Manually selecting white balance

[Csacwp]

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With my new M10 here, I’ve decided that I’d rather manually enter white balance measurements rather than rely on AWB. Having never done this before, are there standards that are used for outdoor shots (sunny, overcast) and indoor shots (yellow vs white lighting)? Does the WB change frequently, or can I simply leave it on 5500 when shooting outside?

Edited February 11, 2018 by Csacwp

[jaapv]

You will adjust/set it anyway in postprocessing, your raw converter has the same choices as the camera -and sliders and eye-drop tool-, so either leave it on AWB or use outdoor. It is not very important.

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[Gobert]

Further to Jaap: if you want to measure it very precise, you’ll need a 18% grey card. It’s not quite handy outdoor. Thus, you’d better leave it on auto.

[evikne]

The WB may vary a lot, depending on many factors. And the camera’s custom WB doesn’t take into account the green-red scale. For a perfect WB I will recommend using a white balance card, like WhiBal, or an ExpoDisc. Both can be used to set a custom WB before you shoot, or afterwards, in the RAW converter.

Edited February 11, 2018 by evikne

[rnl]

https://lu.mu

 

• I have this..it's cheap and it works well.  I used it today after I took some photos at my home to measure the light from some new LED lights in my kitchen.  This unit plugs into an iPhone and may be used to measure color temperature as well as spot and average metering light. Although it has a flash meter, I've never used it.

I often use a Sekonic light meter but it does not have a color meter.

 

While I find it useful, the camera's color temperature sensor is pretty good.

Edited February 11, 2018 by richardlipow

[Narsuitus]

On those rare occasions, when my camera’s automatic white balance setting does not give my images the desired correct color, I find custom white balance very useful.

 

I have used the following white balance tools and found all of them acceptable:

1.Gray card (cost less than $10)

2.White card (cost less than $10)

3.White paper plate (cost less than 10 cents)

4.White notebook paper (cost less than 10 cents)

5.White coffee filter (cost less than 10 cents)

6.White tracing paper (cost less than 10 cents)

7.White balance lens cap (cost $5 to $50)

8.Expodisc (cost $50 to $100)

 

Some are just more acceptable than others. For example, my Expodisc produces accurate results more consistently than any of the others. My gray card produces inaccurate results more than any of the others.

 

Once, when I was shooting a wedding that had a mixture of fluorescent lights, tungsten lights, diffuse sunlight coming through an open door, and colored sunlight coming through stained glass windows. To perform a custom white balance, I followed a handwritten copy of the step-by-step custom white balance instructions that I carry with each of my cameras. Before the ceremony, I stood at the alter where the bride and groom would be standing, and used a white card (the second white balance tools on my list) to analyze the light that would be falling on them.

 

On other occasions, I will perform a custom white balance by placing one of the white balance tools (#5 through #8) over the camera lens, point the camera at the light source (flash or continuous light source), and followed the camera’s white balance instructions to analyze the light coming directly from the light source.

 

Either way, I have to follow the white balance instructions for the camera I am using because each of my digital cameras uses a different procedure.

 

Sometimes, instead of performing a custom white balance, I will just set a Kelvin temperature for correct white balance. For example, when shooting under incandescent lighting, I set the white balance to 3200 Kelvin. When shooting infrared, I set the white balance to 2500 Kelvin. When shooting color images of the moon, I set the white balance to 4200 Kelvin.

 

 

White Balance by Narsuitus, on Flickr

[Bill W]

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In the past I would set my white balance according to the lighting conditions because auto white balance was pretty bad. As auto WB evolved, I have used it all the time. FWIW.

[david strachan]

I usually don't bother, just leave my M's on auto. Can always fix with the slider or dropper in LR, or PS.

 

Some occasions i have used my white handkerchief for an exposure, and or white balance, making sure I'm measuring the actual reflected light...has worked well. Particularly in very green foliage pictures.

 

As Bill said above, Auto is pretty good nowadays.

 

Stage lights, evening sunsets, etc you expect the light to be different. So trying to overfix the light can look wrong.

 

It's just up to your presentation...how many shadows are far too blue, or grey snow? Really you present as you want the image viewed.

 

We adjust, and compensate when we look at images. Same as exposure...some too dark, some overexposed...to one's own eyes.

 

...

Edited February 12, 2018 by david strachan

[tobey bilek]

Further to Jaap: if you want to measure it very precise, you’ll need a 18% grey card. It’s not quite handy outdoor. Thus, you’d better leave it on auto.

 

Grey cards are for setting exposure, not color balance.   You need a certain density on red channel measured with a densitometer

 

Wi Bal or other means are for color.

[david strachan]

Yes, grey cards for exposure.

