do you use a white balance?

rocketman122

Senior Member
no card ever. white balance is manually set in camera. I used to shoot in auto. today its tweaked manually usually between 4300-5300 depending on where and the time.
 

J-see

Senior Member
I always shoot auto-WB. The D750 and D810 are pretty good at getting it right. Those cases when it isn't, I use post to correct it. Usually it's not hard to get it right in post but there are times it is. Especially when doing night photography.
 

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
At times use a white card to create a custom white balance and have used a table cloth. My white card is nothing special just a white piece of cardboard. In the d5100 have a custom balance for an indoor location I shot quite often. The lighting there is poor and it helps considerably. Outdoors generally use auto, direct sunlight or cloudy presets. In post (don't use light room) I will adjust as needed . Use spot quite often.
 

Felisek

Senior Member
I always shoot auto-WB. The D750 and D810 are pretty good at getting it right. Those cases when it isn't, I use post to correct it. Usually it's not hard to get it right in post but there are times it is. Especially when doing night photography.

Same here. I generally like D7100's auto-WB. Occasionally I warm it up a little in ACR, as the Nikon's setting is slightly too cold for my liking.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
should have said a white balance card

or do you use LR to adjust your WB?

if LR custom, as shot or auto?
I don't use a WB card as often as I should but it sure helps nail things down when correcting color. I use the WB Tool in Adobe Camera RAW rather than a default setting like Auto or As Shot although if I'm in a hurry, and one those looks like it's giving me an acceptable result, I'll go with it. While correcting WB is a good first step, color correction is about a whole lot more than just WB.

....
I use X-rite's ColorChecker for in-door stuff...I have created camera profiles for my cameras with it for outdoors...
I have an X-Rite Color Checker Passport and it's fantastic. It makes color correction soooo much faster and the results are spot on. My only problem is I tend to forget to take it with me. In fact your post reminded me of this very fact and just went and pulled the Passport out of my bag. I'm going to try and get into the habit of using it regularly. So thank you for that!
....
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Paul... be sure to get Xrite's DNGProfileManager program off their web site... I don't think it installs with the regular colorchecker plug-in but is a separate stand alone program...
 

10 Gauge

Senior Member
I have found my D750 to be extremely accurate using Auto WB. I only usually need to touch the WB in post if I am looking to add some kind of dramatic effect or the off chance that the camera didn't quite get it right (which is super rare).
 

wombat

Senior Member
WOW, I did not expect that many replies, thanks guys, mine is set in D800 to auto, nothing wrong with shots just wondering what difference it would make, I will have to do some test shots.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
I always use a white card for anything serious, like maybe portraits that I want to be correct, but I normally don't bother for routine snapshots, less important stuff. Not that it does not get attention then, WB always needs attention, but it is harder to explain. Since I shoot raw, I do set Auto WB (rather than to bother matching it better), so that the image on the camera rear LCD and the histogram are halfway right. But Auto is only halfway right, and then I work on it in Adobe raw (I don't ever actually use the Auto WB). Sunshine is not hard about WB, and usually regular Daylight or Cloudy is usually fairly close enough (less so flash), at least for starters. For indoor ambient or other tricky stuff, there are tricks, but it becomes easy soon. In lieu of the white card (which is always better), there are often white "things" in the scene, paper or signs or dishes or tablecloths or shirts or church steeples, naturally there that will get it near right. They do vary of course, but things intended pure white, not off white. And for those that don't have anything white, often the same session and lighting has a picture that does, which can be used for all in the same light.

Some examples at Easy White Balance Correction, with or without Raw

I would have to advise that we really don't even realize the white balance is off, until we see it made right. We learn to seriously appreciate correct white balance.
 

T-Man

Senior Member
ExpoDisk.

Easier to use and a more accurate method than using a WB card, because the WB card method accuracy is somewhat dependent on dominant light angle relative to the card.

