Should I create a custom white balance every time I go out to shooting?

Hey All,

Newbie question here.

I use Camera Raw to edit my RAW images. I know that I can change the WB there in post processing. With that said... Should I bother creating a custom WB before any outdoor or indoor photo session of just choose Daylight, Sunny and so on as needed in my Canon XSi?

Thanks,

Erik

setting a WB in when shooting in Raw is only going to give your software a benchmark to start at. You can either choose to modify it or not. one of beauties of shooting RAW is that you dont have to worry about any of those setting, since you are applying them in post at your discretion.

i generally just shoot in auto and let the camera pick a WB and them i can fine tune it.

the better option would be to shoot a gray card in any given lighting condition ad then us the dropper tool to set the WB, you can then batch process that WB to each photo in the session that had similar lighting conditions.

I have never done it. When PP your RAW you can make a change if needed.

I use Auto WB and modify it in RAW post. It's nice to shoot a grey card, but Auto in my 5D2 is excellent.

Auto white balance is one of Canon's strengths. I only set a custom W/B under extreme lighting conditions.

You can use Auto WB for probably 90% of what you do and rarely have to touch it up. Just keep in mind that the more the light deviates from daytime sunlight, then the more likely you will need to change it. For example, should you be shooting a sunrise, then doing a custom WB will help the image. If shhoting a kitchen scene at a party, and the kitchen is lit with flouescent lights, then do custom.

As a newbie, I would suggest you concentration more on exposure and composition initially and let the "auto" function handle the wb.

James P wrote in post #14436314
Auto white balance is one of Canon's strengths. I only set a custom W/B under extreme lighting conditions.

^This

http://www.amazon.com …ance-Filter/dp/B0002GFOSU

This. It's always best to start off with perfect white balance and tweak from there. I never rely on auto white balance. And yes you will notice a significant difference.

Outside you can get away with auto, but its notoriously bad inside. I usually shoot a gray card to use as a calibration tool when I do my raw conversions. Keep in mind an accurate white balance isnt always the best white balance so being able to tweak in the raw conversion is helpful.

Leave it in auto... shoot raw and tweak later. just slows down your shooting when your out shooting. one less thing to worry about.

I like to custom white balance for difficult lighting conditions especially for fluorescent lights and then tweak in post if needed. Otherwise awb is usually good.

I'm just starting to more fully understand custom white balance and have been fighting WB issues since I bought my first point & shoot in 2002 or so. Coming from 35mm, it never dawned on me the odd color renditions were light source related. And that, coming from one with an array of light-source correcting filters for 35mm film! Duh!

So now, I recently switched to RAW+JPG and have learned to set custom WB in the camera using a grey card or my ExpoDisk, whichever is more convenient.

As most of my shooting is done indoors under a wide variety of lighting, some with mixed lights, some with sunlight into an incandescent-lit room, etc, I'm learning by experience to set custom WB for each exposure situation. One small party I shot I had a wall of sun-lit windows on one side, and incandescent lighting on the other. Each of my shooting directions (relative to the windows) was a different WB setting.

I'm also learning to use the WB dropper in Lightroom. As a result, I can now go back and re-do the screwed up WB I had on my (ex-) step-daughters wedding 2 months ago.

For outdoor shots, AWB works fine. Indoors, I'm going to CWB -everything-! I'll be setting it in-camera for the JPGs, and using the dropper for those I edit from RAW. I've been burned too many times in the past to not CWB indoors! Lesson learned the very hard way!

mrgooch wrote in post #14436249
I have never done it. When PP your RAW you can make a change if needed.

Me neither.

The easiest way in Adobe Camera Raw is to shoot one frame with the grey/white card, open all of them in ACR, use the dropper to set white balance on the card shot, and then Synchronize to set the rest. Be sure to clear the "clarity" checkbox which it sets for no reason.

That's what I do with lights. For ordinary landscape, I just set the Kelvin value in ACR based on long experience of having to judge it when choosing filters.

I only use the camera's custom white balance for JPEG. In fact, I have not been able to get ACR to honour the in-camera K setting at all. I can't remember what Canon's idea of shady and cloudy is, and the little icons remind me too much of a Kodak Instamatic, so I've never used those.

Tony Parenti wrote in post #14436453
http://www.amazon.com …ance-Filter/dp/B0002GFOSU

This. It's always best to start off with perfect white balance and tweak from there. I never rely on auto white balance. And yes you will notice a significant difference.

The reviews on this product are all 5 starts. I think I'm gonna try it