Colour (grey) cards for colour and exposure balance...does both.

 

The old Kodak grey cards don't do colour balance properly.

 

...

Edited February 12, 2018 by david strachan

[jaapv]

Grey cards are for setting exposure, not color balance.   You need a certain density on red channel measured with a densitometer

 

Wi Bal or other means are for color.

Just use the flip side of your ColorcheckerPassport.

[Gelatino]

You  all are old fashion guys with your sheets of paper.   I own last smartphone   and on it settled for free some usefull applications as Pocket light meter for ex. Don't thank me I told you it's free.

[a.noctilux]

You  all are old fashion guys with your sheets of paper.   I own last smartphone   and on it settled for free some usefull applications as Pocket light meter for ex. Don't thank me I told you it's free.

 

Free only if you own smartphone allready.

Don't tell me how much cost your last smartphone .

If it's free you are the "...".

 

I do use "Freebox", http://portail.free.fr/freebox-os/

 

but it's never free .

Edited February 12, 2018 by a.noctilux

[jaapv]

Back to the subject

 

i really cannot understand the obsession with "exact colour"  It may be useful for product photography, but for the rest...

 

Firstly our brain has its own white-balance mechanism. It will correct the objective colour of a scene to a rendering that our mind deems realistic. Result: If you reproduce the real colours, the viewer will see them as unrealistic or wrong, as they won't correspond with the mental preconception of "correct" and/or the colours as stored in our memory.

On top of that the colours we see are affected by the surrounding light. Experiment - look at a bright blue object for one minute. Then look away. You will see the object as a yellow patch. Our eye adjusts to the input and has a colour memory.

 

Secondly the colour rendering depends on the medium. A screen with backlight cannot be the same as a print with reflected light (and which light?) and both of them will be different from the light reflected from the original scene.

 

The third aspect is that our eye lens gets more yellow with age - shifting the colour balance to yellow. After cataract surgery it will be blue again.

 

So what does this mean? Two things:

 

1. The colour balance is just a starting point. It is up to the photographer to tweak the colours in postprocessing to a result in print or on the screen that is correct in the eye of the beholder, or fits the artistic intention.

2. The colour workflow must be managed from beginning to end. The devices must be calibrated, the correct colour space maintained all the way through.

 

So set the colour balance as you like. The camera is just a starting point. According to your way of working use AWB or daylight for consistency. It is not needed, but it will make life easier..

 

Then, in the raw conversion, where the initial balance gets set, GET IT RIGHT! on a calibrated wide gamut monitor.

Use Adobe RGB and stay there, if needed dumb down at the end. (Lightroom and other programs will do this automatically)

Take care of the light at your working place, get as little glare on your screen as possible.

 

Then tweak the colour to your taste. Remember: it cannot be objective to get the best result. There are a large number of possibilities to work on colour in Photoshop, but even Lightroom or other programs give you wide latitude in playing around.

 

Keep the calibration up to and including the printer, ink and paper.

[01af]

I never use auto white balance. First thing I do with any new digital camera is to set the image format to Raw and white balance to Daylight (or Sunny, whatever it's called). And that's it.

[Narsuitus]

 

i really cannot understand the obsession with "exact colour"  It may be useful for product photography, but for the rest...

 

 

I also do not understand.

 

However, some of my customers are obsessed with "exact colour."

 

For example, two weeks ago, I was shooting a customer and she complained that the skin tones in her studio portraits were too red. I had to adjust the Kelvin white balance to reduce the red.

 

I had another studio portrait customer who requested that the high school colors in her band uniform be exact.

[rafael_macia]

The only time I have ever needed to set WB is with flash photography. Using a grey card helps give accurate flesh tones.

[Gelatino]

Free only if you own smartphone allready.

Don't tell me how much cost your last smartphone .

If it's free you are the "...".

 

I do use "Freebox", http://portail.free.fr/freebox-os/

 

but it's never free .

a.noctilux,we both know that Free is not free (private joke )

[a.noctilux]

Excellent joke .

 

To return to topic:

 

M10 has better White Balance than my M-A.

 

But sometimes, I better like the red hue from M-A ( plus Noctilux 1.0, mainly used with Agfa ).

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Hallo,

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[douglas fry]

There are times when setting a specific white balance will save time later. For example, if you were to shoot a party, indoors, lit by tungsten and a bit of occasional daylight coming through a window, the AWB camera will make an assessment every time, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but each image will differ slightly. A manually set camera, set to 'tungsten' say, will be consistently right or wrong, but the great advantage is when brought into LR or C1Pro the colour temp can be assigned to all the images in moments and you will have a great starting point for all the images.

 

Just remember to put it back to AWB for the next shoot ;-)