White balance when shooting RAW

Manc Man

Manc Man

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Darren
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After some help and advice

I recently took a landscape shot and found it to have a blue tint, when I checked the camera settings I found the WB had been set to tungsten.

[url]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7110/7034856221_cbfeea30d1_o.jpg[/URL]

Now I didn’t do any editing I just opened in CS5 and stitched together to make the panorama.
I was told that when shooting RAW it doesn’t matter what the WB is set too. Is this the case, can some please advise?

Darren
 
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I'm not sure if stitching maintains RAW or converts to another format. If so just go back to the original files and convert the WB to daylight.
 
Manc Man said:
The WB setting on your camera doesn't have any effect in raw is this the case. :thinking:
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that is true. However you will (probably) need to apply a wb setting when import raw to get the wb right.
 
The WB setting used when shooting is the starting point for any processing. It means that you can easily change it so it's not permanent in that sense, but you do have to make the change in your editing software.
 
Manc Man said:
Cheers James.

As i didnt edit would the camera setting being on tungsten have caused the blue tint to the image above
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Yes if the camera was set to Tungsten and you didn't alter this when importing the raw files then it will automatically use the WB from the file and therefore cause this blue tint you are seeing.
 
And if you have finished the image and gone beyond the point of playing with the raw files you can do one of two things. First is in photoshop to use a colour balance or hue/saturation adjustment layer to bring it back to what you want, or second to use your raw editor to open the jpg then to edit it the same as a raw conversion and adjust the WB. Lovely image btw. Nice work.
 
The23rdman said:
I'm not sure if stitching maintains RAW or converts to another format. If so just go back to the original files and convert the WB to daylight.
Click to expand...

If it helps when I'm stitching a panorama I make all my adjustments to the first raw of the series, then copy and apply the adjustments to the rest of the series, export the resulting tiffs and then stitch them.
 
RichGrundy said:
Yes if the camera was set to Tungsten and you didn't alter this when importing the raw files then it will automatically use the WB from the file and therefore cause this blue tint you are seeing.
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Marcus Geezer said:
And if you have finished the image and gone beyond the point of playing with the raw files you can do one of two things. First is in photoshop to use a colour balance or hue/saturation adjustment layer to bring it back to what you want, or second to use your raw editor to open the jpg then to edit it the same as a raw conversion and adjust the WB. Lovely image btw. Nice work.
Click to expand...

markmullen said:
If it helps when I'm stitching a panorama I make all my adjustments to the first raw of the series, then copy and apply the adjustments to the rest of the series, export the resulting tiffs and then stitch them.
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Cheers guys you have been a great help and given me the answer i was looking for.

i ended up doing an edit after the blue tint was pointed out to me.

[url]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5323/6896892618_59ea2fa38b_o.jpg[/URL]
 
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RichGrundy said:
Yes if the camera was set to Tungsten and you didn't alter this when importing the raw files then it will automatically use the WB from the file and therefore cause this blue tint you are seeing.
Click to expand...

OK, this is interesting. I firmly believed that the WB setting on the camera made no difference at all when shooting in raw. That belief comes from two things;

1) it's completely logical, because raw is meant to be what the sensor sees without processing; any adjustments are meant to be applied in PP, not by the camera, and,

2) When I import a raw file into LR4, at first (in the thumbnail and as the image loads for the first time), I see colours that appear to use the camera's WB setting. This makes sense, because I know the raw file contains tiff images that are used for previews, which may well have the camera's WB setting applied to them, and until LR has rendered the raw image itself, that's what I see.

BUT, as soon as LR has finished rendering (loading) the image, which takes about 2 seconds, I see different colours, suggesting to me that the rendered image is NOT corrected for WB.

But i've just tested it, and changing the WB setting on the camera DOES change the resulting image when rendered in LR, unlike creative style settings such as B&W.

Hmm, so I've obviously misunderstood, but can't see the logic of a raw file that DOES include PP applied in camera?

OR, is it LR4 that's applying the WB adjustments, read from my metadata, as it imports the files from my card? If so, how do I turn that off; I can't find any setting for it in the import settings?

