A question about White Balance

[Canonboi]

White Balance to me is, by far, the most intriguing, confusing, and often times, frustrating photography experience. I know these questions sound stupid to some of you (heck, I might even ask for a picture of something) and I may be thought of an idiot here in POTN, but who cares? As long as I get the answers that I needed to know, I'm a happy camper. These are the things that I can't quite sink my teeth in:

1) What is an example of Tungsten light? (picture of a Tungsten light)

2) What is an example of Fluorescent light? (picture please)

3) What is Incandescent light and give me an example/picture please?

4) If I'm in a Tungsten or Fluorescent or Incandescent lighting environment, and let's say I'm not going to use a flash, off-cam or otherwise, so meaning I'm going to shoot using available light, should I use a WB setting that corresponds to the given lighting condition/environment? If I'm in a Fluorescent light, should I use Fluorescent WB?

5) Likewise, if I'm outside in sunny condition or let's say I'm outside but in the Shade, do I set my WB according to the light condition that I'm in? Set WB to SHADE if I'm in the Shade?

There are 2 reasons why I asked this and why I'm really starting to get frustrated about WB.

1) It is that I wanted to step out of the comfort zone that Automatic WB is giving me. I know AWB is oftentimes correct, but I really wanted to know how to set the WB myself.

2) There is one time I attended a friend's party. The lights there are a little bluish. So I (blindly - guesstimating) set the WB to Fluorescent and took pictures but MY OH MY, my pictures turned out to be so BLUE. And every time I shoot outside and (knowing that for people photography, warm photos are more pleasing to the eye) set my WB to Shade, for instance, my pictures are so warm you can incubate an egg there.

So what am I doing wrong? Please tell me the secret path to the Perfect White Balance.

[Raigoki]

hi, looong set of questions. i'll try to answer some of your questions.

Originally Posted by Canonboi

White Balance to me is, by far, the most intriguing, confusing, and often times, frustrating photography experience. I know these questions sound stupid to some of you (heck, I might even ask for a picture of something) and I may be thought of an idiot here in POTN, but who cares? As long as I get the answers that I needed to know, I'm a happy camper. These are the things that I can't quite sink my teeth in:

1) What is an example of Tungsten light? (picture of a Tungsten light) using tungsten as filament i think?
2) What is an example of Fluorescent light? (picture please)

3) What is Incandescent light and give me an example/picture please?


4) If I'm in a Tungsten or Fluorescent or Incandescent lighting environment, and let's say I'm not going to use a flash, off-cam or otherwise, so meaning I'm going to shoot using available light, should I use a WB setting that corresponds to the given lighting condition/environment? If I'm in a Fluorescent light, should I use Fluorescent WB?

yes. if you're under a tungsten light, shoot with tungsten WB or 3000K more or less.
if you're shooting under fluorescent light, shoot with fluorescent WB or 4000-6600K
if you're shooting with available light, let say outside and it's sunny, then use the outdoor WB or more or less 5000K.

5) Likewise, if I'm outside in sunny condition or let's say I'm outside but in the Shade, do I set my WB according to the light condition that I'm in? Set WB to SHADE if I'm in the Shade?

that i don't know, i usually play between 5000K to 7000K, depends to my taste.

There are 2 reasons why I asked this and why I'm really starting to get frustrated about WB.

1) It is that I wanted to step out of the comfort zone that Automatic WB is giving me. I know AWB is oftentimes correct, but I really wanted to know how to set the WB myself.

try to experiment. in my camera system, we have one touch WB. all you need to do is to have a small white board to have that as reference. much easier than guessing.

2) There is one time I attended a friend's party. The lights there are a little bluish. So I (blindly - guesstimating) set the WB to Fluorescent and took pictures but MY OH MY, my pictures turned out to be so BLUE. And every time I shoot outside and (knowing that for people photography, warm photos are more pleasing to the eye) set my WB to Shade, for instance, my pictures are so warm you can incubate an egg there.

because sometimes, even though your inside a room with fluorescent lighting, the light is not sufficient thus giving the bluish color. the best way is to do a test shot, if it's bluish, lower the WB.


So what am I doing wrong? Please tell me the secret path to the Perfect White Balance.

honestly i don't know how... different people have different taste to WB. some people like it yellowish. tip, if you're using flash or strobes, try to play the WB to 5200-6000K.

just keep shooting! and try to experiment shots! better to post some of your shots here so some of our member can give you advise. good luck!

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by Canonboi

Please tell me the secret path to the Perfect White Balance.

Easy...I use a color meter Sekonic | Prodigi Color C-500R Color Meter with | 401-501 | B&H.

[RLucas]

I always use the "pre" function on my camera. (D40) You basically take a frame off of a wall or something in the mid tone range, and it will set the temperature accordingly. If I am outside, I just use the grass. It usually falls in the 18% range anyway. I like using it more than the pre loaded or auto WB on my camera. I don't really ever have too much color temperature issues. Composition, and focus are the big issues for me.

[weshoot]

Here's some practical solutions: If you shoot raw, you can use your processing software to find the best white balance in a mixed lighting situation. When shooting professionally in artificial lighting, I usually put a grey card (it is possible to purchase these inexpensively) in one image with as much of the mixed lighting on it as possible, or shoot the light through an item called an Expodisk (not so inexpensive) to get a white balance reading that my software can set as medium grey. I leave my camera on the automatic white balance setting all the time. Outdoors, the Auto setting on my Nikons seems to handle the white balance without a problem, and doesn't usually need adjustment. Once you get a white balance set with the grey card or Expodisk on the one frame, you can batch the whole set of images shot in the same room or area, and get a fairly accurate white balance on all those images. Everytime the lighting changes, use another grey card image in the scene to set the white balance.

If shooting jpegs, I suggest picking out something in the image near medium grey (like concrete or grey colored gravel), and going into levels in Photoshop, and using the grey eyedropper on that area - it possibly will adjust the image for a better white balance.

Newer versions of Photoshop (like CS4) allow you to open several tiffs or jpegs in camera raw (as though they are raw images), and it may be possible to batch them that way. Just remember that a tiff or jpeg does not have all the color information that is available in a raw image.

Good luck,

Gary Silverstein
Architectural Photography and Product Photography Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia Photographers, We Shoot

[bernt]

same problem here.. the natural colors won't come out right..
i tried to manually set my WB using a white bond paper and got more
frustrating results than using AWB.

should i consider buying an expodisc/zerocs?

here's the actual thing i did:
got the desired exposure, set my wb to custom wb, shot the white bond paper
w/ the light falling on it, and on my menu i selected that image.


did i do right thing here?


somebody please enlighten me. thanks in advance!