White Balance Help?!

[AesBreCov]

Ok, was playing around with my kiddos and caught the cutest expression from my son as he was playing peek-a-boo at me from behind the apple tree. I'm still a beginner, so I need lots of advice - throw all your critiques and opinions at me. My biggest problem is figuring out white balance in my photos....any help with that is greatly appreciated! Also, your opinion on the composition? I cropped it some, but I didn't have a lot of room to work with, since it was a quick snap!



Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 18 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[gomer4378]

That is a great pic. wish my kids would smile like that.
what post op program are you using, if you have a selector for WB hit that light spot on the tree and see how that works.
I use Lightroom.

[tyasa81]

hi AesBreCov... since what you are saying is that white balance is your biggest problem, did you shoot in raw? it gives a lot more latitude in changing wb at post... i shot raw mainly for this reason and i think it's a big enough reason for the increased size by itself...

as for your picture... i think what you are having problem with is mixed lighting... your son is in the shades while fence and trees are out in the open... shade is usually bluer than direct sunlight... here you got two option

#1. fix wb on the subject (your son) and let others lie where they will be...
#2. fix wb on subject, another for your background and foreground and blend it back with ps layers...

obviously you should know the correct skin tone colour for your son better than any of us here... hope that helps

[AesBreCov]

Originally Posted by gomer4378

That is a great pic. wish my kids would smile like that.
what post op program are you using, if you have a selector for WB hit that light spot on the tree and see how that works.
I use Lightroom.

Ha! I'm not going to tell you how many pics I tried to make him pose for today, and he DIDN'T smile! I guess I got lucky this time! Ok, I tried the WB tool, and I'm getting a lot of blues that way....

[AesBreCov]

Originally Posted by tyasa81

hi AesBreCov... since what you are saying is that white balance is your biggest problem, did you shoot in raw? it gives a lot more latitude in changing wb at post... i shot raw mainly for this reason and i think it's a big enough reason for the increased size by itself...

as for your picture... i think what you are having problem with is mixed lighting... your son is in the shades while fence and trees are out in the open... shade is usually bluer than direct sunlight... here you got two option

#1. fix wb on the subject (your son) and let others lie where they will be...
#2. fix wb on subject, another for your background and foreground and blend it back with ps layers...

obviously you should know the correct skin tone colour for your son better than any of us here... hope that helps

I'm prolly going to sound stupid admitting this, but I shoot with the L + RAW....That way I can compare and see if I did something half-way decent, and if not, I keep the one that the camera fixed for me! This one was from RAW....oh, and I shot in complete manual this time, which is a little scary for me....so even if it sucks, I'm proud of what I did get out of it! haha!

Anyway....What you are saying makes perfect sense to me! I tried the "shade" preset, and the fence was WAY too orange, so this is the closest I could get without the sunny spots going all crazy-like. I was afraid I was gonna have to do what you suggest, changing for each and then putting them together....I'm just horrible at blending them together right.....honestly, I'm really bad at PP altogether, so maybe I just need to jump in and really practice!

[AesBreCov]

P.S. Please excuse my manners - I forgot to say "thank you" to you both for your quick replies! So, thank you!

[gomer4378]

I am by no means a pro, I am still a beginner so these other guys probably have better advice, but sometimes picking a spot for WB isnt always the brightest spot.
something else to try is adjusting the color temp. I dont know anything about Photoshop I only use Lightroom so I am only going by my experience so far.

Either way I think it looks great the way it is.

[tyasa81]

#1 I'm prolly going to sound stupid admitting this, but I shoot with the L + RAW....This one was from RAW....
#2 oh, and I shot in complete manual this time, which is a little scary for me....so even if it sucks, I'm proud of what I did get out of it! haha!

#3 I tried the "shade" preset, and the fence was WAY too orange, so this is the closest I could get without the sunny spots going all crazy-like.
I was afraid I was gonna have to do what you suggest, changing for each and then putting them together....I'm just horrible at blending them together right.....honestly, I'm really bad at PP altogether, so maybe I just need to jump in and really practice!

#1 Not stupid at all... use whatever methods to get you the results you seek... btw, did you know that if you dont do anything, your raw also contains the information of the wb you use? maybe not for for all settings, but wb, it does...
#2 why manual? is it to learn? i can't imagine shooting my kid in dappled light like you have here in manual... automatic(ap, shutter priority) doesn't mean amateur, neither does manual means pro... each has its uses... hope you learn something from the process though... can't imagine chasing a kid that runs in and out of shade and having to set everything manually... and btw, the result doesn't suck at all..
#3 why are you using presets? if you have the slider, use that... the preset is to get close, than you can fine tune to your needs... trick to blending is to use a lower opacity brush assuming the program you use is similar to ps.. and brush over and over again to make it look more natural...

but sometimes picking a spot for WB isnt always the brightest spot.

very true... if i were to guess, i would pick the small spot of "white" shirt that's peaking out of the tree.. or the thin "white" line above... why? it's in the shade same as the subject hence the white balance is hopefully close to the subject... and it's the closest thing to neutral gray that i can think of in the picture.. since you have the shirt, you should know if it is suppose to be close to white or light blue... if it's light blue then i guess you have to do it visually and guess..

[Mark Engelhart]

A little side note. I picked up some Phoxle WB correction gels that attach to the flash unit. This allows you to set the camera to the WB of the surroundings and use the fill flash at the same WB setting. They work great for weddings, etc. and eliminates alot of post production correcting.

[AesBreCov]

Originally Posted by tyasa81

#1 Not stupid at all... use whatever methods to get you the results you seek... btw, did you know that if you dont do anything, your raw also contains the information of the wb you use? maybe not for for all settings, but wb, it does...
#2 why manual? is it to learn? i can't imagine shooting my kid in dappled light like you have here in manual... automatic(ap, shutter priority) doesn't mean amateur, neither does manual means pro... each has its uses... hope you learn something from the process though... can't imagine chasing a kid that runs in and out of shade and having to set everything manually... and btw, the result doesn't suck at all..
#3 why are you using presets? if you have the slider, use that... the preset is to get close, than you can fine tune to your needs... trick to blending is to use a lower opacity brush assuming the program you use is similar to ps.. and brush over and over again to make it look more natural...


very true... if i were to guess, i would pick the small spot of "white" shirt that's peaking out of the tree.. or the thin "white" line above... why? it's in the shade same as the subject hence the white balance is hopefully close to the subject... and it's the closest thing to neutral gray that i can think of in the picture.. since you have the shirt, you should know if it is suppose to be close to white or light blue... if it's light blue then i guess you have to do it visually and guess..

Yes, I had the WB on my camera set to auto, just because with the shade/sun problem, I wasn't sure where to go with it. I usually try the presets and then adjusted a little more from there. The white on his shirt is the first thing I tried, but that also got me the crazy orange on the fence, so it's prolly about right for the shade, then I just need to fix the fence in another layer and blend - I will try the brush setting like you suggest.

As for shooting in manual, yes, it's for practice. I don't shoot much other than my kids, so they are my subjects for practice! I do keep the focus in auto, otherwise I can't move fast enough! I did switch back to aperture priority when he ran out of the shade, so I didn't have to refigure everything again.

Thank you for all of your advice - I will be working on it again later today to see what I can come up with!