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sima · Joined: 09 Sep 2007 Posts: 322

Slide time and filters for correction are history, today my usual way is Raw + auto wb, for most situations, but for studio work good way is to set color balance in Kelvins.

yaromir · Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 1117 Location: Chicago

fraiseap · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Posts: 574 Location: Birmingham UK

kenny123 · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 6:55 am

kenny123 · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 6:57 am

AmeeC · Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 385

In an answer to the OP... I ususally use an expodisc, but it does not always work (depends on the lighting). In which case, sometimes I use auto or sometimes I set it manually.

As for RAW vs jpg... Most of what I shoot is for myself, as you can see from the size of my gallery. I shoot in jpg, because of the file size, mainly. I have tried to use RAW multiple times, and it was so large and hard to work with. Maybe I just don't get it. However, Karin has a good idea to shoot in RAW + jog fine, so I will at least have a lossless copy. I guess I need to go buy more cards, LOL.

karapas · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 8:50 am

During day shots I leave my Canon to take the decision on its Auto balance session, and during night shots I keep shooting with my Canon to Auto color balance but I change the final print on Photoshop choosing the Auto balance on the Bridge programm.

That works.

In general Canon make the rights decisions for day shots but turns everything yellow during night shots. That's why I use Bridge auto correction for night shots.

Of course I can do all these corrections with Bridge because I shoot ONLY in RAW Canon format.

luceluceluce · Joined: 10 Dec 2008 Posts: 1545 Location: mostly

Sometimes I'll put my wb on sunny when it's cloudy and vice versa. I enjoy these little mind games with my camera, and it can affect the contrast.

I dont know what i would do without the RAW windows!!! blimey... it's automatic now... color temp, exposure.... and it was so easy to pick up.

although i cant get that fringing fix window to do bugger all about fringing...
x

alistaircotton · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 9:41 am

For studio, I just use a memorised Custom WB from the cameras memory. Like other posts, it's quite a simple process to do this using a grey card.

As it turns out, my Elinchroms are bang on 5 500k.

For shooting early morning or evening, you can check out the "Claypaws" WB option decribed on DP Review here:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1020&message=28006509

Auto WB or running a WB with a grey card in the morning or evening light will try to neutralise the wonderful warm colour. So "Claypaws" has offered an interesting alternative.

To Mike though - if your monitor is colour calibrated you should really give RAW a crack to tweak what you want from the file in post (same as other posts suggested).

dakotan · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 10:10 am

I almost always set it to A mode, and than do all neccessery correction when converting from RAW. If it's a single set of photos just save the settings as a template.

peterwey · Joined: 24 Mar 2007 Posts: 693 Location: Switzerland

outdoor: its almost all auto-wb. most of the time i do carry a graycard but i rarely use it. only if auto-wb seems strage
indoor: graycard.
i tweak wb on almost all shots while postprocessing, but auto-wb/graycard give me a good start.
i always shoot raw. so all adjustments are save.
pete

straehle · Joined: 08 Jan 2007 Posts: 319 Location: Santa Barbara, CA

I always shoot raw. Memory is cheap and I use Lightroom to process, so there is really no penalty in my workflow for shooting raw rather than jpeg. When you shoot raw, there is WB information in the raw file that your processor uses to make its decisions, so wb does count when you shoot raw. I have found that auto WB is eratic as mentioned above and that any fixed WB setting is better than auto; at least if it's wrong, all images can be corrected with a few clicks in LR. I use the Color-Rite disc to take a calibration shot when conditions are strange and I have time and then set that as the custom WB in my Canon 20D. This works well most of the time. I found that ExpoDisc could give strange results some times. If I forget or the pictures don't look right the next option is using the custom WB in LR. At least if I am on a constant WB setting, I can then transfer that correction to all the other shots in that shoot with a couple of clicks.

rssfhs · Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 3:28 pm

I shoot with my Canon 5d Mk II in RAW using the various in-camera white balance settings: daylight, cloudy, tungsten, etc. Then I tweak the temperature in PS to get the desired result. I sometimes cool things way down to give a special effect as in this photo:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-3273207-mount-fuji-with-the-sun-reflecting-in-a-blue-lake.html

karimala · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 2117 Location: Sacramento, CA

fraiseap · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Posts: 574 Location: Birmingham UK