Paulson Color Verification Chart (1 Viewer)

[Taghkanic]

One of the challenges of buying chips online (for me, anyway) is verifying chip colors. Everyone’s cameras and monitors capture color differently, and people take pictures of chips in widely varying light.

To assist with my collection of Paulson THC Starbursts, I’ve started archiving various sample chip images and color charts found on the web. Immediately, one starts to see the many variations in the ways the same color is displayed online.

Below is a mashup of four such charts. Over time, I hope to keep updating it with other chip images, so that one has some way of assessing what is for sale. This an also be used to send to sellers to ask them to verify the colors of their wares.

Hope it is helpful to others. If you know of additional charts/sample images which could be plugged in here, I am happy to do the Photoshop work.

 

[Taghkanic]

Note how certain colors look very different in each sample set (e.g. the Muzell Greens, Lilacs, or Mauves).

 

[Taghkanic]

NOTE: The sample chip images are from pics posted at http://www.jeffchurch.com/all-about-chips.html ... The smaller swatches are from a 2005 Paulson brochure that I found at the Wayback Machine.

 

[bentax1978]

This might also be of interest:

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/resources/paulson-chip-color-reference.2/

 

[Taghkanic]

Thanks for that... I will add those in soon. (I note that the images are heavily watermarked... I assume it is OK to work with them?)

 

[bentax1978]

Thanks for that... I will add those in soon. (I note that the images are heavily watermarked... I assume it is OK to work with them?)

I would direct any questions on their use to @Tommy since they are his scans.

 

[Taghkanic]

Updated with square thumbnails of Tommy’s scans (with permission). Having all three together further demonstrates how tricky it is to represent chip colors onscreen.

There are only a handful where the color is consistent across all samples. A few (e.g. Arc Yellow and Blaze Orange) are all over the map, with each of the three samples displaying a very different shade.

 

[Taghkanic]

Another obvious color-matching problem: condition.

Some chips are relatively new or lightly used; others have been oiled; some are heavily used and not cleaned.

Chalkier new clays seem to tend more toward a pastel palette. Oiling deepens and enriches color, as a rule... Dirt and grime tends to muddy the color. But each chip color may react dufferently.

So when I’m looking at an eBay auction and the seller says the chips are “green,“ I'm worried not just about *which* green they think they have, and how murky their pictures are, but whether their condition is distorting their or my belief as to what is being sold...

If I were a seller (someday no doubt I will be!), I would ideally photograph my chips against two different backgrounds (white, black) in 2-3 different lights (say, incandescent, neon, and sunlight?) to give the buyer a good chance to evaluate the color and condition... Of course, the more usual thing on sites like eBay and Craigslist is 1-2 bad pictures under one basement bulb.

 

[bentax1978]

If I were a seller (someday no doubt I will be!), I would ideally photograph my chips against two different backgrounds (white, black) in 2-3 different lights (say, incandescent, neon, and sunlight?) to give the buyer a good chance to evaluate the color and condition

A more effective way to get accurate colors when you're taking pictures would be to use a gray card (or something like this) so that you can set the white balance properly when you process the raw images. Not saying this is 100% necessary, but just taking pictures in a variety of conditions isn't really going to help with the consistency/accuracy issues.

 

[Taghkanic]

For me, a variety of shots helps because I studied color theory and visual art; I have a shot at triangulating what the actual color is. A single bad shot with a grey card is still going to be a bad shot, with potential issues (e.g. glare) that can't really be corrected for.

 

[bentax1978]

For me, a variety of shots helps because I studied color theory and visual art; I have a shot at triangulating what the actual color is. A single bad shot with a grey card is still going to be a bad shot, with potential issues (e.g. glare) that can't really be corrected for.

Well obviously you'd want to minimize glare and other issues which would create inaccuracies.

If the idea is to accurately depict the colors of the chips, in the context of selling chip as stated earlier, then the primary goal is to accurately represent those colors. I can't imagine how taking a few shots under different (and not fully quantified) conditions and then mentally triangulating them would be a better approach. I'm not saying it wouldn't also be potentially useful, but a properly exposed image that has proper white balance is the way to go (IMO) if your goal is to accurately represent the colors.

 

[Taghkanic]

Among other things, almost no seller on eBay has one of those.

 

[bentax1978]

Among other things, almost no seller on eBay has one of those.

I was primarily addressing the quote below, suggesting an alternative to what you proposed you would do as a seller.

