WB in Ceremony?

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gpc1

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I have been thinking about white balance in wedding photography. Trying to get everything as close to perfect in camera as poss.
Given weddings are broken down to several areas, bride getting ready, bride arriving, church ceremony, reception formals etc etc, do you set a custom WB for each, or shoot auto WB and take a grey card reference shot every time the light significantly changes / move to next section of the day or do you simply use sunny / cloudy / flash.

Taking a WB in the prep / formals and reception probably isn’t too difficult as you have room to move and a bit of freedom, but the ceremony is a different ballgame.

All of the above require some batch editing PP in lightroom etc . So is there a method you use that gets you really close. Until now I have used Auto WB and fixed PP, however, I’m wondering if there is a better method as I’m no expert in all this and always looking for a way to improve but not make it so complex that shots are missed etc.

Obviously you can’t get the bride to hold a color checker mid ceremony ……

Just some thoughts / views from the pros really…
 
gpc1 said:
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Obviously you can’t get the bride to hold a color checker mid ceremony ……
…
Click to expand...

you can however arrive early and create a custom WB for the inside of the venue - just don't forget to turn it back to daylight when you come out to do groups etc outside
 
Cool,

I wasn't sure if there was a super secret technique that I wasn't aware of. Probably over thinking and should set to awb or the closest for the obvious conditions ie sunny/ cloudy/ tungsten etc..

Cheers all
 
Yeah just AWB, shoot RAW and everything IMO should be OK ;)

You can do all the custom WB's you like but even then there'll be times where there' Orange spot lights that mean even if the rest of the image is ok certain bits will be out. So I always think fix it in post and then batch it across the rest in that church or where ever.

Once you've done this and futher editing save it as a preset under 'x venue - ceremony' and then next time you shoot there you don't need to work it all out again, just select the pics and click on the preset... job's a good un :)
 
I'm with Andy on this. Lighting in church interiors is notoriously poor and unpredictable so best to shoot Raw and sort in post. If you shoot the location often then Andy's suggestion of saving as a preset is a really good idea.
 
Nice one. I'm visiting the venue and church tonight so will get some ball park readings and check out the lighting. Doing a walk through with the couple to chat about ideas so will do a wb reading. The lighting nay we'll be different on the day but at least it gives me some idea.

Like the preset idea too. Thanks all, much appreciated.
 
gpc1 said:
Nice one. I'm visiting the venue and church tonight so will get some ball park readings and check out the lighting. Doing a walk through with the couple to chat about ideas so will do a wb reading. The lighting nay we'll be different on the day but at least it gives me some idea.

Like the preset idea too. Thanks all, much appreciated.
Click to expand...

One thing I tend to do a lot is tweak the W/B in LR and then start selectively removing / reducing certain colours like Orange for example. Last wedding I shot I tried ammending just the W/B and everything just went cold and blue apart from the bits that were stupidly orange from the spot lights, so when editing just be careful to not over do the W/B adjustments and look at tweaking individual colours too.

Also remember there's a W/B dropper tool in LR where if you can find a neutral grey it puts the W/B correctly like using a grey card would... although chances of finding a neutral grey seem to be pretty slim whenever I've tried!
 
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