduces an IR sensor for metering in an attempt to more accurately calculate exposure and color balance. One would expect it to be more accurate but since this is the first off of such tech (that I am aware of) there could be some bugs. There are many other bugs that need squashing so I'm not surprised.

However you should be able to get things really close by profiling both of the cameras. Adobe has a routine built into photoshop to simplify the process but you need one of the calibration cards to do it.

 

[Travelintrevor]

Thank you but the suggested profiling will not work since it needs to be done every time one shoots under a different light source and that is simply not feasible. The skin tones can be corrected by adding 10 towards the purple in the TINT slider in LR but sometimes the other colors are so far off that it requires adjustments in the HSL. Also, when I program in 5600K, the camera actually records 5500K +6 instead of 5600 0.

Strange things are a foot at the circle K. I will be sending this unit back for a replacement tomorrow morning.

 

[drjlo]

profiling will not work since it needs to be done every time one shoots under a different light source and that is simply not feasible.

Well, proper WB takes time and effort unfortunately, but I do agree not everyone will be willing or able to do it every time. I do my best to plan ahead and shoot the X-Rite grey card (or WhiBal grey card), custom WB off the grey card, then shoot the X-Rite color patch for profilling later, but when things are rushed, I at least try to shoot the neutral grey card in that lighting. WB can come pretty close when the WB dropper is used on the grey card in post processing even without exact profiling..

 

[memoriaphoto]

When you say same WB, are you using a graycard or simply dialing the same K and tint in post? Because different bodies have different WB settings.

A custom profile will help you, as others have mentioned already. But there's no guarantee that they will look exactly the same. I use ColorChecker Passport for all my cameras but there's a difference in rendering anyway. My 1Ds3 will not render the same as my 6D for example - both profiled. Mainly because of different CFA's and the fact that the 1Ds3 is more balanced in all channels.

Do you have any examples to share?