Noobie question

[Litespeed]

I'm fairly new to using Manual mode. When you are shooting in manual, should the white balance always be on auto or does it even make any difference what it is on?

 

[Samanax]

Are you shooting in JPEG or RAW?

 

[512]

i always use "manual" WB, or the cloudy setting, beacuse of I like warmer photos

 

[Plato]

I'm fairly new to using Manual mode. When you are shooting in manual, should the white balance always be on auto or does it even make any difference what it is on?

Yes, it makes a difference and "should" is not the appropriate term. Try various combinations and use whatever YOU like best. I use Auto.

Also, if you're shooting RAW, you can change the WB after-the-fact.

 

[KmH]

I'm fairly new to using Manual mode. When you are shooting in manual, should the white balance always be on auto or does it even make any difference what it is on?

It depends on the camera but yes it matters what the white balance is set to.

Our brains constantly make adjustsments for the color of light.

Sunlight is yellow, incandescent light is orange, flourescent light is green.

Our cameras don't have brains so they're not as good as making the right adjustments for the color of our lighting. The worst situation for a camera is mixed lighting like part Sunlight and part flourescent.

It's usually best to set the white balance manually, or to use an 18% gray card and capture your images in the RAW image data format.

 

[Litespeed]

Are you shooting in JPEG or RAW?

I'm shooting in JPEG, my camera doesn't do RAW.

 

[Samanax]

Can your camera do custom white balance?

What camera are you using?

 

[Litespeed]

Can your camera do custom white balance?

What camera are you using?

I have a Canon SX10 IS, it does have a feature for custom white balance and instructions on how to set it.

 

[Dwig]

I'm fairly new to using Manual mode. When you are shooting in manual, should the white balance always be on auto or does it even make any difference what it is on?

There is nothing about using manual exposure that influences whether or not WB, or focus for that matter, is set to manual or automatic. Each decision is independent as far as the camera is concerned.

What may influence the WB choice is why you chose to use manual exposure. If you are using manual to lock get a consistant exposure on a series of pix (e.g. for a panorama) or to control a bracketed set (possible to assemble as an HDR) you would also want manual WB so color won't shift in the series. Most of the time, though, auto-WB is probably fine. If you shoot RAW, then auto-WB is always OK since you can readjust it during the RAW conversion.