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BabelColor News!
i1Pro 2 support
Mountain Lion
DeltaE* for Android
(more info)
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IMPORTANT: Sales of
TARGETS are suspended. The status will be reviewed in 2013.
We are sorry for any disagreement
this may cause!
The BabelColor White-Balance target is made with the
best solid white reference material you can find: sintered PTFE. PTFE is an
acronym for polytetrafluoroethylene, a fluoropolymer better known as Teflon, a
DuPont trademark. Sintered PTFE, obtained with an exacting and time-consuming
manufacturing process, exhibits the highest and most constant diffuse
reflectance in the visible spectrum. Its diffusing properties are highly
Lambertian, which means that the apparent target brightness essentially remains
the same for all viewing angles. This material is typically used in high-end
light measuring instruments and accessories, such as integrating spheres.
Sintered PTFE reflectance characteristics are very different
from those of PTFE slabs and rods available from plastic suppliers, which are
essentially useless for white reference purposes. The characteristics of
sintered PTFE are in fact so unlike those of standard PTFE that some
manufacturers use a trade name for the resulting product; for instance,
Spectralon, a registered trademark of Labsphere Inc., is such a material. The
manufacturing process of Labsphere's Spectralon is a trade secret, and so is the
BabelColor white target manufacturing process; however, the resulting materials
have very similar properties in terms of reflectance, resistance to heat and
chemicals, etc. Where you will find a major difference though is in the price (purchasing
info); the BabelColor white target is about one-third (1/3) the price of the
competition (i.e. 66% savings)!
White target questions? See our
FAQ.
Applications
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Recommended by...
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Derek
Cooper explains how to use the
BabelColor White
Target for art reproduction in
Tips 135 to 138
(Chapter 10) of
Andrew
Darlow's book:
301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques.The
use of the BabelColor White Target in architectural lighting
is discussed by
Pierre-Felix
Breton
in Chapter 6 of this book:
3ds Max 2010 Architectural Visualization -
Advanced
to Expert. |
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Here are extracts from a
recent
discussion in one of
The
Luminous Landscape forums:
The WB picker should be spot on, but not all
gray cards are all that gray. The 2 mentioned above are relatively
good (WhiBal), and exceptionally good (the Babelcolor White target).
Bart van der Wolf
I used a foam cup
quite some times. It, for sure can give very good results, for me at
least, often better than most other devices and cards. But I would
like to add once more, how impressed I am by the BabelColor white
target. That's another league all together. I had no color issues in
post production. One click.
Nino Loss |
Here is an extract from a
post by Andrew Rodney (The
Digital Dog), the author of
Color Management for Photographers, in the
Digital Grin
forum:(...) First thing, don't
WB on gray! Try a non specular white. Half of all the data in a Raw
linear capture is in the first stop of highlight. What converter are
you using?
Next, a "proper" WB may not produce an ideal color appearance! I
often WB in Lightroom and ACR, then tweak the tint/temp sliders a
tad as I usually find the results a bit too cool for my tastes.
Also, if you have the proper WB target, that can help as something
that's not spectrally neutral will affect the WB. Something like
this:
http://www.babelcolor.com/main_level/White_Target.htm
(...) |
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Features / Specifications
- Nominal Target size: 1.18 inch (30 mm)
diameter; 0.355 inch (9 mm) thickness
- L*a*b* (D50): 99.5 / -0.08 / -0.40
(Typical; see
note)
- RGB: (253, 254, 254). These numbers
are representative of many common RGB spaces such as Adobe (1998), ProPhoto,
and sRGB.
- Stable reflectance under various lights and over time
- Highly diffused (non-specular, i.e.
non-reflective) surface
- Waterproof
- Thermally stable
- Not fluorescent
- Shipped in a protective phenolic case with a
transparent cap
Three specific advantages of this target are:
- A reflectance of 99% ±1% over the visible
spectrum. This translates to a Lightness value, the L* of the L*a*b*
notation, of 99.5, and RGB values around 254 for many common RGB spaces. In
comparison, many white targets for photography, sold individually or part of
a multi-colored set, display a maximum reflectance of about 96% (that would
not even be visible in the following graph!), with a L*
value of 96 and RGB coordinates around 243.
- A very neutral appearance, i.e. without a perceived
tint. Its a* and b* values, the color components of the L*a*b* notation, are
well below one (-1 or +1), which translates into nearly identical R, G, and B values.
- The L*a*b* and RGB coordinates remain
essentially the same for a wide array of white illuminants (A, C, D50, D55, D65, F3,
F11, etc.); this target thus exhibits almost no metamerism effect,
i.e. no change in perceived white (Note: the exact technical term for a
change in a single perceived color with various illuminants is
Color Inconstancy, which is
very low in this case).
These characteristics make this target a valued tool
whenever color accuracy is essential.
Note:
Measurements done with a spectrophotometer, 45°/0° geometry, Illuminant D50, 2
degree Standard Observer. The L*a*b* and reflectance values of your target may
differ from the typical values (Back
to Features).
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IMPORTANT: Sales of TARGETS are suspended. The status will
be reviewed in 2013.
We are sorry for any disagreement this may cause!
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