How do you set your colour balance

artona

artona

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stewart
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Hi

Just wondered how you all set your colour balance. When I used to shoot transparencies I used a colour temperature meter, does anyone use one of those or what other tricks do you do

stew
 
That looks a good piece of equipment. Do you find setting the balance correctly changes the exposure

stew
 
artona said:
That looks a good piece of equipment. Do you find setting the balance correctly changes the exposure stew
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It's handy as it folds up nice and small. Never noticed any effect on the exposure though... :shrug:
 
I find that the Auto White Balance on modern cameras does such a good job that I tend to just leave my camera set on that. It's easy to make any WB correction in camera raw if necessary :)
 
No disrespect Grendel, I did a wedding over in Jersey and the lighting was so bad at the venue that people using p&s were getting orange skin tones. Looked like a sunbed convention! Even on AWB my cameras were struggling and the last thing I need when I've got 100 shots of the ceremony is to start having to WB each and every one. I know you can do them as a batch but mixed lighting at these venues is often a pain in the ****

Which reminds me, I have a venue to go and scout later. I'll take my camera and check the WB in advance so I know what I'm going to have to take care of on the day. In the room where the bride will be getting ready plus the ceremony venue.

If it's close to a standard preset or the camera gets it about right I know I should be OK. If, like the Jersey venue, it's all over the place then at least I'll know I'm in for a day of custom white balances.
 
Grendel said:
I find that the Auto White Balance on modern cameras does such a good job that I tend to just leave my camera set on that. It's easy to make any WB correction in camera raw if necessary :)
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Absolutely agree. I rarely use it in normal situations but it can sometimes be handy to provide a reference point to adjust (and then sync) to in camera raw. I recently cocked up a whole set of property interiors by forgetting to change my WB from my studio preset back to 'Auto'. :bonk: Stupidly I didn't notice until the end. To rescue it I just had to snap the expo in each room so I could accurately correct them afterwards. But you're right, auto WB is normally spot on.
 
AliB said:
No disrespect Grendel, I did a wedding over in Jersey and the lighting was so bad at the venue that people using p&s were getting orange skin tones. Looked like a sunbed convention! Even on AWB my cameras were struggling and the last thing I need when I've got 100 shots of the ceremony is to start having to WB each and every one. I know you can do them as a batch but mixed lighting at these venues is often a pain in the ****

Which reminds me, I have a venue to go and scout later. I'll take my camera and check the WB in advance so I know what I'm going to have to take care of on the day. In the room where the bride will be getting ready plus the ceremony venue.

If it's close to a standard preset or the camera gets it about right I know I should be OK. If, like the Jersey venue, it's all over the place then at least I'll know I'm in for a day of custom white balances.
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Fair point Ali, I guess I'm looking at it more from a hobbiest point of view. I'm sure if I was to ever tackle a "fee paying" job I would look at the situation quite differently ;)
 
as a hobbyist, I would generally use auto in 'normal' conditions, but any unusual or dark lighting and I will flick to a preset or very occasionally a custom setting. A few test shots and a bit of chimping usually shows up any imbalance. My biggest problem is remembering to change it when conditions change or next time the camera is in use :bonk:
 
FranchiseJuan said:
You can set WB after the fact, but you never get it exact in post.
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Amen to that.

My new vision of hell is an indoor ice hall with sodium vapour lamps and daylight flourescents mixed with cool flourescents to boot.
Try batching a few thousand of them :help::crying:
 
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