Need white balance help/feedback please!

I cannot seem to get the white balance correct on camera and can never tell about it in post. I have warmed these up quite a bit but hubby says she still looks to cool/pale. I am shooting with a 50D.

Another one!

They look warm enough to me. I see a bit of a green tint in #2

Just like mentioned before, there is a green cast to them more so on the second photo. The other two photos, the well exposed parts of the face look ok but I can still seeing some of that greencast in the shadows of her face as well. Do you have a grey card? Would make PP easier when editing them later on.

I think the white balance might not be off. The green cast is color spilling from the foliage.

Sometimes you have to go beyond white balance and adjist the color tones.

Thanks guys! Tried a quick edit with color tones. Is this any better? I have sooo much to learn with this camera. I have yet to figure out how to expose for a certain point in the image so I often end up with either a dark face or overexposed face which is a pain to try to fix in camera.

I don't have a gray card but can you explain how it would help! I can definitely get one!

melissaandkris wrote in post #17617442
I don't have a gray card but can you explain how it would help! I can definitely get one!

A gray card can be used 2 ways. The first is to tske a photo of it on the light you are working with and using that to set a custom white balance. You can also include the white card in a test shot and use the eyedropper function in your raw conversion software (DPP, Lightroom, or bridge) to get a precise white balance. It shoukd be noted that an accurate white balance isnt necessarily a pleasing one.

Do you shoot in RAW? if not, please try it. Adobe Camera RAW makes attaining white balance simple.

Either shoot a target (such as a WhiBal Card) with each lighting change and use the white balance eye dropper in ACR to get a correct balance by clicking on the card OR select a neutral color Gray or White within the image (like the white roses on the girls dress) and use the eyedropper tool on that image. Have all images shot in that lighting situation selected when you use the eye dropper tool.

However, "correct" white balance is not always the "best" white balance. I tend to go a bit towards the warmer balance with people's faces.

I also like using NIK Software Viveza for attaining correct color. I can selectively modify areas in my images.

This is often handy when I am shooting a white dog on a colored pillow or throw. Some colors (especially the reds) reflect up onto the dogs coat. Viveza allows me to select areas using the NIK control point system and then adjust the colors individually.

There appears to have been a lot of green foliage around the little girl. The green in her face might have been reflections off the foliage.

How was your white balance in the Canon 50D set up for that shot. I almost always use auto color balance, shoot in RAW and take care of my colors in post processing...

You will see this green color cast in the shadows if the photo is very underexposed and you lighten it during editing. Expecially in the shadows.

The way I would correct this one is to use Photoshop and colorbalance. Set to shadows, move the magenta green slider a little toward the magenta. Or you could try selective color layer and decrease the green with that area selected. I don't believe it is from a reflection from the foliage since it is only in the shadowed area of ther face. I don't know what your experience level is but I had this all the time when I was a newbie and underexposed my images and didnt shoot raw.

I don't shoot RAW but really need to learn! I will take her out again when the weather is better and try it. It was pretty under exposed to start with. Here is the original and what shows up as EXIF. I am editing with a VERY old version of paint shop pro and haven't figured out RAW with it. I have never tried just editing with the software that came with the camera but will try that and RAW next. I really appreciate all the help. I feel like I shot better with my old S5IS b/c I haven't learned this camera well.

I'm just a newb myself trying to learn, and this probably doesn't do anything for the color cast but I would...

Go to manual mode and take control of your camera. Use the bar graph in the viewfinder/lcd to adjust your exposure. On the bar graph maybe put the highlighted bar a notch to the right of center (semi-"expose to the right"), this will help stop underexposure. Turn "blinkies"/"highlight alert" on in your camera. This will show areas that are blown out/overexposed in image review on your LCD screen. If you see an area in the image blinking that is important to the scene then lower the exposure by increasing the shutter speed or go decrease the aperture opening by adjusting to a larger f-stop number.

From your image information:

*Drop your ISO down to 100-200...shooting at ISO-1000 isn't needed for these shots and very possibly adds noise to the shadows.

*Lower your shutter speed down a good bit...normally keep your shutter speed at 1x to 2x the length of your lens. For your 50mm lens you could set the shutter at 1/60sec and get decent results...better would be 1/125sec. Those speeds will take care of camera shake. To stop blur caused from subject movement you have to adjust accordingly for the speed of the subject. For your pretty subject probably 1/250sec would have been sufficient. 1/8000sec is *really fast*!! Having said all that about shutter speeds....don't go so low that you do introduce camera shake, the 1/125sec should handle most any camera shake you might encounter with the 50mm lens.


Just thought I mention those items, but I'm probably singing to the choir.

You have a great model to work with!!!!!
Keep shooting and best wishes,
Ed

You're right! 1/8000 sec + ISO 1000 + exposure bias of -0.3? Where did you come up with those numbers?
Have you read about the Exposure Triangle?
http://www.shutterstoc​k.com …hutter-speed-and-aperture

Then you should learn how to meter & set the parameters in the camera so that you start out with a good image.
First, this what the camera's meter is doing on the Av & Tv modes: Post #47
Most of the time, that would drive me a little nuts trying to keep up with exposure compensation. What do I use?

Gray cards are nice to have, but I have 3 from the film days, & haven't carried one since I found this reasonable substitute for a gray card: Need an exposure crutch?
Is it perfect? No, & the "measurebaters" here will be happy to tell you so. But it will get you VERY close, & for most people shooting RAW as you do, it will be just fine

The other thing to do is switch your metering mode. It shows that you are shooting pattern. Switch this to spot where it only evaulutes from the center pt. in the camera. and use this to take readings from her face / or wherever you want exposed correctly. This will tell you or if shooting in manual what best to pick for exposing her face correctly and in AV/TV mode will set the camera to expose for it. Pattern takes all the data across the whole camera and makes compromises to try and get the best exposure for everything. To change metering the stick button can be pushed in for a second or two and it gives you access to the controls on the display screen. Move it down to metering box and select the icon with a dot in the middle or spot metering. A photo like this Center weighted would work as well.

White balance in lightroom is def easier in raw format to adjust as well as almost all the other controls for exposure in such. RAW simply gives you more detail in how it saves the file to work with.

Best of Luck