How To Get Best White Balance?

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Alright, so I'm having some trouble getting great white balance. The preset settings don't seem to be working for me because they're pretty much black and white. It's not always just sunny, not always just cloudy, a lot of the time it's inbetween ya know?

So, how do I get the best white balance? I've tried using custom white balance with a white sheet of paper, but even that is giving me some off results. (mostly outdoors)

I know it can be altered if I shoot raw (which I do) but I don't want to rely on that because right now I can't seem to get my monitor calibrated and I don't trust the colors my screen is showing me. So, I'd like to get it right in the camera.

What do you guys do?

Thanks!

[condyk]

There was a post about this only a week or so ago ...

[Sathi]

Your monitor not being calibrated would be precicely the reason you would want to rely on raw. This way once you get that straightened out you'll be able to achieve the right colour balance. I'v found the 20d's preset WB settings to be a little rough when used outdoors on a cloudy day. Daylight is too blue/undersaturated and the cloudy setting is too red. In fact I find it way to red and tend to just leave it set for sunlight when shooting jpg.

[dhbailey]

I use the 20D's AWB most of the time and find it to be very accurate, except in situations where there are mixtures of lighting.

[AjP]

I shot raw and think about WB later

[gasrocks]

How much luck have you had doing a manual white balance from a white card?

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Gas rocks, not much luck at all! The colors always look funny to me and better with the AWB setting. It seems to work pretty well indoors, but outdoors it's not very effective. I'm guessing it's because the lighting changes so much outdoors... position of the sun, shady areas, bright areas, I'm guessing I'd have to re-do the manual WB every single time I changed location and that's just such a pain.

I've heard of something called Whibal... couple cards that you can carry around? I guess you take a picture of them and in post processing click on them with the dropper or something to get the right white balance. Anyone know about this thing or any alternatives?

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Ok, so I ran a quick test to show the difference between AWB and Custom WB when shooting indoors.

The first shot is AWB and the second shot was shot Custom WB. I held the piece of paper right next to the cage when I took it's pic. BIGGG difference, but it doesn't usually work as well outdoors.

(I know the shots aren't sharp, good, or shot on tripod, but oh well. It was a quicky and get's the point across.:lol:)

[ed2day]

Make sure when you're outdoors in the sun with your white card that the card isn't everexposed (clipped). That will throw your white balance off for sure. Which is why I prefer a grey card. If you fill the frame with the card it shouldn't be a problem. Also make sure your paper is truly white. If it's in the same light as your subject it's hard to see how else it can go wrong. You can add your white (or grey) card in the picture and worry about it afterward (assuming RAW). Use the eyedropper method you referred to...don't need special cards. You can take one picture with the card and one without if you don't want it in the pic or don't want to crop or retouch it.

[rent]

RbrtPtik..., ther are a couple of problems. first your monitor isn't calibrated so that'll kinda throw everything off to begin with. but let's just say you've done adobe gamma and set your LCD up so it gives you relatively decent results, then...

you should really get a white card or grey card (about $15 for a set). this would eliminate any color cast or reflection caused by your "white" paper.

lastly, outdoor scenes are troublesome because where you metered off your card/paper may not be where the scene will be. you should try meter as close to your subject as possible. and not really worry about it too much, because you can always tweak WB later, but then you need a somewhat calibrated monitor.

-alex

[Swanick]

I purchased a calibration target from photo vision for times when I have to hammer the white balance. It has black and gray color on one side for exposure and white on the other side for white balance. It works great with my 10D camera.

[tim]

Custom white ballance with your choice of card is the most accurate way, but shoot on RAW so you can tweak it later if you need to. I never bother with this, auto or auto in photoshop usually do ok, except in challenging situations, then I do it by eye.

[JakeC]

Auto is well and good if you're not too fussed about quality but it's rarely the correct colour temperature nor a very accurate way of managing colour. If white balance is important to you, shoot a neutral white card, exposing it towards the center of your histogram. Make this your custom white balance setting at the start of your shoot, you'll at least have a baseline. If you're shooting a static scene like a landscape or outdoor portraiture just shoot a duplicate frame with the white/grey card in it, this will give you an accurate reference for post process, whether you like to set wb in a raw conversion program or with more control in photoshops curves. If you're shooting action I'd probably just throw the white card on the ground in front of you and take a frame everytime you get the chance. If you've got the CF space it's only digital and if it helps save some headaches in post pro then why not.

Above all else it's probably good just to do a google search and read a little about colour temperature and how it effects the way our cameras and ourselves see the world. Even just doing test shots as you've done will teach you a lot.

You're not alone though, I'm having a really awful time with the XT/350D and it's crazy choice of AWB:(