Auto WB or specific setting?

gjl711 wrote in post #18855792
Start with one of these in you camera bag. .

Thanks...that looks great. I have ordered one.

For other Canadians interested in this, make sure you get it from amazon.com and not Amazon.ca

On our Canadian site the same item (but from a different vendor) costs CA$30 vs the USA sites $7.50. Talk about gouging!

You can set white balance by using plastic from a milk carton or transparent white plastic. I picked up a white balance cap but did test a home made version just for fun. I found that method on the web many years ago. A proper device would be better.

https://www.howtogeek.​com …with-a-white-balance-cap/

I read that one of the grey/translucent Pringle’s crisps lids worked well.

I have been on the lookout for one but we have only had the clear transparent ones around here and also the diameter is too small for most of my lenses.

This grey card/WB talk is very interesting. Thanks for all the comments.

In the field, what is the actual procedure for using a grey card (or similar)? I suppose I can YouTube it but thought I would ask here first.

Gregsiem wrote in post #18856478
I read that one of the grey/translucent Pringle’s crisps lids worked well.

I have been on the lookout for one but we have only had the clear transparent ones around here and also the diameter is too small for most of my lenses.

Yes the Pringlel's lid was another.

The stadium lights often give a distinct greenish tint to things. A good video editing program would allow you to correct for color balance and tint, and drop contrast a bit while brightening the shadow areas, like this...

That is a very nice improvement!

I use Auto WB and then correct by eye ... unless I'm on a paid shoot that involves a product or person, then I still shoot Auto but I take WB Test Shots using a calibration tool so that I can quickly pinpoint the WB later.

I have a challenge for you WB enthusiasts. This photo was taken in a bar during a Christmas gig for my brother-in-law's band. It's one of the best photos I have of my niece and her 2 oldest sons (I suck hugely at portrait photography, so I'm always a bit surprised when I get a "people" shot that works a little). The lighting was a random mix of fluorescent, incandescent, and neon. Then add in that necklace of Christmas light around her neck and you have a situation which is only resolvable by lots of picky editing, which I don't do much of anyway, or by just shrugging and letting it be. In this case, the weird lighting is a key to the story, so it isn't necessarily a bad thing. The second shot shows more clearly the difficulty. I can play with tint and WB til the cows come home and it doesn't get any better. (Yes, I blurred the background in PSE because it was unbearably busy.)

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …/i-7QsjfZm-M.jpg&lb=1&s=A

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …/i-RfkwkWK-M.jpg&lb=1&s=A

Tom Reichner wrote in post #18855993
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I have often experienced the very thing that you speak of. . But I always thought of that as a tint issue, not really a white balance issue. . Even when you get the color temperature perfect, colors can still look really weird, because there is more to color than the temperature.

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I agree with this.

Color temperature most correctly describes the light from a black body radiator. Incandescent lights and the sun are very good approximations of black bodies, as well as heated metals and xenon arc lamps.
Reflected light, I would generally consider a "tint". Our modern light sources (LEDs, LASERs, vapor lamps) don't emit light via thermal radiation so a white balance has less meaning for these sources.

Preeb wrote in post #18864134
The second shot shows more clearly the difficulty. I can play with tint and WB til the cows come home and it doesn't get any better. (Yes, I blurred the background in PSE because it was unbearably busy.)

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …/i-RfkwkWK-M.jpg&lb=1&s=A on Smugmug

Artistically speaking, that white balance is not a problem.

The basic lighting is probably tungsten--set the camera to that and let the lighting designer's intention work its own art.

Edit: Except for three-color LEDs, which just basically suck and there's nothing you can do about that.

I use Auto WB and shoot in RAW