White Balance

Ok, here goes boys.....

I took pictures a few weeks ago in an auditorium. The stage lighting was great, however, I notice that the white parts of the picture, such as parts of the background, weren't white, they were more of a off white/light brownish color. I was told this was due to the white balance being off. I've tried to fix it in Adobe PS, but to no avail.

What is it? How do you know what to adjust it to? Thanks!

Well...if you had shot in RAW it'd be easier to fix, but you can fix it in PS. Use levels. Can you post a sample photo and I'll show you what I mean?

While Jim may comment on how to fix it, do you know what caused it? What camera did you use?

If you are in very normal daylight, then you can set most digital camera for Auto White Balance or else Daylight, and it will get it right. In other words, whites will be rendered as whites.

If you are inside, then you might have tungsten lights or fluorescent or something else. If you know which you have, then you can set the White Balance control to be that type. But if you don't know which it is, then you need to do a Custom White Balance. That means set up a pure white card (or gray, but it can't have any color tints at all) into the room light and shoot it filling the frame. Then go through the custom white balance procedure for your camera, which is typically in the menu, and you select that shot of the white card, and then tell the camera that is the white color. Then you move the control to Custom White Balance, and it will modify all future whites to be the same white that you told it was white. Once you leave the room, you can set your camera to Auto or something else, but the camera will remember the Custom setting until you tell it a different one in the future, like in a different room.

---Bob Gross---

Great info Bob, Thanks

One way to correct white balance using levels
- Open your image.
- Use the color sample tool, 3 by 3 Average.
- Place a point in the image that should be white or gray. A light shadow within a white object would be a good selection.
- Let's say the point has color numbers: Red=150, Green =130, Blue=110 (very warm).
- Compute the average of these numbers (e.g. 130) and remember the value.
- Create a levels adjustment layer.
- With the levels dialog open, double click on the middle eyedropper ("Set gray point"). You'll get the Color Picker.
- Type in your value (e.g. 130) in each RGB box. Click OK.
- Click Save in the levels dialog and save these settings in the Color Settings folder as "mylevels.alv" or whatever.
- Close the levels dialog by clicking OK. Click NO when asked "Save the new target colors as default."
If your image doesn't look color balanced, undo everything and start again with another neutral color sample point.

Now continue editing to adjust black point, white point, contrast, saturation, etc.
For other shots in the same lighting, you can load the "mylevels.alv" after opening the levels dialog.
Stage lighting varies a lot during a production. Usually, you can't use one white balance correction for all shots.

Bob Gross & Maderito
I will try those techniques when I get home. Thanks! You guys rock!

RFMSports:
As far as what I shoot with, I have a Digital Rebel, and shot with the 70-200mm F4.0L that day. I would post a picture, however, all my shots are of athletes and I don't know that it would be kosher to just post their picture without their approval. Maybe I'll email you the pic?

I'll let you know how it works out. Much appreciation!

could you blank out the faces?