White Balance - an Honest Answer

[Michael Fanelli]

I am just starting to learn to use my new Nikon D70. I have been reading about white balance, and I have a question. Now be honest, how many of you adjust the white balance before you shoot? I realize it would be necessary if shooting under florescent lights, mercury vapor lights, etc. But my question is how many of you change the white balance from the bright sunlight setting to the cloudy setting? Is it really necessary? Has anyone had any experience with this?

I use manual white balance (measuring rather than choosing a mode) almost all the time when not using RAW. Color temperture changes during the day as well in shade and sun. If you shoot RAW, its no big deal to change. Anything other than RAW can be a pain.

[gmen]

I think the simple answer is:

1. Shoot RAW at all times - make any adjustments afterwards
or 2. If you must shoot jpg AND you are have concerns about the end result you may get, then try (if time allows) to shoot 2-3 pictures of the subject using different WB settings.

[another view]

I agree with Michael Fanelli. You know, I probably have never said that before !!!

Actually, most of the time I shoot Auto WB. If I'm in jpeg, then the camera does a pretty good job. You'll figure out the situations where you need either a custom WB or shoot RAW and sort it out later. The presets don't get used often, especially the ones for artificial lighting (shooting a Fuji S2).

It only takes a second to shoot a custom WB and the results are so much better especially under fluorescent or metal halide (similar to mercury) lighting than you could ever get in Auto or with one of the presets. I use the "Pringles Cap Method" for the custom WB - hold the cap in front of the lens like a filter and shoot the scene that you'll photograph. For some reason it works and I can't tell you why. If you need anything more critical you'll have to use RAW and a calibrated monitor.

[Paul in OKC]

I use manual white balance (measuring rather than choosing a mode) almost all the time when not using RAW. Color temperture changes during the day as well in shade and sun. If you shoot RAW, its no big deal to change. Anything other than RAW can be a pain.

Don't understand. How do you measure white balance? How do you go about doing that? Do you use a light meter?

[Michael Fanelli]

Don't understand. How do you measure white balance? How do you go about doing that? Do you use a light meter?

Your white balance menu includes all the presets as well as a custom setting. Switch to custom mode, point it at something white in the scene, and press the button. This tells the camera what is white. As long as the light doesn't change that much, you just leave it there untill you are done. The manual gives you all the details.

As I and others have indicated, shotting RAW is much better but slower. The WB is not really relevent with RAW. You load the RAW file into software and set the WB to any value down to single digits in the last place.

[another view]

Don't understand. How do you measure white balance? How do you go about doing that? Do you use a light meter?

A light meter only measures the quantity of light, not the color temperature. There are (very expensive) color temperature meters made to do this, but I doubt you need one. They were used by commercial photographers who used transparency film (like slide film) on shoots when exact color was critical. For example, you know the film is 5500 deg K and your meter reads 5200K, so you use CC filters to cool it that 300K difference.

If it's that critical with digital, shoot it in RAW and adjust later with a calibrated monitor. Maybe shoot the first one of the series with a white/grey/black card (like the one that comes with Scott Kelby's books) so you can set those levels in Photoshop with the RAW converter. His book Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers is a good reference here - as long as that's what you're using.

As far as shooting a custom white balance with your camera, check the manual - I don't have a D70 so I'm not sure how to do it on that one. On mine, you go thru a menu function, release the shutter and confirm that it read correctly. The manual will tell you to read a white piece of paper (regular white piece of printer paper you'd use for letters, etc) but I've been using the method I described in the previous post. It's quick, easy and pretty accurate. Once again, if it needs to be more accurate or the conditions are really wierd then I'll use RAW.

[Sebastian]

Yes, I do use custom white balance. Most of my paying gigs don't allow for the use of RAW files for several reasons, most important being speed. If something in the scene is true white I WB off of that, otherwise I carry a small grey card. However, I don't run into the need for it often, as the presets are pretty close for the most part. And yes, I change the WB presets OFTEN, as well as ISO. Those are probably the two most used functions on my camera, next to the shutter button.

[FREELANCE2004]

on d70 to measure white balance,press wb button briefly,then press the button until the PRE iconin the control panel starts to flash. a blinking PRE willalso appear inthe control panel and the viewfinder.

