White balance?

What white balance do you use?

  • Auto (let camera choose)

    Votes: 60 47.6%

  • Custom (set to particular lighting condition)

    Votes: 20 15.9%

  • Camera options (shade incandecant etc)

    Votes: 20 15.9%

  • A mix of all

    Votes: 35 27.8%
  • Total voters
    126
  • Poll closed .
swanseamale47

swanseamale47

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wayne clarke
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I'm wondering how many use custom white balance all the time, as opposed to just tricky lighting conditions?
 
I don't. Mostly leave it on auto.
May tinker with the raw file if it does not look right. but that is uncommon for me.
 
Auto, about the only time I set it is if I'm trying to shoot a Pano of some sort. I sometimes tweak it in PP if required.
 
depends on the lighting, (and my motivation :p) if its something important, or that i care about, it will be custom... if its just a random shot, i will use one of the presets, and then alter in pp if there is something wrong:)
 
I just set it to sunny, if I am outside it is sunlight that is illuminating the scene, works fine even with light grey cloud cover. I even leave it on sunny for flash use, gives a slightly warmer tone. If it looks wrong can always change in NX2 anyway.
 
Auto all the time.
May change to cloudy in PP to give a slightly warmer tone.
 
Just starting to set a custom one everytime but have been using all options previously.
 
Wayne, a little thread hijack but here is a example that makes a good point I think


Here is the difference setting a custom WB can make. Poor presentation I know!

WB.jpg


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Depends what Im doing. Nikon D700 is fairly crap at AWB
 
I'll take a custom reading if it's during daylight hours and it's convenient to do so. During late evening/early morning I tend to leave it on a preset or auto and change the balance in RAW to suit the image during processing.

I think setting the white balance at the time is more important that people think. The subtle colour differenece that can make all the difference in a shot are hard to perceive during editing.
 
I was taking some pictures at a engagement party on the weekend and to be honest I never bothered with audjusting white balance before always left it on auto... but on this occasion the video man appeared to have what looked like a 500w spotlight on his video camera! No lie it was big bright and very hot! Anyway it was causing my pictures to come out horrible so played around with the white balance and was surprised how much a little tweaking does!!
 
When I'm taking a series of shots that matter (i.e. a Wedding or Portrait shoot) it's Custom all the time, batch processed afterwards

If I'm out shooting for fun & NOT as a set, then AWB does a pretty good job - but they are still all likely to get a tweak or two if any make it to show or print

So when are you (OP) going to spill the beans on your usage :)

DD
 
think mine has been on 'Cloudy' for about the last 4 years :lol:
 
Auto unless the lighting seems awkward, then I'll set a custom WB. Unlike the poster above, I find that the D700 does a better job at Auto WB than the D70 or D200 I've also used.
 
the effects of some lighting i should correct but let the white balance go on auto
 
I usually use a preset, but if the light is way outside the standards then I use custom.
 
fallen_mathi said:
depends on the lighting, (and my motivation :p) if its something important, or that i care about, it will be custom... if its just a random shot, i will use one of the presets, and then alter in pp if there is something wrong:)
Click to expand...

What he said! :thumbs:

Leaving it in auto tends to take the zing out of the colours and can ruin what could have been a nice rich colour shot.
 
Auto.

I shoot RAW so I change the WB in post processing.
 
There's been quite a lot of debate about this on various forums. Some people reckon it doesn't matter if you shoot Raw, others believe that it can make a difference. I suppose I'm in that camp, but not obsessively.

I normally leave the camera on AWB, and dial in a preset before I shoot, or use a custom setting if the light's tricky, but not always. I've tweaked the WB for quite a few preset/custom images in post too, because I wasn't completely happy with them. That sort of flexibility is probably the biggest advantage of Raw.
 
Got a great tip off a pro at a wedding recently...

Live view white balance.

Activate Live view and adjust the Kelvin setting until screen matches scene.

Simples.

Lots of people probably already do this but I thought it was a nice little idea and new to me.
 
Auto WB, but shoot RAW, so adjust in PP.
 
Usually leave on cloudy, shoot in Raw and adjust were necessary
 
I rushed the poll and picked auto :bonk: yet i should've choosen the mix of both as im abit 50-50 i either go for the auto mode or selectable condtions such as cloudy, sunny etc: .
 
I always use auto as I shoot in raw so it doesn't really matter that much, I also use a whibal card
 
I've just bought a Lastolite grey card, but it has a white card on the back, when would you use the white side to take a measurement?
 
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