How Do You Approach White Balance?

[wdesigndeb]

I was following this thread White balance? and find this topic fascinating. I posted a thread before White Balance Adjustments and even though it was pretty cryptic a couple of gracious members tried to answer it for me.

Hopefully this is clearer.... I'd like to know how you approach white balance?

Do you approach it like a film shooter - setting a daylight balance (5200K on my camera) and then shifting the Kelvin either up or down depending upon the light throughout the day? In my case I don't have Kelvin settings just the standard presets so I am practicing shifting the WB using mireds to Amber/Blue to simulate the warming/cooling filters you would use with a film camera or do you set a custom WB using a grey card or other device resetting when the light changes.

Do you have more of a casual approach to white balance? Do you always strive for getting it as accurate as possible or do you go with creating your vision for the shot?

I'm not looking for a raw vs. jpg debate here. I know the benefits of raw. I would like to be able to shoot jpg/raw and get the best results possible. I'm a hobbyist and sometimes raw is more than I need. I'm striving for sooc images similar to this photographer's IMAGE: Straight Out Of Camera | CameraTalk on Xanga

I know.....but we can all dream right?

[keithdewey3]

This is always a good thing to talk about and never gets old.

There are many approachs and I don't proclaim mine to be right. It works for me and I use it when getting the colors right are essential.

I set up my lights and everything for the shoot. Then I shoot a Wbal target that allows me to check focus, exposure and Wbal.

I sometimes then set a custom Wbal in camera but more often I just use the picture of the target, properly exposed by sampling the gray when I am in LR3.

I always shoot Raw.

Hope that helps.

[wdesigndeb]

Thank you Keith - that makes great sense for shooting indoors in a studio setting. Do you use a similar approach outdoors? Shooting your target?

[korman]

Have you tried how good the automatic white-balance of your camera is? In many current models it's actually good enough not to worry about much - except in extreme cases.

Also, when in doubt, before messing it up, better just keep your options open and use raw-files. It's not raw=professional and jpg=amateur. For good results, I'd venture to say it's rather the opposite and raw allows amateurs to recover from more blunders during the shoot while a professional will be more likely to get good jpg-results straight out of the camera.

Korman

[Benji]

In the camera room. Manual camera set on Raw. Take a flash meter reading. Set the aperture on the camera at the suggested setting. Have the subject hold an 18% Kodak gray card in front of her near her face pointed toward the main light. Make a capture. Provided I use the same main and fill lights throughout the entire session that single gray card will work for the entire session. In Adobe Camera Raw take the White Balance Tool click on the gray card, Synchronize> Select All. The white balance on all images is perfect.

Outdoors. Manual camera set on Raw. Take meter reading. Set both the shutter speed and aperture into camera. Have the subject hold an 18% Kodak gray card in front of her near her face pointed toward the main light source. Make a capture. That gray card reading will work for all shots taken at that exact location from about 10 AM to about 5 PM assuming the subject is facing north and the day is cloudless. If we move to a different location more than about 10 feet from the first one another card reading must be captured. Believe it or not in the woods I have seen a 1000° Kelvin temperature difference and only moved about 20 feet! Amazing.


As far as Auto White Balance, I have seen the camera guess within 100° which is nearly perfect. However I have also seen it off by 1000° too! I ALWAYS shoot a gray card for portraiture as perfect skin tones are critical IMHO.

Benji

[wdesigndeb]

Thanks for your responses Benji and Korman, much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Benji

As far as Auto White Balance, I have seen the camera guess within 100° which is nearly perfect. However I have also seen it off by 1000° too! I ALWAYS shoot a gray card for portraiture as perfect skin tones are critical IMHO.

Benji

That's what I've been noticing too. There are times when AWB is great - but other times when I definitely see a colour shift. I'm attempting to train my eye to see the colour temperature and pick a preset and then shift the wb when I think it's too warm to too cold. Do you think this is practical or achievable? I'm a hobbyist, not a pro, so it's all just good fun for me, no fast turn around or deadlines here.

With colour film I know daylight is 5500K - my camera's daylight is 5200K, a -10 mired shift (or B2, the equivalent of a 82 filter) I think that's pretty darn close.
But in the case of direct sunlight the colour temperature is 5000K - something I'd probably want to adjust slightly. I know that's approx a +9 mired shift (an A2 shift - the equivalent of an 81 filter).

I guess what I'm asking is how close is close enough?

BTW, my son the filmmaker keeps telling me "Mom - get over it - just shoot a grey card".

Korman I'm with you - I'm sooooo over the raw vs jpg, pro vs amateur debate. There are times when I shoot raw - especially when I'm taking the shots for someone else's use and I want to make sure it's absolutely right, but I'd be hard pressed to say that I've shot raw more than once or twice in the last year.

[Benji]

"Close enough" is when neither you or the client notices the white balance is off.

Benji

[wdesigndeb]

Good grief, that makes perfect sense Benji.

Am I correct in thinking that a commercial lab (not a pro lab - as up here you require a business license to use one) is going to auto correct unless I ask them not to, in which case I'd need to calibrate my monitor and download their printer profile?

If they auto correct, do you think this makes white balance less important? I'm not talking about tungsten vs. daylight, but rather small variances like 500K?

[Benji]

Originally Posted by wdesigndeb

Good grief, that makes perfect sense Benji.

Am I correct in thinking that a commercial lab (not a pro lab - as up here you require a business license to use one) is going to auto correct unless I ask them not to, in which case I'd need to calibrate my monitor and download their printer profile?

If they auto correct, do you think this makes white balance less important? I'm not talking about tungsten vs. daylight, but rather small variances like 500K?

I suppose it depends on the commercial lab. They should however.

Benji

[jerryph]

On most Nikon cameras, setting a custom WB takes nothing more than a proper grey card or something like an X-Rite Color Checker Passport. After that, it takes no more time than it takes to press the shutter and have a very close and custom WB setting.

This is what I use and I don't bother much with the WB settings in post unless it is for artistic purposes... been like this for about a year now and saves me a good amount of time.