dlux 4 and auto white balance

[Jeff S]

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I got a chance to play with my new dlux today and headed off to some DC museums for mostly indoor, and some outdoor, shots. I was more interested in learning the camera under different and changing conditions than I was in creating my own work of art. I also wanted to compare results to those with my M 8.2, which I used at the same location a few weeks back.

 

I should add that I installed the updated firmware in the dlux, which is supposed to help with white balance and auto focus.

 

BTW, the dlux is a blast to use and encourages me to be more free with my shooting style. Without a viewfinder, I find myself holding the camera at all kinds of angles and heights away from my body.

 

Ok, that's the background. Now the issue. I set the camera to auto white balance, and didn't think to adjust it at any point. I shot everything at both DNG and Dynamic B&W. All of my color shots, indoor and outdoor, had a strong color cast...yellow-greenish mostly...when I pulled them up in LR. They were easily adjusted in LR by applying tungsten or daylight to the indoor/outdoor, respectively. But, I didn't have this issue at all with the M8, for which all settings were left pretty much standard as I also shot DNG (plus BW jpegs for previews).

 

Should I have expected a better result with auto white WB, or should I just be more careful to set the WB specifically for different conditions?

 

Jeff

[gtravis]

It's been my experience that the camera white balance settings are ignored for raw processing. They only affect the white balance used on the camera's in-camera JPEG processing.

 

Set the camera to record both JPEGs and raw and then compare the two. You'll see that the JPEGs have the white balance applied while the raw images do not. You need to set/process the white balance manually (as you did) in LR (Camera One, too) with raw images.

 

Yet another reason not to shoot raw.

[Jeff S]

It's been my experience that the camera white balance settings are ignored for raw processing. They only affect the white balance used on the camera's in-camera JPEG processing.

 

Set the camera to record both JPEGs and raw and then compare the two. You'll see that the JPEGs have the white balance applied while the raw images do not. You need to set/process the white balance manually (as you did) in LR (Camera One, too) with raw images.

 

Yet another reason not to shoot raw.

 

I shot both raw and jpeg with both cameras. For the M8, I think raw is way to go...but I was also curious about the bw jpegs for the dlux, since I heard good things about the bw dynamic mode.

 

The raw pics from the M8 came up in LR without needing much tweaking. But, the unadjusted raw pics for the dlux were unsightly until I applied adjustments. In the end, the adjustments were easy enough in LR...but I was more curious about the different results between the two cameras...or at least between the settings for each...when looking at unadjusted thumbnails.

 

Jeff

[integrale]

It's a known 'issue' with the B&W dynamic and RAW combination.

 

Apparently, some sort of greenish filter is applied to obtain the 'dynamic' jpeg, and that filter is also applied to the RAW file.

 

Do a search, and you'll find a number of threats/posts here on this.

 

Have fun!

[Jeff S]

It's a known 'issue' with the B&W dynamic and RAW combination.

 

Apparently, some sort of greenish filter is applied to obtain the 'dynamic' jpeg, and that filter is also applied to the RAW file.

 

Do a search, and you'll find a number of threats/posts here on this.

 

Have fun!

 

Ah...thanks! I did a search before posting, but apparently didn't enter enough correct words to tie this together.

 

Guess I'll either: try dynamic jpeg alone; combine raw with standard black and white; or, do as I did and fix in post. I shoot raw plus bw in my M8...always raw for any processing, and bw just to keep in bw "flow" when I'm shooting. But, I was intrigued to see what dynamic bw jpegs looked like in the dlux based on other positive comments.

 

At least now I know my camera...or me...isn't going berserk. I appreciate your reply.

 

Jeff