Nikon Temperature/White Balance

eriMansori

Senior Member
Alright guys, here i’m going to ask you something that has been confused me for a long time, i bought a secondhanded nikon d600, it works pretty well, shutter sounds good and there’s no major issue that could effect its productivity, i want to ask.. Is Nikon WB works differently than Canon? Because i’m new with nikon and haven’t ask anyone about it. For an example ; i shot a portrait of an asian girl in the daylight with canon 6D and i set the WB at 4800-5200K to get the closest temperature, but when i use nikon, the kelvin should be higher, around 5600-6200K to get the equal temperature as Canon. Is my camera has an issue or is it just "nikon” thing? Thank you.


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Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Alright guys, here i’m going to ask you something that has been confused me for a long time, i bought a secondhanded nikon d600, it works pretty well, shutter sounds good and there’s no major issue that could effect its productivity, i want to ask.. Is Nikon WB works differently than Canon? Because i’m new with nikon and haven’t ask anyone about it. For an example ; i shot a portrait of an asian girl in the daylight with canon 6D and i set the WB at 4800-5200K to get the closest temperature, but when i use nikon, the kelvin should be higher, around 5600-6200K to get the equal temperature as Canon. Is my camera has an issue or is it just "nikon” thing? Thank you.
Nikon and Canon do, in my experience, interpret white balance differently. Canon tends to shoot with an orange/amber bias which many people prefer. If you shoot using the Auto White Balance function on your D600 you can adjust it to replicate the warmer Canon colors by default. If you want to do that, go into the Shooting menu, highlight the White Balance option, click right and highlight the Auto option. Keep clicking right until you enter a menu with a color grid for adjusting G/M/A/B (Green/Magenta and Amber/Blue) settings. Try bumping the Amber a little, maybe with a touch of Magenta as well, and see if that better replicates what you're used to seeing with your Canon. Or you can use a WB card when shooting or simply keep adjusting things to taste when you post-process.
 

eriMansori

Senior Member
Nikon and Canon do, in my experience, interpret white balance differently. Canon tends to shoot with an orange/amber bias which many people prefer. If you shoot using the Auto White Balance function on your D600 you can adjust it to replicate the warmer Canon colors by default. If you want to do that, go into the Shooting menu, highlight the White Balance option, click right and highlight the Auto option. Keep clicking right until you enter a menu with a color grid for adjusting G/M/A/B (Green/Magenta and Amber/Blue) settings. Try bumping the Amber a little, maybe with a touch of Magenta as well, and see if that better replicates what you're used to seeing with your Canon. Or you can use a WB card when shooting or simply keep adjusting things to taste when you post-process.

Cool! It’s really helpful, thank you very much


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hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I've heard many complaints for this very reason by former Canon users who switched to Nikon. Nikon does seem to be more towards the blues and greens like Paul (Horoscope Fish) indicated.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I've heard many complaints for this very reason by former Canon users who switched to Nikon. Nikon does seem to be more towards the blues and greens like Paul (Horoscope Fish) indicated.
Yup... I've heard those same complaints myself. I don't know if it's Nikon shooting with "too much" blue/green, Canon shooting with "too much" red/yellow or something else entirely but, generally speaking, people tend to gravitate toward warmer tones which is in Canon's favor. Nikon's blue/green bias always made shots look "muddy" to me.

With the exception of my D850 (which seems to be nailing skin-tones like a boss) I've always bumped the Amber (warmth) and the Magenta (skin tone) AWB settings.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Yup... I've heard those same complaints myself. I don't know if it's Nikon shooting with "too much" blue/green, Canon shooting with "too much" red/yellow or something else entirely but, generally speaking, people tend to gravitate toward warmer tones which is in Canon's favor. Nikon's blue/green bias always made shots look "muddy" to me.

With the exception of my D850 (which seems to be nailing skin-tones like a boss) I've always bumped the Amber (warmth) and the Magenta (skin tone) AWB settings.

I always have to override my white balance in Camera RAW. For many of my landscape images, sometimes the mauve slider is at +30 to compensate for the overly green tones. And the blue/amber slider is moved to the right a little as well.
 
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