White Balance workflow

[mrcmrc]

Hi all,
just to ask if anyone may point me on a good tutorial about White Balance workflow, especially using Capture One. Any advise and tip is very welcome!

Thanks,
- Marco.

[bono0272]

The simplest way is using the dropper in the WB platter and point to a white area of your photo displayed in the Capture One. Usually that will give a correct WB if you have not chosen the right color temp while you took the picture.

Or you can slide the Color Temp bar to choose your design WB.

[sean_reid]

If the work allows one to include a reference white balance card in one of the frames, that is perhaps the best way to set color correction via white balance. One only needs to photograph the card again if lighting conditions change. So, a simple process:

1. photograph grey card under subject lighting, it doesn't need to fill the frame
2. In C1, use the white balance eyedropper tool to sample WB from the photographed card
3. save this WB with a name
4. apply it to all files made under the same lighting

One of the most common mistakes in setting WB comes from sampling an area that seems to be a color-neutral gray but, in life, actually was not. If the grey area is not purely neutral, the sampling will create a color cast in the color correction.

The card I prefer is called the "WhiBal" which truly is color-neutral (many cards meant for exposure, etc. are not). I have several of them but the one I use most is the size of a business card and is on a retracting tether that hooks to a belt loop on my pants. I keep it in my left front pocket. WhiBal's web site is:
WhiBal Gray Card for Digital Photo White Balance - RAW Workflow

The creator is a friend of mine but that's not why I like the card. I do recommend them. Almost all of the color samples in my reviews have been color corrected via sampling of a photographed WhiBal card.

Cheers,

Sean

[guy_mancuso]

Than if all else fails you can find something in the image that maybe neutral grey or white and i even been known to use black.

[osera]

I also use the Whibal card. Very convenient. There are probably others, but this one I find to be easy to carry and that means that I actually carry it. I sometimes loop it onto the camera strap.

I don't know the creator of the card at all, but have found him to be very easy buy from.

[clayh]

Another solution is the ExpoDisc, which is a neutral diffusion disk that you can put in front of your lens and point it at the light source illuminating your subject (sort of like an incident meter) Take an exposure through it, and then use the eyedropper tool to make it neutral. Works really well in mixed lighting.

[sean_reid]

Originally Posted by guy_mancuso

Than if all else fails you can find something in the image that maybe neutral grey or white and i even been known to use black.

That's what I do if I haven't shot a WhiBal *but* if the object in the picture isn't actually color-neutral then it can take a lot of tweaking to nail the color down, esp. skin tones.

Cheers,

Sean

[mrcmrc]

Many thanks to all, very kind replies! It's all clear now for me.

Just one thing however... the "Auto Adjust" function of C1 give acceptable result?

[John Maio]

Originally Posted by mrcmrc

Many thanks to all, very kind replies! It's all clear now for me.

Just one thing however... the "Auto Adjust" function of C1 give acceptable result?

I've used it from time to time on batches of images and it seemed to do a reasonable job - especially if the images were not of the highest criticality.

Mostly I do headshots under studio lighting and the first frame of the sitting is always one of the subject holding a Macbeth color checker card.