White Balance or Exposure Set First?

[PhotoAl]

Seems I recall a discussion on this somewhere before but can't for the life of me remember the answer so I thought I ask here.

When shooting manually, do you determine exposure first and then the white balance, or do you determine the white balance first and then the proper exposure?

Thanks!

[brian.austin]

White balance is to determine the type of light (ie color temperature). Exposure is to determine the AMOUNT of light hitting the sensor.

Personally, I'm not sure it matters which comes first. Since lighting conditions change more rapidly than white balance, I tend to set white balance first and exposure based on the shot. I also shoot RAW so I can play with WB afterward if needed.

[Scoril0]

White Balance will influence the exposure to some degree. If you shoot jpeg it is better to adjust the white balance before exposure. If you shoot RAW you should set the WB in post processing before the exposure.

[mjp321]

You don't really make it clear what you mean by "determining the white balance". If you're shooting jpeg and are doing a custom white balance on a grey card, then I believe you're supposed to have a proper exposure on the card for the WB to be accurate. In this case, you'd want to set the exposure first.

[Carusoswi]

This question is a little like contemplating whether aperture or shutter speed should be set first (a little like that, but, of course, not exactly).

In the case of shutter speed and aperture, of course, they both directly affect exposure. I, frankly, don't know if white balance actually affects the exposure value or not. That's a question for someone with more technical knowledge to address.

On the other hand, if you are using a camera with an on-board metering system, then, if you find that changes in the white balance setting subsequent to exposure adjustments throws those adjustments off, then, re-adjust the exposure and move on.

If make your white balance adjustments first, then, by definition, you will subsequently monitor and adjust exposure. I doubt that the white balance adjustment made prior to the exposure adjustment would be affected by your subsequent exposure adjustment.

Since, obviously, the need for further exposure adjustment can readily be observed via the on-board metering system while the need for further white balance adjustment isn't displayed in real time by any camera system of which I am aware, if you really want to play it safe, then, set white balance first.

In practice, since WB is pretty much a one time adjustment, it would be set first on all but the very first shot in a given setting, anyhow. If you are controlling WB manually, you walk out into the sun and set it for daytime light temperature, then, start shooting, adjusting exposure as you go. Walk back inside where the predominant light source is tungsten, you adjust WB again, then, resume shooting.

I highly doubt there is any significant effect upon exposure exerted by a particular WB setting.

My $1.00.

Caruso

[Rense]

First WB then exposure.

Exposure quality itself will benefit from proper exposure across the spectral frequencies in the image. This means that it will pay off to color balance to the dominant lightsource (!) -or more correctly "illuminant"- first.

In the old days the best way to achieve this was by using proper filters on the lens, to match the scene's color balance to the sensor's sensitivity. This will allow to expose the R/G/B channels to "the right" and achieve a high Signal to Noise (S/N) ratio.

[richardpcrowe]

You can then tweak the RAW image to get a more correct or pleasing (not always the same thing) color balance.

I will occasionally tweak the color balance when shooting but, will most often leave that to the post processing of the RAW image in Adobe Bridge.

If I am shooting a series of shots under the same lighting conditions, I will occasionally include a gray card in my first image. This will let me get an exact color balance. However, as I said above; the CORRECT color balance is not ALWAYS the most pleasing rendition. Often pictures of people look a bit better on the slightly warm side.

However, I pay particular attention to exposure. Althugh you CAN tweak exposure with the RAW image. Getting the best exposure possible will help you attain the best post processed image.