d70girl
TPF Noob!
Should I leave my white balance on auto setting on my Nikon d70s or adjust it manually for each shot? Not sure if I "trust" auto, ya know?
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Big Mike said:I agree with Mark. If you shoot in RAW, the WB is recorded but not permanently applied to the image....so you can adjust it quite easily when you convert the RAW file.
Also, it's not very hard to set a custom WB. Just shoot something completely white in your light and use that image to set your custom WB.
fewer post production adjustments made via white balance generally results in a better photograph
It is, in the same way that a JPG or GIF is image data. It's just in a different format. GIF uses 8 bits total for color. JPG uses 8 bits per color (24 total). RAW uses 12-bit per (36 total), and TIFFs can use 16-bit per (48 total). This is why converting from RAW to TIFF doesn't lose anything (if you use 16-bit and not 8-bit), but going to JPG loses data. The big difference is that the color data in a RAW file is linear, where as it has a gamma of 2.0 in other formats. A displayed RAW file looks very dark. That's what you play with when you are moving the "exposure" slider: How much above or below the 2.0 curve you are going to apply when you convert to TIFF. Some people just convert the linear data straight over with no adjustements and then do their own in Photoshop.Big Mike said:Technically, a RAW file is not an image at all (just RAW data)...although it does have an embedded JPEG image that we can see as a preview.
Big Mike said:The benefits of RAW is that you can make WB adjustments without adversely affecting the image in any way.
Big Mike said:According to this theory, you could take a RAW file and set the WB at 2000 or set it at 8000...without degrading the image properties. Of course it would not look very good either way, unless that was close to the temperature of the actual light.
Maybe we should do some testing.
Big Mike said:The closer you get 'in camera'...the better off you are. I think this is more true of exposure, than WB...but the principle is the same.