White Balance - an Honest Answer

[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