white balance (Page 3): I disagree with the notion of "shoot it any old way in RAW and correct it later." - Very difficult to do if you have mixed light sources;

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

I disagree with the notion of "shoot it any old way in RAW and correct it later."
- Very difficult to do if you have mixed light sources;
- It's an attitude of slovenliness. Better to shoot it right;
- The slovenly "correct it later" attitude creates immense workload if you have numerous photos to correct and the color errors vary in each.
- Usually the best thing to do is shoot with a custom white balance. Doing so also corrects for the tricky issues when there are mixed light sources.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

I agree with you completely. A custom white balance is easy to do.

Los-Angeles-Shooter wrote:

I disagree with the notion of "shoot it any o... (show quote)

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

wingincamera Loc: Spanaway, Washington

I sometimes have a need to adjust white balance when shooting indoors in mix lighting situations. I use to use a gray card to set a custom white balance in camera even though I do shoot raw.
But then I heard about just using a plain old white coffee filter over the lens to set the white balance. It is so much easier to carry one in the bottom of my bag. If you google "coffee filter white balance" you will find lots of info. Here is one link below.

http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/2008/11/product-comparison-white-balan-1.html

nekon Loc: Carterton, New Zealand

wingincamera wrote:

I sometimes have a need to adjust white balance wh... (show quote)

Now I suggested using a coffee filter somewhile back, and I was called an idiot on this forum-but it works-I have a coffee filter circle between two useless UV filters, and this is excellent for both white balance and incident readings for exposure

Ph0to1

Nice table; however, in shooting sunsets/sunrises, which are basically red, note that if one sets the WB for automatic, the camera will correct this; try daylight/~5500-6000K setting to keep them red. J

wingincamera Loc: Spanaway, Washington

nekon wrote:

Now I suggested using a coffee filter somewhile back, and I was called an idiot on this forum-but it works-I have a coffee filter circle between two useless UV filters, and this is excellent for both white balance and incident readings for exposure

Using it between two filters works. I just rubber band the coffee filter over the end of the lens. Works for any size lens.

nekon Loc: Carterton, New Zealand

Ph0to1 wrote:

Nice table; however, in shooting sunsets/sunrises, which are basically red, note that if one sets the WB for automatic, the camera will correct this; try daylight/~5500-6000K setting to keep them red. J

Sunrise/sunset is deceiving; they are usually in the 2300k - 2700k range-hence the auto wb recommendation

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

Easier said than done. I tried that but the temperature sliders have some kind of bias, the temperature and tint controls seem to have too much green or too much red, I actually get better better results from Photoshop's cooling and warming filters, each of which can be changed at will to any color you want and with a variable intensity. I now believe it is best not to ignore white balance in camera, try to get close and then fine tune in post processing is a safer bet.

Rongnongno wrote:

Shoot RAW and you do not care as you set it afterward.

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

Hey, sounds like a good idea to me. I have had great success with custom white balance and a white sheet of paper, your way sounds like the same result but a much more convenient package to carry around.

wingincamera wrote:

I sometimes have a need to adjust white balance wh... (show quote)

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

Just did a sunrise shoot with a local photo group over the Baltimore harbor, I noticed with my own and everyone elses there 'blown highlights" and "blown reds" no matter how underexsposed it was. Some kind of HDR blending may be the answer, where one is virtually black except for the sun, but the AEB feature only works +/- 2 stops, you need more for that, apparently, trying to fiddle manually unfortunately cannot beat the quick movement of the sun at that particular moment. I used to get great sunrises and sunsets with film, is their something deficient about digital sensors we are refusing to acknowledge?

Ph0to1 wrote:

Nice table; however, in shooting sunsets/sunrises, which are basically red, note that if one sets the WB for automatic, the camera will correct this; try daylight/~5500-6000K setting to keep them red. J

nekon Loc: Carterton, New Zealand

georgevedwards wrote:

Just did a sunrise shoot with a local photo group ... (show quote)

The way is to expose for the area of sky above the sun to avoid blowing out

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

There is an interesting article at:

http://voices.yahoo.com/photography-color-temperature-charts-explained-10541847.html

which explains the color temperatures during various periods of the day.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

nekon wrote:

And you can do exactly the same when shooting jpegs

Of course you can, but I think that raw give you a little more room for error and more data to work with.

Hawknest Loc: South Georgia

nekon wrote:

Now I suggested using a coffee filter somewhile back, and I was called an idiot on this forum-but it works-I have a coffee filter circle between two useless UV filters, and this is excellent for both white balance and incident readings for exposure

i don't know who called you an idiot but i think he/she is the ''IDIOT''. i do believe you understand photography and i don't believe for one nanosecond you would purposely dish out erroneous info for the serious photographer. your photo brain is always welcome in this forum. rick