"PRE" White Balance

Syx

Syx

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Sam Hissaund
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Try as I might I couldn't find a topic on this, most likely as "PRE" is dropped from the search!

Anywho. I'd like to understand a little more about this, and was wondering what y'all could tell me? For example, is this a better method to shooting a grey card and then using that in post processing? In what situations would I be better to use PRE than autoWB?

Might not be a "basics" question, but figured that posting here might help out some others.
 
I've been using autoWB since I started shooting in RAW a couple of years ago and to be honest the D300 is usually pretty good and getting a fairly good white balance. However, a few weeks ago I was determined to find out how to take a custom WB reading so I got my manual out and followed the instructions step by step. I found it really easy to take a reading and although the different in the results between the custom reading the autoWB there was a difference and it saves you time in PP if you don't need to alter it.
 
Auto white balance is pretty good in daylight but notoriously poor at getting artifical light the right colour. Usually the pre-sets for tungsten or flourescent will do a good job but if not, or it must be perfect, then doing a custom white balance off a white subject (being careful not to over-expose it, or a grey card is the way to go. It's really easy.

Alternatively, if you shoot Raw you can process the image to any colour you like very accurately. Best way is to include a grey card in the shot, or at the start of the shoot, and click on that when you go to post process. That will then auto-correct the image exactly and you can use the same settings for the whole shoot.
 
HoppyUK said:
Alternatively, if you shoot Raw you can process the image to any colour you like very accurately. Best way is to include a grey card in the shot, or at the start of the shoot, and click on that when you go to post process. That will then auto-correct the image exactly and you can use the same settings for the whole shoot.
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That's exactly what I normally do. Just wondered if there was any advantage to using PRE as opposed to this? I can't really see one.
 
Syx said:
That's exactly what I normally do. Just wondered if there was any advantage to using PRE as opposed to this? I can't really see one.
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The end result should be the same, but if you do it pre, then you don't have to bother in post.

If you're post processing anyway you could say that there's no advantage, but I just like to get things as right as I reasonably can as I go along and having an accurate working JPEG on the LCD and histogram has got to be a good thing regardless.
 
There is another argument for setting the WB correctly beforehand. Take any old shot in lightroom and adjust it so the histogram is touching each side of the scale but not clipping. Turn on the clipping blinky things and move the WB slider around. Watch as parts of the imagesuddenly become over/under exposed as they change colour.

Another reason for setting the WB manually or at least fixing it to a preset is that if the WB is out, it will be out by the same amount for all of the photos under those lighting conditions. Once you've adjusted the first you can apply that same setting to the rest of them. If you leave it to autoWB each photo may be out by a different amount giving you more work to do.
 
Good points there. I think there's a definite case for me to be setting the wb PRE each time I take a grey card shot throughout the day. Thanks very much for all the info, guys. :thumbs:
 
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