White Balance

[jockwav]

Now i have been using custom white balance for a long time,maybe the more we read the more confusing it gets.
A lot of people out shooting landscapes for the day on a lot of tutorials & you tube videos load their raws we will say as that,s what i shoot into say LR.
Now they set their first shot with the correct WB & then sync all the rest to the same,it,s what i usually do but tonight after being out for the day i loaded my shots into LR5 & did my usual WB sync on all my shots.
But doing another check on them individually i found that the WB was just a little bit different on them all & i re-did all the WB per shot,most of the shots i did today were all pretty well shot within a small time frame to each other.
Anyone got any thoughts on this or do they batch don,t batch WB on their shots.:bang:

 

[droj]

No I never set WB for outdoors in daylight - I leave it on auto. Sometimes I tweak it later (raw file in LR). But 80% (say) of the time it's ok, having been measured from the actual framing. There is often more than one WB (eg open to sky, in shade, varying orientation, conditions changing ...), in different parts of the wider scene that our eyes take in, and often when using a camera we are taking in just a portion of that wider view at one particular moment ...

 

[jockwav]

Maybe we all strive too much to get things as we think they should be.

 

[arad85]

The only way you can sync WB and guarantee it is right on every shot is if you 100% control the lighting to be identical in each shot. That typically means a studio.

 

[jockwav]

Yes i know but i am talking outdoors,but i do understand what you mean as i do that with flash.

 

[KIPAX]

Surely outdoors the light is going to change.. even if not noticable at time.. it will be noticable if your forcing the same WB on pics with slightly changing light...

 

[dinners]

If I'm stuck in one spot for hours on end shooting birds visiting a fixed perch or waiting for otters at a given spot - I'll keep my white balance set to the conditions.

If I'm strolling about trying to catch things as they appear - I'll just go with AWB.

Where time isn't an issue such as setting up a landscape shot on a tripod, I'll set the WB to suit.

 

[markmullen]

With landscapes I choose a white balance to suit the mood I am looking for, sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler, as such I don't batch those shots.

If I am shooting something where accurate colour representation is important I'll use a colorchecker passport and yes, sometimes batch files if the light hasn't changed shot to shot.

 

[jockwav]

I agree with all that has been said,just curious what other people do if you have a lot of outdoor shots to go through,i also have a colorchecker passport & they are brilliant.

 

[hollis_f]

i also have a colorchecker passport & they are brilliant.

They are brilliant when you want an accurate white balance. Sometimes that will also turn out to be the correct white balance. Shoot in raw and select the correct WB in LR.

 

[Pookeyhead]

Syncing all your shots with one reference grey card shot only works so long as the light is identical for all shots. Shooting outside, that will never really be the case, as light is constantly changing. It's great for studio work, but nowhere near as reliable when location shooting.. especially over a long period of time. The light changes surprisingly rapidly sometimes.

To be honest... for landscapes.. who cares? It's utterly subjective. Just shoot RAW and forget WB... it's not set in RAW anyway.

 

[jockwav]

I always shoot raw anyway,i was experimenting with white balance over the course of the day,just thought i would give that a try,thanks for all the input guys.