If I were a seller (someday no doubt I will be!), I would ideally photograph my chips against two different backgrounds (white, black) in 2-3 different lights (say, incandescent, neon, and sunlight?) to give the buyer a good chance to evaluate the color and condition

 

[Taghkanic]

Ah. But still, I would prefer to see multiple photos. There is just so much correction that can be done if the camera and lighting conditions suck. But if I see a chip from multiple angles, and more than one type of lighting, it is harder to make a mistake. Speaking from both good and bad experience buying online...

Anyway, the goal of the chart above is to present enough different views of samples that someone can make a better educated guess when presented with less-than-optimal photos. Some of the variations are slight, some major. Already, I get the sense that certain colors are “safer” than others, if taking a flyer on a deal you have to make fast...

The more the merrier—if anyone has pics of their chips and knows definitively what color(s) they are, I would be glad to add them in. Or maybe I’ll scour the site and make some collections.

 

[Taghkanic]

(Also, even if I use a grey card or the like, the person on the other end has to have the skills to use that. I can correct on my end, but that doesn’t fully solve the problem since who knows what their monitor calibration is. Hence my preference for multiple shots/conditions.)

 

[bentax1978]

Also, even if I use a grey card or the like, the person on the other end has to have the skills to use that

The gray card would be so that you can properly white balance the picture, not the end user.

I can correct on my end, but that doesn’t fully solve the problem since who knows what their monitor calibration is. Hence my preference for multiple shots/conditions.

That will always be an issue, whether you send them a properly white balanced picture or not; sending multiple shots under different lighting sources/conditions won't have any effect on the calibration of their monitor.

 

[justsomedude]

Here's another one to add to your collection...

I took this photo back in the winter, but never got around to properly tweaking it. I probably need to take another stab at it with better (ie, more even) lighting, but for now, here you go...

Full size 300ppi file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6gqvda02j88k61/paulson-colors-FULLSIZE-300ppi-1.jpg?dl=0

 

[Taghkanic]

The gray card would be so that you can properly white balance the picture, not the end user. That will always be an issue, whether you send them a properly white balanced picture or not; sending multiple shots under different lighting sources/conditions won't have any effect on the calibration of their monitor.

I understand all that. But having multiple pics in different light gives that person some shot at sussing out what they are looking at, as the comparative aspect allows someone who understands color to make a smart guess. A single shot which has been white balanced is still inconclusive.

 

[Taghkanic]

Full size 300ppi file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6gqvda02j88k61/paulson-colors-FULLSIZE-300ppi-1.jpg?dl=0

Nice. Thanks.

 

[Drumhoss]

 

[Taghkanic]

View attachment 120073

Nice. I just finished adding justsomedude’s photos (see above), and will get to these in the next day or two...

 

[Taghkanic]

Again, with the fourth set of colors added to this grid, you can see how different each color looks. Each of the people who created these sample images took care to provide images that were reflective of how these various options look; and yet almost all of them are different. By putting them side-by-side, my hope is to aid with the process of elimination—narrowing down what color a given chip might be.

 

[justsomedude]

Again, with the fourth set of colors added to this grid, you can see how different each color looks. Each of the people who created these sample images took care to provide images that were reflective of how these various options look; and yet almost all of them are different.

It's amazing how different they look, even from my eye to the photo. In my opinion, it's almost impossible to capture the "wow" effect of the fluorescent colors in a photo. Radiant Red and Arc Yellow are perfect examples of this. Both of them are stunning in person, but they always look "flat" in pictures.

 

[FDLmold]

FLUOrescent, it is flUOrescent. Flour belongs in the kitchen.

 

[justsomedude]

FLUOrescent, it is flUOrescent. Flour belongs in the kitchen.

Good catch. But I think that's actually a page from the Paulson catalog.

 

[Drumhoss]

 

[FDLmold]

Very professional of them. Then it is spelled correctly in the text on the top right. Looks like they used the word sherbert also.

 

[BGinGA]

They've used sherbert forever. Also fuschia and munzel/munzell.

 

[FDLmold]

They're Paulson. They can make up whatever words they want. We still want their chips. Even in flourescent sherbert munzell.

 

[Taghkanic]

Here’s just one example of the problem of ID’ing chips for sale online. This is from someone’s auction on eBay. The seller (probably wisely!) does not even attempt to name the color.

Here are the seller’s original pics, with extraneous areas cropped out. These photos appear to have been taken with the chips on a white pillowcase or sheet. The image is murky, and ambiguous about the color:

Here’s what my favorite photo editing program’s auto enhance feature comes up with, letting the computer make an educated guess at color/exposure correction. This pushes the color into a more red-with-orange and less red-with-pink direction:

And here is a quick attempt I made at manually correcting the images, producing yet another result:

Commentary to come in a subsequent comment...