White Balance - Photography Tips

I think you are overcomplicating it. WB is about the colour of the light when you took the photo. If you adjust the colour temperature to match that of the ambient light then you will have the right WB.

You might want to adjust the hue, saturation, etc. for additional aesthetic effect but that isn't a WB issue.

In the old days, colour film was generally adjusted for the WB of daylight and most people thought nothing more about it.

Back in the film days you bought "Daylight" balanced or "Indoor" balanced film. If you used outside film inside, your goose was cooked because all of your shots would have a yellow tinge from the tungsen light.

Now with digital I just set my camera to AUTO white balance and it does a great job adjusting for the light most of the time. I shoot RAW so the WB isn't cooked into the shot like it would be in a JPG. Any problems are easy to fix in Lightroom.

To be safe you can get color correction cards. You shoot a frame of these cards and then use one of the eye droppers in Lightroom to pick your white, black or grey tone. And then the WB is perfect.

Be careful about saying no "photo degradation" in Photoshop. There are ways you can degrade the original. Always work from a copy.

Lightroom works differently than Photoshop.

Your goose wasn't cooked if you had an 81A filter, Edward. :)
But, like I said, most people didn't get into that stuff.
And RAW is the way to go today, the ability to click on a white object in the image will sort out WB issues, nine times out of ten.

Theonlinephotographer has an article on color correcting a file. Worth reading.

Yes, WB is important. But as already said, this does seem an over complication. I shoot RAW, leave it on AWB and set it with the eyedropper in Lightroom if its off.

Color correction, the rare times I've found a need for it is far easier using the RGB values in the Curves tool and the eye dropper to see how far off the color is. Then adjust as needed.

You can set the WB manually using a neutral-coloured card (white or grey) if you want to. It can be handy if you are having to shoot jpg for a sports tournament or suchlike, where you want to be able to shoot hundreds or thousands of frames in rapid succession without running out of space or hitting the buffer with RAW. But, generally, it's just better to shoot RAW. AWB works most of the time and it''s easy to change if it doesn't.

Last 2 posts combined, Chuck De La Rosa + Paul Cowan answers together = my answer.

WB is most challenging for indoor shots especially when there is bad light. If there are people in the scene, the whites of the eye or teeth is where I try my eyedropper first.


W

Where do I find this "eyedropper" in Photoshop Elements 11 to set my whites ?

Paul what is the ambient lighting if you are shooting a wide cityscape with sodium vapor lamps in the scene but you can see through into a shop with flourescent lights inside while another is using incandescent.?There is a woman at a window while children play under the street lamp. The sky is colored by the last rays of the sun.

It looks like it's here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CxomXKMmpc

Carol - google photoshop elements 11 and white balance - you'll get several tutorials on youtube and elsewhere.

Thank you for the link, Paul :)

Thanks, Heather! I see there's lots of great tutorials to choose from...

Bradford, then you decide what it is that you want to be white, don't you? Or you set the colour temperature for 4800 to account for cool tones of evening and let the rest of it go as it will. Or maybe you do individual adjustments in selected areas with a lot of feathering. It's up to you, really.

I'm with Paul and others. The last thing I worry about or even think about, is WB. Just shoot RAW and you're done. IF i needs tweaking, then fine, but one of the few adjustments I ever touch, and a grey card or white, for that matter is an easy way to get it right too,

Rich

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Colour correction cards || colour calibrated reference cards are handy
. . do you create your own or purchase them?


@RichFranco @PaulCowan @EdwardFielding @HeatherApplegate @WingsdomainArtandPhotography @ChuckDeLaRosa . . mahalo for your feedback!

@StevenRalser . . do you have a link?

@BradfordMartin . . thanks for making me laugh :))) . . lol . .

@CarolLuxPhotography
Photoshop Elements
Applies to: Colour and camera raw
Adobe Community Help
Using the histogram and RGB values in camera raw
White balance controls for camera raw
Tonal and image adjustments in camera raw files
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/color-camera-raw.html


:: more useful links and resources :: . .

DGK Color Tools DKK 5" x 7" Set of 2 White Balance and Colour Calibration Charts with 12% and 18% Gray - Includes Frame Stand and User Guide
http://www.amazon.com/DGK-Color-Tools-Balance-Calibration/dp/B00AWT2QCE/ref=pd_sim_p_6/176-7804790-5800554?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QYW49PT3W69BG0GF5H3

Introduction to White Balance
http://digital-photography-school.com/introduction-to-white-balance/

Using White Balance to Control Colour Casts
http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/color-cast-tutorial

Adobe Controlling White Balance Video Tutorials
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-5/controlling-white-balance/

. . here's another . . . http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/creative-white-balance.html#.U6Jal_ldV8E

By the way, if you have a Canon and are shooting in RAW you can correct WB in Canon's own RAW-editing software, supplied with your camera. It also allows you to apply automatic profile corrections for most Canon lenses, eliminating chromatic aberration, pin-cushion distortion and lens vignetting. The improvements may be quite tiny, but it takes the image quality from maybe 99% perfect to 99.9% perfect.
Lightroom has got lens correction formulae built in to it, too, and they probably work for several brands of camera, but you have to buy that program separately.
Oh, yes ..... to get it right, you also have to colour-calibrate your monitor. I use a Datacolor Spyder, which is quite simple and straighforward, you just plug it into the usb port. With a calibrated monitor you get to see the colours as they are, rather than the colours mixed with any cast created by a monitor which is not tuned to the right colour including being adjusted for the colour of the lights in your room.

