Lightroom White Balance Question

[SJCT]

I've recently started using Lightroom to process the pictures taken on my Canon Rebel XS. If I have a single source of light, I usually use the custom white balance feature on the camera and set it to a blank sheet of white paper.

My question is, when white balancing RAW images within Lightroom (if you're a lightroom user), what do you use for a reference if you're doing a custom balance? Do you just eye-ball it? Let's say you have a couple of different light sources and none of the "auto" or preset white balance settings look right. You want to adjust the temperature yourself, so is there a reference? I find it a bit tough to get the white I want as Lightroom has a black background so if my photos have a white background, anything looks white even if it has a blu-ish or red-ish hue (when compared to the black background.

Thanks!

[highlydope]

Seems like you've posted this question in the wrong section. Try posting in the Techniques area and you'll probably get better results.

[kirbinster]

First, a white piece of paper is not a good thing to use to set customer white balance as there are many many shades of white. You are better of using a grey card, something where the RGB values are all the same.

As for lightroom, I typically eyeball it. If you are shooting people a good target is to use either the whites of the eyes or the teeth if you have not taken a shot that has a grey card in it.

[zona5101]

usually eyeball it...but you can use the eyedropper tool and select a neutral gray object in the frame and LR will set the color balance for you.

[RLucas]

Originally Posted by zona5101

usually eyeball it...but you can use the eyedropper tool and select a neutral gray object in the frame and LR will set the color balance for you.

Same here. Or will use the dropper tool, and manually adjust that to taste. I've never used the dropper on white though. It always throws the color balance way off. Pick something that is supposed to be a mid toned gray.

[SJCT]

Perfect, thanks for the replies. As for moving the post, probably no need to since it's basically been answered...unless a mod wants to move it so that it's in the right place.

[Antsnest]

I recently bought a neutral grey card (Digital Grey Kard) to help with setting white balance, but this is not quite as straightforward as it may seem. The Lightroom eyedropper selects an individual pixel, and with my Canon 5D Mk II set to ISO 200 the results can sometimes differ markedly from pixel to pixel, possibly caused by noise. I found that by using the luminance slider in Noise Reduction the differences could be averaged out to give a better result. Hope this helps.

[hunterb7]

In lightroom 3 you can change the black back ground to white or gray...Put your arrow on the black and right click your mouse, then pick your color.

Here is a good book to read about Lightroom 3.. its by Nat Coalson’s “Lightroom 3: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process” you can find it on Amazon for around $27.