White Balance issues, I think...

[GadgetVirtuoso]

Here are two images I ran through UFRAW (Linux RAW processor).

When I process them using the Camera WB setting the images comes out yellowish, whereas the image processed as auto WB comes out white.

I shot this on my kitchen table. The light is compact Florescent. Even using AWB the images come out with a yellowish appearance. How can I correct or compensate for this best? I'm trying to minimize the corrections needed.

Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off

[bonaina]

I dont know if its the best advice but this is what i do
Try taking a picture of a white piece of paper (or a 18% gray card) in the lighting youre going to take the picture
and use that as your custom white balance setting

i dont have an xsi so i dont know the exact menus
but im sure theres a custom white balance setting

[GadgetVirtuoso]

There is a custom white balance setting but unfortunately it needs a photo with the WB that I want to use to use it. I suppose I could try using an automatic mode to get the right balance then use that as a basis for my custom. I'm trying to stay away from using the auto modes so that I can learn the camera well.

[iffles]

Actually, you can do what bonaina is suggesting with the XSi.

First, take a picture of a white piece of paper - or, in your case, just take a picture of the table without the lego man on it, since the table is white. Then hit Menu and go to the second tab over and down to "Custom WB" and hit set. When you do this, it'll ask you to pick a photo to use for the custom white balance and you can select your picture of the white table. After you do that, the camera will remind you to select the Custom WB setting in the camera. Now when you take a picture of the lego man, the table should be white, since you told the camera that's what white was.

[euphonywho]

I just got my XSi a couple of weeks ago (it's great!), and noticed a similar problem. I would take a picture outside with auto WB on, and it would be either yellow-tinted, or kind of sanitary white (think hospital uber clean, not the kind of colors I wanted). I found that changing the WB setting to the appropriate lighting actually worked surprisingly well. I'm on my laptop right now, and so can't get access to my photos, but maybe tomorrow morning I can post a similar comparison to yours. There is a mode called "Florescent white light" and another called "Tungsten". The auto WB hasn't been great for me so far though.

[GadgetVirtuoso]

That's the strange part, sometimes AWB works quite well and other times not so much. In these examples I shot using the tungsten WB but the fluorescent WB isn't much different or better. I'm going to give the custom WB a try and see how that goes. What I don't understand about that setting is, how can it work if the shot is still going to look yellowish to the sensor? Perhaps that's not how it works, so I'm going to try it.