Frame the reference object/white card/ so that it fills the viewfinder and press the shutter-release button all the way down.the camera will measure a value for white balance and use this balance when preset white balance is selected.no photo will be recorded,white balance can be measured accurately when the camers is not in focus.

if the camera was able to measure a value for white balance,GOOD will flash in control panel,the viewfinder will show Gd. .to return to shooting mode,press shutter-release half way,or wait until exposure meters off.

if lighting is too dark or too bright,the camera will flash no Gd.


repeat each time you want to set custom,i carry a whiti card at all times.i change it as much as i change my shutter speed.

this is how i do it,

freelance2004

[FREELANCE2004]

white balance presets on d70
A 3500-8000 k
incand 3000 k
flour 4200 k
dir sun 5200 k
flash 5400k
cloudy 6000 k
shade 8000 k
preset

[Skyman]

@ uni we were taught to always use manual white balance (although @ uni i was using video cameras) but i have come to appreciate the benefits of manual white balance and use that in preference to auto or preset for paying gigs or special shots..... most of the time. however there are times when you want the colour cast effect that would be lost from a manual white balance, late afternoon for example a manual white balance will remove some of the natural warmth from the light. so then i will resort to a preset mode. for happy snaps (taking much more of these since i have gone digital) i generally use awb but bear in mind that all these options are taken for asthetic reasons and it pays to familiarise yourself with the different results the camera will provide under different white balance settings for given lighting conditions. integral to this are the cameras contrast colour balance and saturation settings. also a trick i learnt at uni is if you want a warm colour cast in a shot white balance off a slightly blue sheet of paper and for a cool shot a slightly yellow/orange peice of paper. also white balance should be done before placing a filter (any filter except maybe a neutral density filter) on the lens. At the end of the day if you are getting results you are happy with then whatever setting you use is fine but you may get a better result if you experiment.

[lukechip]

When I remember, I adjust the white balance on my 300D, and I'm very happy when I do. Setting to tungsten / fluoro etc. at the right times really improves the shots. I've also experimented with Custom WB, and found it works very well too. The trick with all of this is remembering to make the change. I sometimes find I think so much about exposure, composition and DoF, that it is only afterwards that I think "Oh, the WB !"

Anyway, my question is this. When setting custom WB, some people talk about shooting a white object or a pringles lid, while others talk about shooting a grey card. Surely this will give different results ? Telling the camera that a white object is "white" vs. telling the camera that a grey object is "white" must be interpretted quite differently. I have thus far assumed that setting Custom WB is defining what is "white", and not what is "grey", and therefore shooting a white object to set Custom CF is the correct process. Can anyone clarify this for me.

[Sebastian]

When I remember, I adjust the white balance on my 300D, and I'm very happy when I do. Setting to tungsten / fluoro etc. at the right times really improves the shots. I've also experimented with Custom WB, and found it works very well too. The trick with all of this is remembering to make the change. I sometimes find I think so much about exposure, composition and DoF, that it is only afterwards that I think "Oh, the WB !"

Anyway, my question is this. When setting custom WB, some people talk about shooting a white object or a pringles lid, while others talk about shooting a grey card. Surely this will give different results ? Telling the camera that a white object is "white" vs. telling the camera that a grey object is "white" must be interpretted quite differently. I have thus far assumed that setting Custom WB is defining what is "white", and not what is "grey", and therefore shooting a white object to set Custom CF is the correct process. Can anyone clarify this for me.

White or grey, it makes no difference, the meter will expose both to be the same value of grey.

[EDIT] Let me elaborate. The camera meter is designed to expose for the middle value, grey. Anytime you point it at something, the "correct" meter reading is giving you the setting to make the subject middle grey. So the only time the readig is correct is if the subject truely is middle grey. Otherwise the reading will skew the exposure, if you point it at a black subject, the meter will overexpose to make the black grey, and it will underexpose white to make it grey. Hence, no difference between using grey and white cards. The only matter of importance when it comes to white balance is that cards be neutral in color. Unless of course you want creative effects like Skyman suggests.

Hope that answers your question.

[MJS]

If you treat each shoot like a paying job, you won't have the luxury of a screw up. I always teach my students to adjust the white balance manually.

MJS