Shot RAW but color is off. If theres no white - how do you

[rickm]

I shot a RAW pic using bounced 550EX flash combined with artifical room lighting (various lamps). I used breezebrowser to convert to linear with "auto wb". The faces of the people have a very orange cast to them. My question is how do you correct this when there is no white or grey target present in the photo? I tried guessing with breezebrowser and converting using a wb setting of 4500 and another at 7000. Both look strange in their own way and don't help me head in the right direction. I know everyone says RAW is the best so you can tweak wb, but how do you do it besides guessing the temp in this case?

[DonCoon]

Try 3200 - equals tunsten.

[robertwgross]

What kind of camera?

Correcting white balance after the fact takes a bit of guesswork. Correcting white balance in advance gets the best results.

---Bob Gross---

[ChrisNardone]

I admit ignorance here. I shoot everything in auto then look at the picture in Canon FVU and adjust as neccessary. i.e. daylight, cloudy, flash. Anything I print, I usually adjust the color in PS anyway. I'm still too inexperienced to add another variable into the equation for each shot.

[robertwgross]

Chris, that is the way that I did it first with my D60, when I didn't know any better. That works, but you are trying to match your eyeball view with some guesswork. Fortunately, most of us can judge color better than we can judge intensity.

When I am concentrating on my photography, I will remember to switch from AWB to the correct WB for the light, e.g. flash or tungsten. Lately I have been shooting in a studio with some weird quartz halogen lamps, so I did a custom white balance setting off a target card, and that gets good results.

I agree, when you are in a hurry to shoot, just leave it on AWB and go. Then try to fix it later. If you have the time to set up custom WB first, then you save correction time later on each shot with that same light.

---Bob Gross---

[Rob Larsen]

Rick, if you trust your eye, C1LE gives you a little more flexibility than FVU and BB when adjusting WB. Besides having presets and eyedroppers available, you can visually fine tune by dragging a WB slider and see live changes and the corresponding color temp. The setting you settle on can be saved and applied to multiple images in batch. So, if you have any white targets under the same lighting, you can take your eyedropper reading there and apply it to the other pictures.

Although nailing the WB in camera is best, I also admit to being an AWB junkie....

[MediaMagic]

This won't solve your current problem but to aid in future endeavors...

When I shoot either JPEG or Raw, I now use the Walllace Expodisc Pro... It takes the guesswork out of the equation for me. If you are using jpeg, the pictures are just about perfectly balanced every time out of the camera (the standard settings, daylight, cloudy, tungsten,etc, get you close, setting the temp manually gets you closer, the expodisc gets you dead on every time). If shooting raw, use the test shots to get your WB in C1LE (or whatever conversion program) and then apply that setting to the shots sharing the condition. You should shoot a new test any time the light changes.

This thing fits completely over the lens which makes it basically foolproof (no need to worry about filling the center with the card, wind blowing the card, etc) and if you want to use a filter, you can set your filter on top of the expodisc and get a proper WB for the condition + filter. It doesn't thread in like a filter, but kinda snugs in. With a little practice you can take it from your pocket, attach it, set to manual focus, fire the test shot, put it back in your pocket, set auto focus, and then set the custom WB (for jpeg) to use the test shot on the menu, compose and get your shot in a matter of seconds. That's very nice when shooting during days when clouds roll in and out in a hurry.

The thing is really amazing. It's a hell of a lot more expensive that a standard greycard but to me it's worth it because of the speed, rides easily in a pocket, and it is absolutely accurate.

I use it all the time. It is one of the few products I rate as a 10 without hesitation. Check it out. If you don't mind the cash outlay (72mm $119.95US, 77mm $139.95US), you should be extremely pleased with the result. I am. I purchased the 77mm since that is the largest diameter lens I have, and just hold it over the smaller lenses.

http://www.expodisc.com

Take care,
David

[Butzl]

Whenever you mix different light sources, like flash and tungsten, you cannot expect perfect WB results because the ratios of these light sources differ from one object to the other. You will have in any case some blueish parts and some orangish areas in the picture, no matter how good you balance.
In the future, try not to mix different light sources at equal ratios but go for one or the other main light source and WB for that.

--Jens--

[rickm]

Thanks for the replies. The 3000-3200 setting did seem to improve them. I've known about the expodisc and the trick of throwing a white or grey card somewhere in the scene at the time of the exposure but did neither here. (The expodisc just seems way overpriced for a piece of plastic so I keep waiting for a "deal".)

This particular shot was just a quick candid portrait with mixed lighting and I hoped AWB would take care of it and if not, that RAW would be my savior. I just could not figure out how to choose the temperature during conversion besides using my eyeball.

[robertwgross]

So, what kind of camera was it?

---Bob Gross---

[rickm]

Sorry, I forgot to mention 10D. I just assumed... :)

[MiG82]

BTW, you would have gotten the same results if you had shot JPEG with AWB. The white balance presets in breezebrowser are the same Canon algorithms that the camera uses internally.

[mjordan]

MediaMagic wrote:
This won't solve your current problem but to aid in future endeavors...

When I shoot either JPEG or Raw, I now use the Walllace Expodisc Pro... It takes the guesswork out of the equation for me. If you are using jpeg, the pictures are just about perfectly balanced every time out of the camera (the standard settings, daylight, cloudy, tungsten,etc, get you close, setting the temp manually gets you closer, the expodisc gets you dead on every time). If shooting raw, use the test shots to get your WB in C1LE (or whatever conversion program) and then apply that setting to the shots sharing the condition. You should shoot a new test any time the light changes.



I read that the plastic lid from a Pringle chip can works just as good and is a lot cheaper... plus you get some good chips with it.

I looked at the Expodisc at one time also, and though it sounds neat, it's way over priced for what it does and what it's made out of.

Mike

[MediaMagic]

mjordan wrote:
MediaMagic wrote:
This won't solve your current problem but to aid in future endeavors...

When I shoot either JPEG or Raw, I now use the Walllace Expodisc Pro... It takes the guesswork out of the equation for me. If you are using jpeg, the pictures are just about perfectly balanced every time out of the camera (the standard settings, daylight, cloudy, tungsten,etc, get you close, setting the temp manually gets you closer, the expodisc gets you dead on every time). If shooting raw, use the test shots to get your WB in C1LE (or whatever conversion program) and then apply that setting to the shots sharing the condition. You should shoot a new test any time the light changes.



I read that the plastic lid from a Pringle chip can works just as good and is a lot cheaper... plus you get some good chips with it.

I looked at the Expodisc at one time also, and though it sounds neat, it's way over priced for what it does and what it's made out of.

Mike

LOL! Well darn, I wish I'd have known that before I bought one! I'll have to do a side by side comparison of the Expodisc vs Pringles lid!

It's nothing more than a tool for a job. I was skeptical as hell when I first saw it. Now that I have one and have gotten used to it being an integral part of the workflow, I doubt it could be pried from my dead rigor mortis grip. I love it that much.