RAW and WB

I have read some stuff about WB correction and the uses of gels. If I always use RAW do still need to correct WB with gels? when I take a picture and is too yellow or too blue I just use the color temp correction thet comes w DPP
I am doing something wrong or is that ok

The (usual) point of gels is to match colour temperatures between different areas within the same photo. So if the ambient light is quite warm (such as early evening light in summer), you will have a temperature mismatch if you try to add flash to this, since the flash is balanced to roughly midday daylight. Balancing for the ambient will make the flashed region appear very cool; balancing for the flash will make the ambient much too warm.

Even if you shoot in RAW, you will still have this mismatch because two areas of the image have two different temperatures. You could try to correct this in post by compositing images with different WB settings and then masking, but it's much easier just to slap a CTO gel on the flash to balance with the ambient.

So the answer to your question is: yes, you still need gels even if shooting in RAW.

You don't need to use gels.
Yes you can adjust.

Keep it simple.

Shockey wrote in post #12396204
You don't need to use gels.
Yes you can adjust.

Keep it simple.

Please explain how you would easily match regions of highly disparate colour temperature without using gels, even when shooting RAW. If there's an easier way to do it that I'm overlooking, I'd be thrilled; but I don't think there is.

^^Yeah, that. Was half way through a post before I read the second part of edge's response...and that's where I was going

If you are not using flash, you can just adjust later; but having two different temperatures of color will wreak havoc with your processing when you try and balance them out.

I'll just add that if you do not have gels, two approaches can be taken to keep a bit of a balance: either make the flash powerful enough to become the dominant light source, or lower the flash power enough to make the ambient light the dominant light source. Both of those can be tricky, and in some cases neither will work nearly as good as a gel, though.

I tend to do the first one, myself, because the light in our place SUCKS rocks. It works pretty well...but in larger spaces that gets trickier.

The OP didn't mention anything about two different sources of light in one photo creating different areas of color.

He is talking about basic color/white balance correction.

Use of gels indicates Flash usage, which, by default, is a different temperature than other light sources. If you're not using a flash, you're not using gels, either.

But it's good to make that distinction clear. Flash, you may need/want gels; no flash, no gels and just adjust your WB as necessary in post.

Shockey wrote in post #12396917
The OP didn't mention anything about two different sources of light in one photo creating different areas of color.

He is talking about basic color/white balance correction.

Huh??? Why would he be using gels then? Over the lens?

Use of gels implies use of flash.

Of course he using flash.
You don't have to use gels just because you are using flash.

Shockey wrote in post #12397009
Of course he using flash.
You don't have to use gels just because you are using flash.

Yeah, I get that. Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of flash photography gets that.

But that's not the point.

The point is that you wouldn't use gels unless you were using flash, and you wouldn't need to correct for WB if the exposure were purely based on flash, irrespective of whether you were shooting JPEG or RAW (unless you wanted a special effect, of course).

I see no other interpretation of the OP's question other than whether or not gels are required to mix light sources with different colour temperatures. That's the reason we have gels in the first place.

I strongly urge the OP restate the explicity circumstances underlying his/her question, so that the natives quit arguing about what was not well defined in the original question, causing them to assume.

Wilt wrote in post #12397143
I strongly urge the OP restate the explicity circumstances underlying his/her question, so that the natives quit arguing about what was not well defined in the original question, causing them to assume.

Yes guys I was talking about using flash + ambiente light. If I am talking about using gels to correct WB.. Is there any other place where I can use them? In front of the lens? I dont think so... At least I have never In my very short life as photog seen gels in front of lens (except filters when using film for B/W )
So yes using flash

The problem is what edge was saying
sometimes under different light condition and using the flash I have to do a lot of work to correct background and the subject and match the correct balance .Yes is possible to do it but too much work and correction
Thanks guys