RAW and White balance
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Zarch
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Yes, but with RAW you can change it after the event to your hearts content. Your sort of stuck with yours (or the camera's) choice in jpg.
I took a really great pic of my little girl in JPG when i first got the camera, but the WB was all wrong and needed altering, but being jpg I couldn't really do much to recover it. If i'd taken it in raw i'd have been laughing.
Those are my beginners thoughts, i'm sure some pro's will elaborate.
I took a really great pic of my little girl in JPG when i first got the camera, but the WB was all wrong and needed altering, but being jpg I couldn't really do much to recover it. If i'd taken it in raw i'd have been laughing.
Those are my beginners thoughts, i'm sure some pro's will elaborate.
So basically leave it as it is and alter it afterwards. I just need to sort out some sort of monitor calibration as i have 2 and they both look very different. No point in me trying to correct colours etc when the monitors are way out.
Zarch
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Yes, you could leave on auto and sort out after. But if you know you are shooting under tungsten lights for example, then set the camera as appropriate.
Better to get it right in the camera as much as possible than have to makes lots of changes after the event?
EOS_JD
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The best way to use WB when shooting RAW is to keep in consistent. That means not using Auto. If you stick on cloudy, all images will have the same settings so that when it .comes to editing you can batch much quicker.
I normally leave it on "flash" whether using flash or not.
Even with RAW and WB in Auto, the camera will select a suitable WB but that may change from shot to shot - can mean longer editing times.
I normally leave it on "flash" whether using flash or not.
Even with RAW and WB in Auto, the camera will select a suitable WB but that may change from shot to shot - can mean longer editing times.
Zarch
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Moonrakerz
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No !
RAW files have not had white balance set. They are tagged (EXIF metadata) with whatever the camera's setting was, (either that which was manually set or via auto-white-balance), but the actual data has not been changed. This allows you to set any colour temperature and white balance you wish afterwards with no image degradation.
That is the whole point of using RAW - so that you have the raw picture data !
flossie
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If you are concerned with trying to get perfect accuracy, I'd suggest getting a grey-card (e.g. Lastolite) and taking a shot with that before each batch of shots, then when you process your files you can use that to give you the perfect white balance.
Depending on your camera, some settings such as "Daylight" can actually cover quite a range of colour temperatures instead of a fixed value, which can give some annoying purple tones... but hey, you are shooting RAW - so who cares, its a moments work with a slider!
Alternatively, just do what most people do and leave your camera in "Auto" to give your computer a "starter for 10" - then you can start to explore all the creative possiblities from adjusting the colour temperature and tone - and if you don't like it, its just a mouse-click to go back to default!
Depending on your camera, some settings such as "Daylight" can actually cover quite a range of colour temperatures instead of a fixed value, which can give some annoying purple tones... but hey, you are shooting RAW - so who cares, its a moments work with a slider!
Alternatively, just do what most people do and leave your camera in "Auto" to give your computer a "starter for 10" - then you can start to explore all the creative possiblities from adjusting the colour temperature and tone - and if you don't like it, its just a mouse-click to go back to default!
EOS_JD
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Flossie I was with you up till you said use AWB!
I totally agree a custom WB will help a lot. Easy to shoot a grey card or even a white sheet of paper (any neautral tone does) to set a white balance.
With a fixed point be that custom or a flash/cloudy setting you can also easily batch change all images in PP. Sometimes you might want to add a little warmth to a custom WB.
But Auto WB will constantly change the WB setting depending on what you shot leaving an inconsistent look to the images.
I totally agree a custom WB will help a lot. Easy to shoot a grey card or even a white sheet of paper (any neautral tone does) to set a white balance.
With a fixed point be that custom or a flash/cloudy setting you can also easily batch change all images in PP. Sometimes you might want to add a little warmth to a custom WB.
But Auto WB will constantly change the WB setting depending on what you shot leaving an inconsistent look to the images.
EOS_JD
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Jim - maybe a lot depends on how good your camera and software is at auto white balance
Absolutely not. Cameras will change the WB depending on what you are shooting (no matter the camera). That could be very different from shot to shot as the light/subject/location changes. Every camera is the same.
A Custom WB is perfect or a fixed WB to get consistent shots. But not AWB for that reason - the camera decides (yes it can be edited but you want the least amount of work possible).
I use a 5DMkII, I use Photoshop and Lightroom and it takes a lot longer to edit images witrh AWB than a 2 sec batch edit of a group of images shot in the same location with a fixed WB.
If you only take a few shots AWB will give reasonable results (I'm not saying AWB is bad) just sayigv that AWB is inconsistent - and consistency for me is key.
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As has been said above, when you shoot RAW the white balance isn't set. This is to my mind just about the biggest advantage RAW offers. The grey card is a great idea and all you need to do is simply click on the grey portion with your WB eyedropper in whatever RAW converter you're using and hey presto! Perfect WB every time.
If you're shooting RAW you can leave your camera WB set to whatever you want, and it won't matter because the camera won't process it. Remember too that the image you see on your LCD screen is only a jpeg interpretation of the scene and not the actual final version which will depend on how you process the file on your computer. (This also counts for histograms too BTW )
I have to say that if I'm shooting portraits under studio lights this method can sometimes give quite "cold" look so I tend to then warm it up a little manually
It is also true that no matter how good your camera is, the WB will be fooled in many situations so good to have the option RAW provides or else use some tool for setting a custom WB at the time of shooting
Wooster
If you're shooting RAW you can leave your camera WB set to whatever you want, and it won't matter because the camera won't process it. Remember too that the image you see on your LCD screen is only a jpeg interpretation of the scene and not the actual final version which will depend on how you process the file on your computer. (This also counts for histograms too BTW )
I have to say that if I'm shooting portraits under studio lights this method can sometimes give quite "cold" look so I tend to then warm it up a little manually
It is also true that no matter how good your camera is, the WB will be fooled in many situations so good to have the option RAW provides or else use some tool for setting a custom WB at the time of shooting
Wooster