White Balance

[Nathaniel]

Since I got hooked on to digital photography (from film) I have found that there are many variables which can be set by the user- such as ISO, white balance etc. Is it the general opinion of the members that it is best to leave the WB on auto for 90% of the photos or should one keep on changing it to suit the time of day,flash etc.

[colin C]

Re: White Balance

I find that AWB does a very good job 90% of the time. It does throw a wobbly sometimes where a sequence of photo's will have one that is wrong, but easily corrected in DPP.

I did go through a stage of setting it manually, daylight, cloudy, shade, depending on conditions, but I found that AWB did a better job. The problem is that each of those settings is a constant and light is variable. Take daylight for example: it is a specific colour temperature for noon, but it is different in the Northern Hemispere and the Southern Hemisphere and it is only accurate at mid-day and presumably at mid-summer.

Unless you have a very expensive light colour temperature meter, or use an Expodisc or similar, you can appreciate that with light changing constantly, AWB is the easiest bet. I do use some custom white balances for tungsten light, sunsets etc. and I do take a white balance board with me where the white balance is critical, say for outside portraits where I want nice skin tones. I just shoot the white balance board fist, and whenever the light changes and then use the White Balance eyedropper in DPP to correct.

I have rambled on a bit, but does that help?

Colin

[Stan]

Re: White Balance

With my 7D I have set it to AWB almost exclusively and it does a good job for 90% of the time but as Colin says its easily corrected when you come to process the RAW file. With the 40D and 50D the AWB rarely did a good job so most of the time with those i set it to daylight.
When we had our photo day at the big cats our guide suggested that as the light on the day was quite dull AWB would leave our shots looking dull and lifeless and he suggested using daylight setting, he said he liked his shots to be warm anyway. Once we got shooting the light did improve so i left mine on AWB and it was fine until we were shooting the lions who were quite in the shade and I fould the colours to be quite flat - a change then to daylight was a vast improvement leaving only minor wb tweaks to do in ACR

Stan

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: White Balance

Hello Nathaniel;

How are you getting on with shooting RAW? That clearly has / will have a great influence over the advice you'll be getting!

So far, all our advice to you has been aimed at you shooting JPEG... If that's still the case, then I still advocate using the dedicated White-Balance modes over AWB for consistency!

If you're now shooting RAW, then Colin's & Stan's advice applies...

[Nathaniel]

Re: White Balance

I was referring to the WB setting for both RAW & Jpeg. I will be shooting in both RAW/Jpeg for starters but still have not got down to it due to various mundane matters that needed my attention such as the talk to the Mothers Union, Youth Club re my trip to Obergammergau, plus baby sitting duties etc. I have in fact not touched my cameras till I sorted these things out first. But there are plenty of opportunities to get back on track.

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: White Balance

Hello Nathaniel;

Just so you're clear about how this works.. The two things (RAW & JPEG) are not really 'compatible' for a lot of these 'flexible' settings!

If you shoot with AWB, then that is what will be embedded in the JPEG file produced in-camera, and that can't be changed! (Outside of a lot of shennanigans in PhotoShop...)

If you shoot RAW (+JPEG), then you CAN subsequently change it in the RAW file, if the WB is not quite right, in DPP or ACR and 'convert & save' the RAW file to a NEW JPEG!

Hope that helps...

Cheers...

[MX5]

Re: White Balance

Just a tip ... if you do set the WB to something specific ... then don't forget to set it back to AWB before you put your camera away for the day. I also set back to Av, 100ASA, No exposure offset, etc. The camera is then ready to go should you need it quickly. There's nowt more annoying than needing the camera in a rush ... and find it was set to Tungsten, 3200ASA, M, ... and not thinking ;-)

But that's me ... with a short term memory on a par with a goldfish.

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: White Balance

I also set back to... 100ASA...

Showing your age

[MX5]

Re: White Balance

Showing your age

CF - It's been one of those days ... need a nap ;-) But it'll always be ASA to me. Ah Kodak Recording Film pushed to 6400ASA them were the days.

[colin C]

Re: White Balance

Ah Kodak Recording Film pushed to 6400ASA them were the days.

Grain as big as lentils!

Colin

[Trevoreast]

Re: White Balance

ASA, ISO Call it what you like,
Standardisation had to be introduced because of huge variances between brands of film.
EG One manufacturers fast film performed dramatically different to another.

Now that film has been replaced with sensors, we have variances all over again.

I can't see any organisation being able to re- introduce meaningful standardisation now, eg ISO 800 giving the same result over a wide range of cameras under test condtions.

Please feel free to file my ramblings under the heading of useles information

Trev

[MX5]

Re: White Balance

Oh I agree ... I've been involved in IT standardisation (ISO, ITU-T, BS and EN) in my distant past ... Open Systems Interconnection ...

[djguk47]

Re: White Balance

IT standardisation

is a statement with about as much meaning as Army Intelligence

[MX5]

Re: White Balance

You mean an oxymoron ! Yes as someone once said ... the beauty of IT Standards is that there's so many to choose from. In film speed ... there's only four I know of ISO, ASA, DIN or GOST (although I guess the BSI have one, as might the EN).

[djguk47]

Re: White Balance

You mean an oxymoron

Yep you are correct MX5.... my mind is a bit fuzzy this morning and could not think of the right word, trying to sort out a customer with a severity 2 service request that our help desk guys just keep on "parking" of to development...reading the forum for a bit of "light relief"