Auto WB

[three_eyed_otter]

Do you guys use Auto WB? I tend to leave it Auto WB and then adjust later if necessary. After purchasing Lightroom and messing w/WB a whole bunch Auto WB seems like a good choice...Comments?

have a good one
3Eo

 

[tirediron]

I suppose to a degree it depends on the camera, but if you're shooting in RAW, then yes, I'd say go Auto. I find with my D300 'Auto' does a very good job 90% of the time, and since I always shoot RAW, minor tweaks are easy.

 

[SpeedTrap]

I have recently got in the habbit of setting a custom White Balance.
If you can do it it does save a ton of time in post. If not I leave it in auto

 

[Snyder]

Custom WB, saves time in post production plus I shoot more JPEG photos than RAW.

 

[manaheim]

Auto WB works best in daylight, and then gets progressively worse as odd lighting circumstances come into play, and goes completely off the edge of the world in incandescant light. God I HATE incandescant light. grr...

Like tired, I use auto-wb but shoot in RAW so I can always correct later. I have had the occasional unrecoverable train wreck in non-RAW due to lighting, so it's all raw now.

 

[Josh66]

I do auto, and if I think it's going to need significant tweaking I shoot a WhiBal card.

 

[rlcphotos]

now thats interesting. By using the whibal card the camera auto sets? instead of going the manual custom w/b settings?

correct me if im wrong, which I probably am

 

[three_eyed_otter]

I shoot in RAW and have recently purchased Lightroom...Should I be using the "eyedropper" to select the most white portion in the photograph to set the WB, or is there a better way? I've noticed, as far as the #'s are concerned, that the auto WB in Lightroom is quite diff. than what my D40 sees as auto WB, but that the eyedropper is more in the ballpark of the D40's auto WB selection. When viewing the variances in the WB's I tend like the way the eyedropper looks best and for the most part seems to grab the "scene" as I best remember it.

have a good one
3Eo

 

[Aw45]

My advice to everyone is to never shoot in Auto WB. Heres why.

In auto white balance your camera is always reading and adjusting the color temp. Even if you remain in the same general area like outside every time you move the camera it adjusts slightly. This is going to cause a huge pain in post production. With every image slightly different you will can no longer be able to batch process, to fine tune your WB.

So if you are shooting in jpeg do not shoot in Auto. Get use to using the proper setting setting, daylight, fluorescent, etc. We all had to do in the film days lets not get lazy with digital.

If you really do not want to worry about changing things. Photograph a gray card in one photo then use that for WB for all images in post.

 

[three_eyed_otter]

In auto white balance your camera is always reading and adjusting the color temp. Even if you remain in the same general area like outside every time you move the camera it adjusts slightly. This is going to cause a huge pain in post production. With every image slightly different you will can no longer be able to batch process, to fine tune your WB.

So how do you go about fine tuning the WB in PP? Do you use the eyedropper and select something from one of the photos? Do use your eyes and adjust the sliders? I'm talking batch process for the same scene...

have a good one
3Eo

 

[macdsean]

I try and use custom white balance whenever possible. Yes, when using RAW it can be edited later, but I like to be able to see the photo on my camera's screen with perfect white balance. Also, it saves time in post processing. But I definitely use auto white balance at times when I don't want to have to worry about changing the white balance in multiple lighting conditions.

 

[manaheim]

So how do you go about fine tuning the WB in PP? Do you use the eyedropper and select something from one of the photos? Do use your eyes and adjust the sliders? I'm talking batch process for the same scene...

have a good one
3Eo

Color balance, curves, etc. in Photoshop (or your lesser tool of choice )... however with JPEG, if the camera is way off you may be in trouble because the "unecessary data" is tossed out the window, and the image will never look truly correct.