Custom white balance ???????

scottduffy

scottduffy

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I posted a thread about night time photography a couple of days ago and it got me thinking about something the photographer i was with said to me. He told me to use custom white balance setting which i did and did nothing else except change shutter speeds etc. What is the difference between custom and full auto white balance if there is any? If it was custom shouldn't i have had to do something with it rather than leave it to the camera? Is there any good books about white balance or online tutorials that you would recommend?
 
Custom WB is something you set up in your camera menu by using a shot taken under current lighting conditions and it is very different from Auto WB...which is best avoided at all cost.

The short answer would be to shoot RAW and take care of WB in PP
 
Does this mean that whatever situation i am in i just select custom WB and the camera takes care of the settings?
 
No, it is a bit more than that...

You take a picture of a white or mid grey item that fills at least the inner 9% circle of the viewfinder, then access the custom WB menu and tell the camera that that shot you just took represents white, neutral grey whichever one you use.

From then on all shots under the same lighting conditions will be a true WB of the sample shot you took and used for Custom WB setup

Remember that WB will also differ over distances so it is really better for you to shoot RAW IMHO
 
I am guessing that the photographer you were with had you shooting in shutter priority mode, as which the camera would take care of the aperture settings.

You can set the WB yourself and then shooting in Aperture or Shutter priority or manual mode. Not sure if you can do it in auto mode. In which case you would still need to adjust settings yourself.

That's if I am reading you correctly :)
 
No it doesn't. The custom white balance setting is set up for only one type of lighting condition - be it in sunshine, cloudy etc.

Don't discount Auto White Balance totally. Most DSLR's these days are very good on getting the white balance correct - well it does on my 5DMKII. I use AWB on outside shoots and in the studio I set the camera to 5300. It works well for me.
 
I did away with AWB in 2006 when I still shot my 20D...It did fine mostly but REALLY lost the plot in strong shade...at least that was where I noticed it at the time...

Started shooting RAW since then and never worried about it again...

Another vote for degrees K...My bodies all permanently set to 5200K
 
edit: typed out before the above two posts....

there seems to be some confusion on here, including me :)
white balance is the tone of the photo which is affected by the lighting type.
tungsten bulbs, fluorescent tubes, daylight etc all give the photo a different coloured cast to them.
auto white balance tries to set this. manual white balance means you pick what the colour correction should be.
custom white balance is when you specifically tell the camera what WHITE is in your photograph.
RAW will allow you to set the white balance on your computer.
custom white balance is great if you have a white card or sheet to shoot at for a sample.
A great example is martial arts. all the lighting is really random so I shoot a white gi, tell the camera that is what I want to be white, and then use that setting.

the other note is that auto white balance is pretty good normally but a pro once told me to not trust it. something to do with the varying current and electronic conditions changing as the components heat up..so your Auto WB under constant conditions could change throughout a shoot. don't know how much of that is true anymore.
 
antonroland said:
Remember that WB will also differ over distances so it is really better for you to shoot RAW IMHO
Click to expand...

Only if the lighting changes. If light conditions are constant then WB must also be constant.
 
awp said:
Only if the lighting changes. If light conditions are constant then WB must also be constant.
Click to expand...

That is exactly it...I would love to see a place where light is perfectly constant...especially indoors.;)
 
true - I was assuming light under the photographers control.
 
I tend to shoot on one colour balance pretty much constantly, especially indoors.

Outdoors I'l happily choose a WB close enough to the ambient conditions, sunny, cloudy etc and normally they work just fine and nothing is needed in PP.

Indoors life changes considerably, if you are shooting in a studio or using flash then yes, a WB on flash should give good results (or manually setting the degK of the lights)

The worst one is one that I get on weddings all the time. That of constanty changing conditions. Think of a large room with bay windows and a ceiling light and lamps around the place. All of which are different temperatures. As the subjects move around the room the light falling on them changes and the proportions of lighting changes. You can't really set a custom balance for these because of the changes shot to shot and often they need individual PP which can be a pest! White collars on gentlemen are your friend and I sometimes have to put a white balance in ACR off a collar.

