billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I don't have canon but I shoot a LOT of birds first thing in the morning and auto white balance has not let me down yet. If you need white balance can be warmed up in post or your print processor should be able to warm things up or cool those evening shots down to your liking. Again, my AUTO white balance has been spot on for me.

AlColter Loc: Michigan

pahtspix

My advice is to learn to shoot in RAW format..You can give your photo ANY WB you desire. Iv'e been shooting raw for 98% of all my images for at least 10 years..You will have so much more data in your files that will allow you will have much more swing to a positive result..And you will ALWAYS have your raw file available to do a re-edit in the future as the RAW format is not a lossy file..I consider it to be the equivalent of a "negative" in the old film days.. as far as storage goes, gigabyte and terrabyte drives have become extremely cheap.. PAHTSPIX

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Not sure what you mean? I control light with the exposure triangle Get a book on exposure

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Madhukr, your description of your issue is vague - controlling the light may not necessarily be a white balance issue. If you are having a problem getting good pics as you say, then the best thing is to post a sample image, with the "Store original" box checked. Otherwise you will get a lot of wise guys making snarky comments, or answering with various ways to address white balance or ways to set the camera correctly for the amount and quality of the light you have - which could either be white balance, color balance, and/or exposure and ISO settings.

Post an example so you can get better advice.

This is a link to a site that describes what white balance is, btw.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm

joseph premanandan

it is better to use autoWB and shoot your image in RAW format.you can always correct your WB in post processing as long as you shoot in RAW format.good luck.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The white balance controls on the camera are for matching the color of a light source to the sensitivity of the camera, so that the rendered image in a JPEG comes close to representing reality. The idea is to adjust the gain or volume control on each color channel (red, green, blue), so that gray in any light still appears gray.

If you work in raw, you may still set white balance at the camera, but you can adjust it in post-production any way you want.

To do white balance justice, you need a target of some sort. You can set a custom white balance for JPEGs, or do a click balance in post production for raw images. Either way, the reference target is what gets the job done. Examples:

Photographic Gray Cards
ExpoDisc
WhiBal
One Shot Digital Calibration Target

Go to B&H's web site and search "white balance reference targets" and peruse your options.

Finally, read your camera manual about the options.

leftj Loc: Texas

Me thinks Madhukr is pulling UHHers legs. What is White Balance??? Grainey at ISO 200 and 400?? Cmon Man!

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

My advice:

Shoot in Raw on Auto White Balance.

Adjust in Post-Processing.

RRS Loc: Not sure

Retry, I don't see your picture attached anywhere. Reread the instructions for attaching your shot. You'll get no real help until we can see what you are actually trying to say.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

how about shooting an 18% gray card and adjusting white balance in post? Also your pic didnt come through . when shooting birds there is a lot to know.
You gave us very little to go on to help you/

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

OP posted a pic with original checked a couple of days ago. Shot at ISO 640 and shows some grain. Maybe this will answer some questions?
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-441211-1.html

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I looked at the image To my eye it just need some processing and noise reduction see my file I did some work

Attached file:
(Download)


(Download)

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Nobody controls the light (ambient), but you can adjust for it, or better said adjust your sensor to it! (You control the behavior of your sensor to the light, but not the light itself)!! Long time ago, I used to shoot mostly with my WB set to auto, but I've changed that and I feel it made a big improvement. It just takes a quick look out the door and you can set your WB to one of the presets and in some circumstances you use a custom WB or set Kelvin itself!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

The ideal would be to set a Custom White Balance.... that can make a world of difference.

Unfortunately that's often not possible or practical when shooting outdoors. You might need to shoot Auto White Balance (or use one of the presets, but those are just sort of crude, generic values that are probably wrong more often than their right).

The solution often is to shoot RAW. Use Auto WB to get close, then with RAW you can freely adjust white balance later in post-processing software.

To do this very well, you really need a calibrated computer monitor. Most monitors are overly bright for photo editing work, plus don't render colors all that precisely. As a result, any adjustments you might make will be incorrect.... actually can make matters worse.

A calibration device and software such as Datacolor Spyder, X-Rite ColorMunki, etc. is the solution.

Monitors also change brightness and color rendition over time and with use... so need to be re-calibrated every so often. I do mine every other month... have a 60-day alert set up in my Spyder software, to remind me. To give you some idea how much change occurs over time, my monitor is about 6 or 7 years old now. When it was new I found I had to turn brightness way down to "20" (I forget what the default brightness was... but it was much, much too bright). Now after a number of years of regular use the brightness setting is around "50".

Once you have a calibrated monitor that you can trust, you can accurately correct RAW files easily during the conversion process. There are many available RAW conversion softwares... your camera manufacturer might even have provided one with the camera when you bought it... or might have a downloadable version on their website. Personally I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Adobe Elements is a simpler version of those that can be used similarly.