I'm also now less sure about other settings; which settings do and don't affect a raw file?
 
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redddraggon said:
that is true. However you will (probably) need to apply a wb setting when import raw to get the wb right.
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Yep, this is what I understood, but it appears to be untrue that WB settings in camera have no effect (though true that you can/should adjust them in PP).
 
Yeah I only use photoshop for my photos so can only speak with experience from that.

I just know that whenever I open an image up it uses whatever automatic WB setting the camera has chosen. If I want to use a different WB then I can select this from the dropdown box.
 
White balance is simply an adjustment to the ratios of R, G and B before they are presented. If the ratio was 2:1:1, then you'd double the red channel and keep the G and B channels intact. With RAW data, this channel balancing happens in the post processing software, which is why it is easy to change it. In JPEG, this balancing is done in-camera to the saved JPEG file which is why it is destructive.
 
OK yes, I get that, but the question is, why is a WB adjustment being applied to my raw files in camera? It's easy enough to undo in PP, but none the less it doesn't make much sense to me that it's working this way.
 
Southdowns said:
OK yes, I get that, but the question is, why is a WB adjustment being applied to my raw files in camera? It's easy enough to undo in PP, but none the less it doesn't make much sense to me that it's working this way.
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When I drop the raw shot into LR it auto adjusts, but with PSe 10 and CS5 is doesn't

Stranger and stranger
 
Southdowns said:
OK yes, I get that, but the question is, why is a WB adjustment being applied to my raw files in camera? It's easy enough to undo in PP, but none the less it doesn't make much sense to me that it's working this way.
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I would guess because it has to have a WB value of something so using the one stored in the file is the most sensible.
 
When you shoot RAW tethered in LR4, you have an option of changing f/stop, shutter speed, ISO and WB. I have been told in the past that the white balance can have an affect on metering, so perhaps WB is more of a fundamental raw property than we normally think?
 
Southdowns said:
OK yes, I get that, but the question is, why is a WB adjustment being applied to my raw files in camera? It's easy enough to undo in PP, but none the less it doesn't make much sense to me that it's working this way.
Click to expand...
At the moment, it takes the camera setting and applies that. Given it has to apply something what would you like it to do by default?
 
Southdowns said:
OK yes, I get that, but the question is, why is a WB adjustment being applied to my raw files in camera? It's easy enough to undo in PP, but none the less it doesn't make much sense to me that it's working this way.
Click to expand...

No adjustment is being made to the image data. It's just got the WB setting the camera was set to saved with it, and Lightroom by default displays the raw file with this WB. You can set it to import images with a custom WB if you don't want this.
 
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Back to the OP's panorama: The white balance is fine now, but does anybody else think there's an ugly blending artefact in the picture? About two thirds of the way across: the grass changes colour quite noticeably and there's a similar (but less obvious) issue with the sky.

I'd have thought PhotoShop ought to be able to blend the images better than that. Is it caused by uncorrected vignetting in the source images?
 
StewartR said:
Back to the OP's panorama: The white balance is fine now, but does anybody else think there's an ugly blending artefact in the picture? About two thirds of the way across: the grass changes colour quite noticeably and there's a similar (but less obvious) issue with the sky.

I'd have thought PhotoShop ought to be able to blend the images better than that. Is it caused by uncorrected vignetting in the source images?
Click to expand...

I notice the same issue when doing the panorama I posted anyway due to the issue I was having with the blue cast, I have never got round to trying to fix. I don't think it has been cause by vignetting at each of the original photos are fine.
 
To answer the OP's question about raw, the WB doesn't effect the RAW file, but a marker is placed in the EXIF data to say what WB was selected. Then when LR4 or most other converters read the raw they adjust WB using the settings in the file to display the image.
At this point the raw data is still what came off the sensor, the software is just using the EXIF to show you how it should look.
Convert to or shoot in JPEG and its too late.
 
Manc Man said:
After some help and advice


I was told that when shooting RAW it doesn’t matter what the WB is set too. Is this the case, can some please advise?

Darren
Click to expand...

Hi Darren, i think different WB settings may affect the metering / exposure of the final image. Can any experts confirm?
 
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