I know one photographer who shoots on a manual white balance of flash all the time. His rationale is they it might be off but it's off by the same amount for each shot in a session and can be custom adjusted as a batch and the result is that they are all spot on. He shoots a grey card at the beginning of each session for just that purpose.
 
Ali, I think you will agree then that RAW is the way to go...;)
 
Harvey_nikon said:
I am guessing that the photographer you were with had you shooting in shutter priority mode, as which the camera would take care of the aperture settings.

You can set the WB yourself and then shooting in Aperture or Shutter priority or manual mode. Not sure if you can do it in auto mode. In which case you would still need to adjust settings yourself.

That's if I am reading you correctly :)
Click to expand...

I was shooting in manual mode mostly adjusting the shutter speed. All i was told was to select custom WB and that was it. I did nothing else with it at all.
 
antonroland said:
Ali, I think you will agree then that RAW is the way to go...;)
Click to expand...

Oh yes!

I'm more concerned with getting the exposure right, that gives me the most amount of information and if the white balance needs changing then that's a lot less critical. :lol:
 
scottduffy said:
I was shooting in manual mode mostly adjusting the shutter speed. All i was told was to select custom WB and that was it. I did nothing else with it at all.
Click to expand...

Good advice from those above :) - daft advice from the chap telling you to select Custom WB without telling you why or how it works :shake:

Years ago most shot jpeg as computers weren't that fast at processing images and the harddrives were nothing like big enough - now most are easily fast enough and storage is cheap as chips (but not computer chips ;)) so there's no reason NOT to shoot in raw any more

In raw you choose the WB settings, if you trust your camera AWB is often fine, but in trickier conditions and/or for constancy a Custom Setting is better

Having said that, none of them matter anyway until you come to process the image, so I also usually shoot Weddings in 'Flash WB' and use either an Expodisc at the time or simply set the WB myself on the computer later and batch process the rest to the same WB in the same settings. Doing it this way means you must have a calibrated monitor and you must process it all in the same light conditions in your computer room - which for me means at night

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
Good advice from those above :) - daft advice from the chap telling you to select Custom WB without telling you why or how it works :shake:

Years ago most shot jpeg as computers weren't that fast at processing images and the harddrives were nothing like big enough - now most are easily fast enough and storage is cheap as chips (but not computer chips ;)) so there's no reason NOT to shoot in raw any more

In raw you choose the WB settings, if you trust your camera AWB is often fine, but in trickier conditions and/or for constancy a Custom Setting is better

Having said that, none of them matter anyway until you come to process the image, so I also usually shoot Weddings in 'Flash WB' and use either an Expodisc at the time or simply set the WB myself on the computer later and batch process the rest to the same WB in the same settings. Doing it this way means you must have a calibrated monitor and you must process it all in the same light conditions in your computer room - which for me means at night

DD
Click to expand...

^What he said^

I honestly cannot understand how someone can be happy with an uncalibrated monitor...I shudder at the idea that I once was...

Glad to see I am not the only one editing in darkness:D
 
antonroland said:
^What he said^

I honestly cannot understand how someone can be happy with an uncalibrated monitor...I shudder at the idea that I once was...

Glad to see I am not the only one editing in darkness:D
Click to expand...

I think we've all had that 'shudder' m8 :lol:

And at least darkness is reliably consistent :thumbs:

DD
 
I have that problem where I have to do my editing.........I have a skylight!!!

Had a fun moment yesterday while running my laptop (uncalibrated) next to my editing PC (calibrated) OMG!

One was showing green and the other blue on the vista home page!!

Needless to say the laptop will be getting calibrated too. If I ever have to show images to clients on it I don't want orange skin tones and green hair!
 
I think it impossible to obtain a constant level of quality without monitor calibration,

I use a blackout roller blind at the window when working with photoshop.It is not quit darkroom standard but close to it.
 
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