Need help with consistent white balance?

gustafson

Senior Member
Need help with consistent white balance

I took a bunch of candid outdoor photos of friends a few evenings ago, and after my usual post processing in Photos for MacOS (typically exposure adjustment, and using Skin Tones for white balance), I could tell that the end results were all over the place in terms of white balance. What do you do to ensure consistent white balance in a shoot, either on camera during the shoot, or during post processing? Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Re: Need help with consistent white balance

I took a bunch of candid outdoor photos of friends a few evenings ago, and after my usual post processing in Photos for MacOS (typically exposure adjustment, and using Skin Tones for white balance), I could tell that the end results were all over the place in terms of white balance. What do you do to ensure consistent white balance in a shoot, either on camera during the shoot, or during post processing? Thanks in advance!
I'm not familiar with your software but most applications, such as Lightroom and Photoshop, allow you to select a group of photos, apply a White Balance to one photo in that group and then automatically apply that adjustment to all the photos in the chosen selection.

If your software doesn't allow you to do that kind of batch-processing I think you're looking at copying down what WB settings you want and applying those settings to each photo individually.
...
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Which Camera? What software are you using? Are you using auto, fixed, or custom white balance in the camera? How are you using skin tones to adjust white balance. I have heard of using the whites of the eyes for white balance, but not skin (except visually). Can you post some samples?
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Okay, in looking quickly at "Photos" it does not appear you can batch process with a custom white balance. You can use Auto-Enhance in batch mode, which, by the way, appears to use skin tone for WB correction so that's handy for you since that's what you're doing anyway... Or, while you’re still in the editing view, choose Image > Copy Adjustments (or press Command-Shift-C). Next, switch to the unedited photo and choose Image > Paste Adjustments (or press Command-Shift-V). All the changes you made to the first apply to the second. Not sure you have any other option... Maybe someone who knows Photos better than I do will have a better suggestion.
 

gustafson

Senior Member
Which Camera? What software are you using? Are you using auto, fixed, or custom white balance in the camera? How are you using skin tones to adjust white balance. I have heard of using the whites of the eyes for white balance, but not skin (except visually). Can you post some samples?

Sorry, this was with a D7100 with Auto white balance in-camera. The software I use is Photos for MacOS (default app that comes with the OS). It has three options for tweaking white balance, one of which is based on skin tones. It has a sampling tool to select a skin tone to base the white balance on. I think I just realized the issue with that approach - a few pixels off and you could readjust the white balance across the entire photo. Also, I guess I'm not doing myself favors by using Auto white balance.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
...I guess I'm not doing myself favors by using Auto white balance.

As long as you're shooting raw, there's on problem with using auto white balance. The only time I change out of auto WB is when I'm controlling all light on the scene, or if I want to push a particular look in camera.
 

gustafson

Senior Member
Okay, in looking quickly at "Photos" it does not appear you can batch process with a custom white balance. You can use Auto-Enhance in batch mode, which, by the way, appears to use skin tone for WB correction so that's handy for you since that's what you're doing anyway... Or, while you’re still in the editing view, choose Image > Copy Adjustments (or press Command-Shift-C). Next, switch to the unedited photo and choose Image > Paste Adjustments (or press Command-Shift-V). All the changes you made to the first apply to the second. Not sure you have any other option... Maybe someone who knows Photos better than I do will have a better suggestion.

Thanks for looking into it. Good to know one could Auto Enhance in batch mode! Also, good to know about copying and pasting adjustments - had missed that one. Sounds like I could adjust only white balance first and paste the adjustment (individually, or en made) across all photos in a set before doing other adjustments. Thanks for the pointers!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

gustafson

Senior Member
As long as you're shooting raw, there's on problem with using auto white balance. The only time I change out of auto WB is when I'm controlling all light on the scene, or if I want to push a particular look in camera.

Good to know! I do shoot RAW.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

gustafson

Senior Member
You can use Auto-Enhance in batch mode, which, by the way, appears to use skin tone for WB correction so that's handy for you since that's what you're doing anyway...

I am unable to figure out how to do this on the latest Photos for MacOS. Could you help?
 
Last edited:

Stoshowicz

Senior Member
I'm with you on auto white balance , FACT, ,,the camera is guessing.
Shooting Raw , use daylight only ,and you can pick what else you might like later, I personally , would rather see what the light actually was and make fixes if need be,,
rather than introduce an artificial white balance guess First , and then have to fix that.
If you chimp your photos on scene by looking at the jpeg , you can easily overlook actual real time over-saturation or the skewed real time lighting of particular colors ,
(because the camera is hiding that from you till you get home) .

My gear doesnt seem to let me change the white balance of the jpeg , its locked in , I can change it on the RAW but the raw is not a presentation which matches human eyes,
so if you take a pic of something that has a particular hue or shade of color, like a bird or your wifes eyes , when you get home , your jpeg has skewed color , And the raw doesnt match it automatically!
you have to Imagine what the color once was, bad plan. I suppose one could recreate a jpeg with daylight white balance from the raw file , but why not just have that from the start?
 
Last edited:

Danno

Senior Member
Re: Need help with consistent white balance

I have started using Expodisc to set custom white balance for some locations like my church. It really helps. The church has odd lighting in the sanctuary and a lot of white in other places. It is easy to use and it means less post work.

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk
 

pforsell

Senior Member
The weakness of auto white balance is that it's auto. It works moderately well outside in daylight, but anything more challenging and it trips over.

Consider a wedding in a church. There's incandescent chandeliers in the ceiling, there's clear windows letting daylight in, there's tainted windows letting colored light in, there's candles, there's painted walls and ceilings. If I am shooting the bride & groom at the altar during the ceremony, every time I turn my camera or zoom in or out, the view changes and the camera decides a new AWB. Sometimes wildly off, when a corner of a tainted window with strong backlight gets in the picture, or when a few chandelier bulbs get in.

The net result is that in some images the wedding dress is yellow, orange or pink, in some it is blue, cyan or teal and maybe in some if I'm lucky it's white.

Preset WB for important images, AWB for snapshots.
 

LouCioccio

Senior Member
If the lighting is the same; let's say 6 images then use a grey card or color checker in a test scene image. If the lighting or over all changes repeat. There are several grey cards out there or the color checker card from X rite. They are small enough to carry. AWB like the others says guesses you want to be spot on. I posted some images in d500 forum I used the X rite color checker once for the flashpoint zooms and again when I used the flashpoint studio strobes. Here is an Xrite color checker plus the meter I use to determine proper exposure. If your camera allows CWB Custom White Balance Expos Disc, WhiBal card will work and in tight less expensive emergency the translucent caps from chips or yogurt not the clear but opaque type.
flashpoint_zoom_2_umbrella_1.jpg
 
Last edited:

STM

Senior Member
Skin tones are a very poor choice of source for white balance adjustment because they are infinitely variable when it comes to tone. I am unfamiliar with the program you are using in but in Photoshop the Adjustments tool has a tool to adjust color balance when used with an area in the image that is either white or a neutral gray. This is the area you should find in your image to adjust color balance.
 
Top