When I first saw this scarf done, I commented on how it almost looked like camouflage colours. After the buttons were added, I do a simple shoot of it in (purple) living room, working with sunlight but shooting with flash as I didn't want a multi-second exposure. The light was great and I really liked the way the shape was brought out, too, so I uploaded it as my POTD for today:
Only when I came back to it shortly after did it occur to me that it looked a lot more purple than I remembered it. Back to Lightroom, and sure enough, I hadn't specified the white balance. It was set to 5750/+41 by the camera (probably due to all the green in the yarn) rather than the 5500/+0 that is the "flash" setting. Simply adjusting to the "flash" setting cured all the camera-automatics-imposed ills and gave the picture above. Here's what the difference looks like in Lightroom:
Here's the final version, where the camouflage color way can clearly be seen:
Lesson: Just because the light is controlled doesn't mean the camera will get it right. Not even when the camera knows there's a flash on. Never trust camera automatic white balance. Ever. For anything where money is involved, definitely bring the grey card.