Sharon, thank you for the links :)

Sharon Mau: You asked:"
Colour correction cards || colour calibrated reference cards are handy
. . do you create your own or purchase them".
If colour accuracy is the goal you may want to create your own reference charts/ cards especially in the case of a print.
Base your reference cards on the printer's ink set and paper used to produce the final print.
You can plot your print using a reflective densitometer ,thus making very accurate adjustments to final image.
Remember , the camera, monitor and printer handle color differently , they are separate components no matter how finely calibrated .
Camera White balance in an outdoors ambient light situation can easily show the color shifts with respect to the location, time of day and any atmospheric conditions prevailing when the desired image was captured.. Camera White balance should always be considered a coarse indication, when accurate color is the goal, ironically it will not produce an accurate white, or stain result in a print, but instead reveal the direction of color shift, in the plot of a print.
Example: if a color temp meter isn't available , photograph a white chickens egg , the back of a white business card and a white plastic spoon side by side, outside, same location and white balanced in the camera. Photograph the same setup, same location at 8:am, 12 noon and 6:pm . you'll see color shifts in the three different white values of the objects in the photographs, which were white balanced in the camera. The greatest benefit of using a color chart is in the print and a densitometer is essential in accurate color print reproduction..
What an excellent question by the way.

. . morning Carol . you're welcome :) . . . thank you for your kind feedback everyone . . . .


. . :: more Colour Calibration Charts resources :: . .


http://www.amazon.com/Color-Calibration-Charts/b?ie=UTF8&node=3109910011

http://www.kayellaustralia.com.au/colour-calibration-cards-c-203_239.html


http://www.photoreview.com.au/tips/shooting/Getting-Colour-Balance-Right
. . :: Getting Colour Balance Right :: . .
"Although cameras with manual white balance measurement systems can provide almost cast-free colour photographs, there are times when additional colour reference tools should also be used to ensure you achieve a correct colour balance in any shooting situation. Including a colour balance reference target in shots is particularly handy if you shoot JPEGs. It's less important for raw file shooters because colour tweaking is possible when converting raw files to editable formats. However, having a target in a reference shot can make the task quicker and easier when you're editing image files."

hi Sharon

i hope you dont mind, throwin some granger charts in here while we are at color calibration


http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/test-charts.shtml

http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12336

Good discussion, Sharon! Thanks for posting - have bookmarked and can't wait to read later (still at work!!!!!!!!).

SK,

What the heck are you doing? You can't judge color looking at color! You only can tell when there are actual neutrals to judge.



This has a slight blue-ish/cyan caste on my screen, and if this looks different on your screen than ther might be a problem!

When you see red, is it 10 points too red!!!??? Yellow almost impossible to see,unless tis 15-20 points over. Blue,green and cyan are easier,

Rich

Rich,

im not sure if i do understand your humor, or it might be that you missunderstood my post ... ?

the granger chart is actually a mathematical (impossible) image that shows how limited monitors and so more printers are, with that chart you can further calibrate your whole work process, this is a step beyond calibration alone. For example it will behave differently on a 8 bit monitor and a 10 or 12 or 16 bit monitor, tho they are color calibrated. not to mention print equipment, where the differences will be huge.

Sk,

I think I might understand now, but this seems way, way to complicated for most. As I have mentioned many times here, the monitor that's "pretty close" is fine for almost everyone here on FAA. There is no need to go overboard and try and get your monitor calibrated beyond, the neutral color and contrast. Since we aren't trying to match "Pantone" color charts, and a sunset that's 10 point too red,doesn't matter, what purpose does going beyond that serve.

If you have a job and need to match color swatches, that's another thing all together, but generally, that wouldn't be left to the photographer to get just right, but more to the printer, before publication of any magazine it might be in.

If a person here, get's my "color chart" right, then why would anyone need more than that, to upload images to FAA and then "hopes" the printer get's it right too?

Can anyone explain a reason to go to that level here?

Rich

@Miriam . you're welcome . happy you enjoy it . .

@Stanislav . . enjoyed your interesting and informative links . . especially the one on test charts . it is a nice tutorial . . thank you so much :)

. this is an interesting forum on Histogram: Luminosity and Colour
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/thread37685.htm