Yes, true enough. Rizole’s test also reveals how easy it is to get off-colour results.Exactly, if rizole is showing us a grey cardigan and he wants to show us that it is that exact shade of grey, then the wb is obviously failing.
If the scene is of a woolen cardigan on a chair and that is purely the objective, surely the colour isn't that important?
For advertising or any kind of product sale I'd totally agree that exact colour was extremely important. With others types of photography especially those with artistic licence, I'd say having the exact colour was not so important (unless my skin is purple and my hair is green).
I guess there's also the thorny issue of monitor calibration as well
I generally don’t care that much if the colour is precisely accurate as long as it is pleasing. Personally, in my so-called artistic expression, I like something better than reality. But even that has its basis in reality. Like reality with one layer of smog removed.
Once we go into the realms of artistic fancy then in many cases the objects are used for some other purpose than to show what they look like so accurate colour is secondary.
There’s an office not far from here where the staff often draw upon a bank of photos kept on the office server. They use the pictures in AV presentations. (Oh dear, projectors are another can of worms). The people using the pictures are not supposed to alter the colour of the photos because the office has not invested in calibrated monitorsf for them, except for the garphics department. That’s where the colour work is done. The general idea is, these pictures have already been corrected so don’t mess with them. Without a calibrated monitor you really have no idea if you are correcting the colour, or ruining it. A case of the rose-tinted-glasses. Or green-tinted, or whatever. Likewise with contrast. Also, your perception of colour on a screen can change depending on the environment you are working in. Today it is sunlight, tomorrow, cloudy. This evening, artificial lighting.
All of my monitors are calibrated, monthly. I can even calibrate my iPhone and iPad screen. Unfortunately, there is no system-wide provision as yet for colour calibrating cell phone screens. I can only use my colour calibrated view within the one app and I can only view the photos in that app. It has no provision for adjusting images. It is useful for occasionally checking to see how the calibrated and uncalibrated views compare. From what I have seen so far, my iPhone screens have been pretty close to the calibrated version. As they say, close enough for government work.
If you were in the business of making work for printing, like brochures, ads, etc., and you deal with a commercial printing house to get the work printed, then you must have a calibrated monitor. Otherwise, you don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to evaluating the resulting colour in the finished work. If they hear you don’t have a calibrated monitor they can disavow any responsibility for how the colour turns out.