White balance question

[Dhanu]

Hi,
I read through this part of the manual several times but still have a question.
All those predefined settings such as sunlight, florescent, tungsten, how to use them?
- If the room has a florescent light do I set it to florescent?
or
- If I need the photo to look like it was taken under a florescent light (even though the room doesn't have a florescent light) do I change to florescent setting?
Thanks

[ravncat]

use flourescent if the room has a flourescent light

[Dhanu]

Thanks for th reply :-)

[Michael_2010]

Shoot in RAW and decide what looks best to you after the fact. The end result is the objective and getting there can take you down many avenues.

[amy_bb]

If you are just experimenting and have some time, shoot the same scene using the various different white balance settings (including custom if your camera has it)and see what you like best. Strangely, if I shoot inside my house w/just my on-camera flash and I want it to look realistic, it works best with my white balance set to "cloudy". ?----ok.

Or just shoot in RAW. I just started and it isn't as scary as it sounds. Just eats up a boatload of memory so you will have to carry at least 2 cards around.

[Michael_2010]

A few months ago I couldn't figure out what the big deal with RAW was and it made my pictures look horrible. Discovered the program I was using to process the files defaulted to some weird settings. Switched over to the software furnished by Canon and I now always shoot in RAW. I've become so accustomed to processing files now that I am thinking about taking the plunge and getting better software. I wish that Adobe Camera RAW was a stand alone program.....

[Dhanu]

Thanks for the repies.
Yeah, currently I'm shooting in RAW and I really need to get some more memory cards :-)

[Mzaki]

If you change the white balance settings to florescent, it will not look like it was shot under florescent light. On the contrary, it will take out the green from the florescent to compensate for the green cast in the lighting.

If you shoot RAW, do not worry about white balance.

Use auto settings all the time. You can adjust the temperature to what you think is good. A wrong white balance can be used artistically and creatively to send a message.