With the ExpoDisk, simply press the WB button until "PRE" blinks on the LED, snap the ExpoDisk over the end of the lens, aim in the general direction of the lighting conditions affecting your subject, press the shutter button, and when "GOOD" blinks on the LED, WB is set perfectly.

When you change to a different lighting situation, it only takes a few seconds to reset a custom WB for the conditions with the ExpoDisk, and it doesn't take up much room in your camera bag.

IMO, of the available options, the ExpoDisk is the most accurate way to get WB correct in-camera.
 

wombat

Senior Member
ExpoDisk.

Easier to use and a more accurate method than using a WB card, because the WB card method accuracy is somewhat dependent on dominant light angle relative to the card.

With the ExpoDisk, simply press the WB button until "PRE" blinks on the LED, snap the ExpoDisk over the end of the lens, aim in the general direction of the lighting conditions affecting your subject, press the shutter button, and when "GOOD" blinks on the LED, WB is set perfectly.

When you change to a different lighting situation, it only takes a few seconds to reset a custom WB for the conditions with the ExpoDisk, and it doesn't take up much room in your camera bag.

IMO, of the available options, the ExpoDisk is the most accurate way to get WB correct in-camera.

T-Man, I just ordered a 77mm ExpDisc, from Victoria $65 + $10 express shipping
 

Schnick

Senior Member
I keep my camera set to Auto-WB at the moment. I'm not experienced enough with everything else to try tweaking that during my shooting (My wife says it takes me long enough already, messing with WB will just get her more agitated!).

I find Lightroom does a good enough job of correcting it from RAW where I need it anyway...and she doesn't mind as much on an evening when she can watch the TV and I can process my photos.
 

T-Man

Senior Member
T-Man, I just ordered a 77mm ExpDisc, from Victoria $65 + $10 express shipping

Good deal. I left my camera set in AWB until I attended a seminar on portrait photography and lighting last month and learned about the ExpoDisk. The instructor demonstrated how AWB frequently doesn't work right when taking photos in mixed lighting. In every scenario, the instructor proved to us that the ExpoDisk produces more accurate WB a higher % of the time than your camera's AWB.

I think you'll like it. If you have any questions on how to use it, don't hesitate to ask. Once you start using it, I predict you will never go back to using AWB or any othr WB modes on your camera, unless you want to intentionally skew WB to get some color cast for creative effect. AWB often gets WB wrong, especially on skin tones inside buildings with multiple light sources (such as inside a church) having different Kelvin temps.

Yes, if you shoot in RAW and AWB, you can always just tweak WB in post, but all your colors will be more correct and more vibrant the closer you get WB right in-camera at the onset, and it saves time in PP.
 

T-Man

Senior Member
I keep my camera set to Auto-WB at the moment. I'm not experienced enough with everything else to try tweaking that during my shooting (My wife says it takes me long enough already, messing with WB will just get her more agitated!).

I find Lightroom does a good enough job of correcting it from RAW where I need it anyway...and she doesn't mind as much on an evening when she can watch the TV and I can process my photos.

Actually, that's the advantage of using the ExpoDisk. You don't have to do any guessing at WB during your shooting, and it saves time processing your photos. Once you use the ExpoDisk a couple times, it literally only takes about 10 seconds to set your WB correctly when you change your shooting location.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Not to get too far afield here... but most Nikon cameras that I'm aware of, allow you set a custom WB in the camera based on the current lighting... and all you need is a #2 drip coffee filter with a rubber band... :D
 

T-Man

Senior Member
Not to get too far afield here... but most Nikon cameras that I'm aware of, allow you set a custom WB in the camera based on the current lighting... and all you need is a #2 drip coffee filter with a rubber band... :D

This is true, and you do use your custom WB mode with the Expodisk in the exact same way. However, the ExpoDisk is calibrated for 18% gray and it has pyramid shaped prisms on the front that picks up light from multiple diirections in the scene to get a better average light temp, so it's a much more accurate method.
 
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