lorim222315 Loc: Twin City Area

How do you shoot your white balance? Custom, auto, manual, or does anyone use the Kelvin scale?

MtnMan Loc: ID

Always shoot auto but sometimes adjust with the temperature slider in Lightroom.

lorim222315 Loc: Twin City Area

Thanks for your reply. There are so many options. Wondering what everyone does and if one way is better, more common than others.

BermBuster Loc: Hi Desert S.Cal

I generally leave it in auto, because I shoot in RAW, but if I'm doing something important, like a portrait indoors with mixed lighting;
Sometimes I set a custom white balance with a grey card,
But usualy I'll either use a grey card or Color checker passport in my shot (To correct it properly later).

How do you do yours?

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I do all of the above depending on the situation. On rare occasion, I use the Kelvin scale which gets me pretty close.

I have a few custom "pre-sets" that I return to. Usually I do auto.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

If you shoot JPG, most modern DSLR cameras are very good in AUTO ISO mode, but you can alter your results by choosing what you need manually. If you shoot RAW it makes no difference as the finished WB selection is chosen in PP anyway.

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Usually I use auto and correct in LR to what looks/feels like what I remember seeing- probably 90% of the time. Sometimes I want to record the WB as it was and then I will include a shot of a grey card in one of photos in the series. ;)

GHK Loc: The Vale of Eden

Just use auto unless you are working in a fully controlled environment. The result will not always be correct, partly because the gradations in camera WB are fairly coarse. If you use Adobe Camera Raw, it has a control for you to adjust the white balance of the shot image; this is much more fine, offering adjustment at 50K intervals.
GHK

RmcBUDDY Loc: Morris County, NJ

I most always try to use a tripod because my hands are not steady anymore (Mongo sad ) :-( With that said I use a cable release and an 18% grey card. I use auto white balance, take a picture of myself holding the grey card so I can fine tune the white balance later using my skin tone if I need to. I use LT5 and I love it.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Sorry but auto ISO is not the same as auto White Balance. Please be sure to understand the difference...it is totally important.

Did that statement really come from my hero MT Shooter? If so it must have been a slip of the fingers...I know he knows better.

Musket Loc: ArtBallin'

When shooting raw, it doesnt matter. I keep it on auto unless im shooting heavy sodium vapor lights in scenes, then I select my own custom settings made from this exact shooting scenario and apply those in post.

You can rely on the auto setting to get it right almost all the time in jpg.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

You are correct, that was supposed to be AUTO WB, I had just finished a long PM about ISO and had my brain stuck in that gear I guess.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Thought so. I too find sometimes when I let my fingers do the walking they go places they shouldn't.

:-)

nekon Loc: Carterton, New Zealand

White balance

Where, with film you either shot print film in daylight or with flash indoors, and with slide film, you used daylight or tungsten film, or used compensating filters with these. White balance is Digital’s version-you select a white balance based on the condition of the light you are using, so the camera’s meter allows for white to photograph as white
Auto white balance does a reasonable job most of the time, but it cannot cope in some situations-especially when subject is in deep shadow. You need to know when to use the white balance settings for all situations, and this table will help you understand: ( degrees Kelvin is a means of determining colour temperature)

Sunrise/sunset 2400-3000 Kelvin……………………Use Auto white balance
Tungsten lighting 3200-3500 Kelvin Note…( these settings are for studio white balance for tungsten-Use tungsten/Incandescent white balance) For Domestic tungsten lighting-2500 - 3200-you will generally get better results using auto white balance
Fluorescent lighting 4000 Kelvin …………… Use fluorescent White balance
Early morning/afternoon sun 4000 Kelvin…….Use auto white balance/ --fluorescent white balance
(Magenta filter) to counter greenish cast on skin from foliage if under trees or on really green grass
Noon sun/Sun overhead…5000-6500 Kelvin…………………….use Cloudy White balance
Flash photography in daylight 5500 Kelvin ………………………Use Flash White balance
Deep shade………………….6500 Kelvin…………………………Use cloudy/shade white balance
Shade in daylight 7500 Kelvin ………………………………......Use shade white balance
Heavy overcast, very dark shade 8000 to 10000 Kelvin………Use shade white balance plus 81a-85c glass filter

To set custom White balance: (Nikon)-Sorry I only know Nikon's method

Select a neutral coloured object to set your white balance
It’s best to avoid using a white target. The camera prefers grey.( Print yourself a grey card: In photoshop- File> New
Click on background square in toolbox
select: red 127; green 127; blue 127 from color chart- Print)


In white balance menu select "Custom"> "Preset"
select "measure"
Press shutter release halfway to return to shooting mode
press wb button until a blinking "Pre" appears in control panel and viewfinder
frame reference (grey card) so it fills the frame
and press shutter release all the way down (Camera won't take picture)
If camera was able to register a value for white balance "Good" will flash in control panel and GD will flash in viewfinder
If lighting is too dark or bright "no g d" will flash in viewfinder and control panel


If you use white in direct sunlight you'll always get a "No Gd" response from the camera because the Matrix meter is rendering it white instead of grey. Thus the trick is to select the centre-weighted meter when using a white reference in bright light and you'll get "Good" from a camera. Remember to set back to Matrix metering as soon as you're done.






Towards Perfect Colour Balance

The Idea of this exercise is to make you aware of the accuracy of the camera's white balance Pre-sets. By the time the assignment is over, you will know what objects look like under each lighting condition, and how the pre-sets alter and correct deviations.

Things you'll need:

• A movable object /objects,of various colours
• Lighting conditions to match White balance pre-sets
• Notebook/pen/pencil



1. Direct Sunlight- Set camera to 100 ISO, Daylight pre-set, Take shot
2. Switch to Auto White balance-take a shot
3. Object(s) in open shade-Shade/cloudy pre-set-take shot
4. Switch to AWB-take shot
5. Switch to Daylight-take shot
6. Object(s) under tungsten lighting-Tungsten/incandescant pre-set-take shot
7. switch to AWB-take shot
8. Switch to daylight-take shot
9. Objec(s) under fluorescent lighting-fluorescent pre-set-take shot
10. Switch to AWB-take shot
11. Switch to daylight-take shot
12. Object(s) under cloudy lighting-cloudy pre-set-take shot
13. switch to AWB-take shot
14. switch to daylight-take shot
15. Object(s) ready for flash lighting-flash pre-set-take shot
16. Switch to AWB-take shot
17. Switch to Daylight-take shot
18. Object(s) under window light-Shade pre-set-take shot
19. Switch to AWB-take shot
20. Switch to daylight-take shot
21. Object(s) under overcast lighting-shade pre-set-take shot
22. Switch to AWB-take shot
23. Switch to daylight-take shot
24. Object(s) ready for open bulb lighting-flash pre-set-take shot
25. Switch toAWB=take shot; then Daylight-take shot
In your imaging Program, see how the object(s) look(s) in each pre-set,and the differences switching pre-sets made to your object(s).
Note what happened when image was adjusted, was adjustment correct?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I always click on the Auto setting and adjust it to my liking after that. The LR choice for Auto WB is never quite what I want.