[Nhcoll-l] Color Cards

Tue Apr 30 17:15:04 EDT 2019

Kia ora from New Zealand,

I struggled with this issue a while back and we turned our noses up at the high prices of options already made and required something that would fit within our workflows and the software that we were already using. The solution we came up with here was as you suggest very DIY but still allows colour correction software that is easy to use to be run over the images and can work in with a work flow for larger objects as well.

We took one of the Datacolor SpyderCHECKR 24 Color Charts (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1070560-REG/datacolor_sck24_sypdercheckr_24.html) currently $44USD, carefully removed the black plastic covering, Removed the plastic colour swatches, cut them into quarters and reassembled the squares onto a piece of durable card with adhesive. We then cut a piece of dark matt-black card with squares that were the same dimensions as the original just scaled down and stuck that over the top (I also tried a matt plastic over the top, this looked great but it was neither durable and I could not find a plastic that was not shinny under our lighting sources which caused many problems with our software). This made 3 charts that are larger than the dimensions that were being requested. However with the final quarter, we made another set of smaller charts that was about 3cm long and if you have a sharp enough knife and are patient with the reassembly you could make charts smaller again.
We found this solution to be useful as we can still run the Datacolour software over the images for colour correction and all our charts are the same colours.
They are pretty rustic but perfectly useable and the software still works as long as you use a suitable sized chart for the size of specimen being photographed. I would suggest in the construction phase of these to take your time and make a good job of it as they last a while.

I like to use these as it will standardise the colour profile as different cameras of the same brand, and different brands of cameras have different colour profiles which can significantly change how a specimen looks in photo.

Feel free to get in touch if you require any more info.
KANE FLEURY

Assistant Curator, Natural Science
OTAGO MUSEUM

kane.fleury at otagomuseum.nz
Ph +64 |03| 474 7474 ext 844 
419 Great King Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand

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-----Original Message-----
From: Nhcoll-l [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Hannu Saarenmaa
Sent: Wednesday, 1 May 2019 7:40 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Color Cards

We are getting ours from https://www.image-engineering.de/

Here is an example
http://pyy.bioshare.net/Canada_data-Copy/dc1.2019-02-13_14-34-02_4bc8ce/Preview001.jpg

Hannu Saarenmaa -- Bioshare Digitization -- www.bioshare.com

On 2019-04-30 19:00, James Erdmann wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I am building a simple platform to photograph small objects (20–50mm), and would like to include a color reference chart for color calibration and quantification projects. The problem is that most professional-grade charts are much larger than is practical (particularly the X-Rite ColorChecker line). The one I have found that is of workable size (2x3”, CameraTrax 24ColorCard) is not very high quality. I have heard of people cutting up the larger charts, but would like more information before taking scissors to a $100+ USD piece of equipment. Any thoughts/suggestions?
>
> Thank you,
>
> James
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--
Hannu Saarenmaa, Docent
University of Helsinki
tel +358-401750427

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_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.