corrected white balance

ericv · Jul 27, 2009

Hi,

when in comes to white balance, is there a way to know that we have correct white balance or is it just based on your eyes?

here is a link to some of my pics, I really appreciate if you could let me know if I have correct white balance or not. I use preset white balance (from grey point) and . I shoot these under 2 mono strobe lights.

Adobe Web Photo Gallery

I appreciate your advises a lot.

EV.

Markw · Jul 27, 2009

For me, the same with alot of photography..its all whether the photographer likes the outcome or not. If you like it, then yes. Its right. Most people will probably disagree, but thats what I think. If you dont like the WB you have set, shoot in RAW and change it in PP.

Mark

inTempus · Jul 27, 2009

Buy a 18% gray card (WhiteBal is what I have) and shoot it using your lights. Pull it into Photoshop ACR or Lightroom and use the White Balance tool to sample the gray card in the image. Poof, instant perfect white balance.

Philly101 · Jul 27, 2009

One way to tell if your WB is correct after the fact is to check out the RGB values of a neutral area in Photoshop (or similar software.)
To do this, you need to make sure your info panel is open, then hover your cursor over an area of your image that was neutral (white, grey or black) in real life. Look at the numbers next to the R, G, and B in the info panel. They should be the same (or really close.) If one number is higher, then your image is tinted that way.
Note that if one or more of the numbers is 255, that area is blown out in one or more channel, so that isn't a good area of the image to use. The same is true if one or more of the numbers is 0.

Josh66 · Jul 27, 2009

The white balance looks good to me in all of those. Most of them look slightly underexposed though.

IgsEMT · Jul 27, 2009

If not shooting with flash, I preset it either meter it or try few ranges in Kelvin.
With flash, either manual preset or in-between of sunny and flash.

musicaleCA · Jul 27, 2009

WB is a tricky beast sometimes. I personally go by what my eyes see. Shooting a grey card or colour card is usually just a way of saying "Oh yeah, I needed to adjust those ones". I recently shot a large event (Human Chain for Iran) and had to go from shade, to daylight, to shade, to mixes of both. So I just left the WB on daylight, and warmed up the images taken in shade later, but left the flash off (most of the time) while shooting in shade so I didn't mess-up the WB with it (flashes are daylight balanced, so in shade they can be less than perfect).

Anyway, I'm rambling. My point is, an 18% grey card is great and all, but unless you need absolutely perfect colour reproduction (say, product photography, which one should use a Munsell colour card for anyway), just adjust the WB to your own preference. I find I'm usually warming up most of my images just a tad anyway.

This, of course, is assuming that the WB over the scene is relatively consistent. Balancing for different colour temperatures is far trickier and can't be done with a grey card anyway; in that case it's more about gelling the flash for one colour temp and going with it.

Samanax · Jul 28, 2009

Tutorial: White Balance

White Balance

White Balance: What Is It? And Why Does It Mattter?

Understanding White Balance

inTempus · Jul 28, 2009

musicaleCA said:
Anyway, I'm rambling. My point is, an 18% grey card is great and all, but unless you need absolutely perfect colour reproduction (say, product photography, which one should use a Munsell colour card for anyway), just adjust the WB to your own preference. I find I'm usually warming up most of my images just a tad anyway.

It is great. It's not for photojournalism. For general photography where you have a planned shoot it's an invaluable tool. I don't know a wedding photographer or even studio photographer without one (not that I know a ton of them mind you).

If you have a series of pictures to take, especially with constantly changing light (clouds for example) a gray card can help give you consistency between lots of pictures. You carry it around your neck, throw it out there every once in a while for a quick shot to set Lightroom later, and move on.

If you don't use one, and you shoot a lot of pics, and you eyeball all of your shots and guess the WB - you'll wind up with a lot of inconsistency in your pics... something I try to avoid.

For my artistic shots I don't use one. I'm after one or two shots that I know I will heavily process in PS. There's no point in worrying about consistency across a whole series of pics (like a wedding for example). I set it to taste for that particular image and forgo the gray card.

Misfitlimp · Jul 28, 2009

unless you need absolutely perfect colour reproduction

shouldnt u always want absolute perfect colour reproduction?

Josh66 · Jul 28, 2009

Misfitlimp said:
shouldnt u always want absolute perfect colour reproduction?

No.

ericv · Jul 28, 2009

Philly101 said:
One way to tell if your WB is correct after the fact is to check out the RGB values of a neutral area in Photoshop (or similar software.)
To do this, you need to make sure your info panel is open, then hover your cursor over an area of your image that was neutral (white, grey or black) in real life. Look at the numbers next to the R, G, and B in the info panel. They should be the same (or really close.) If one number is higher, then your image is tinted that way.
Note that if one or more of the numbers is 255, that area is blown out in one or more channel, so that isn't a good area of the image to use. The same is true if one or more of the numbers is 0.

I tried this and it helps me identify the shifted color. Still working on correcting it though.

Thank you all.