flash white balance/confused

I've posted a similar question before but foregive me if I still don't understand. When using flash..do I use the white balance flash? Do I use the white balance that coresponds to the ambient light when using flash? I have looked it up in the manual and can't find anything. I have noticed that when I use the white balance flash indoors the picture is tinted orange. Please help...Thanks!!

Canonxti
kit lens
canon 50mm
tamron 75=300

The presets can work well sometimes (although I've never seen the flash setting work well) but most often setting a custom white balance will always be best. If you can't set a custom white balance then find a setting or color temperature that gets you as close as possible.

I would suggest using AWB, shooting in RAW, then tuning it while PP. Or, if you are going to be taking a lot of picures in the same lighting, use the custom white balance setting by shooting a 18% grey card and setting it that way. This linkshould help out; check out lesson 5; TTL Indoors. It's more about flash, but helps with CWB too. The whole tutorial is helpful, the CWB stuff is at the end. Also, look in your manual to learn how to set the CWB in the camera.

I have to disagree. Using Auto White Balance will give you the least consistent results. You don't want the camera constantly adjusting white balance. That makes it much harder in post. At least if you have a preset or color temperature selected you could then correct all the images a a batch. If you use AWB then the 'fix' is not the same and will result in more time spent in post, adjusting each image or series of images. That's more work and less fun.

TMR Design wrote in post #4445841
Using Auto White Balance will give you the least consistent results.

That part is true, but I don't concur with the rest of your post, at least in the context of a RAW workflow.

You adjust the WB on one shot, select the rest of the shots in the group and sync them. It only takes a few clicks and it makes no difference how consistent they were to start. That's part of the beauty of RAW.

I use AWB most of the time, just to give me something realistic on the camera LCD. It has no bearing on the workflow, nor the final output.

To the OP: This is most likely caused by the tunsgten ambient lighting. Basically your options are: 1) Use a fast shutter speed (1/200) to minimize the ambient light, or 2) Use a CTO gel on your flash to match the color temp of the ambient, and adjust your white balance for the tungsten.

Curtis N wrote in post #4445981
That part is true, but I don't concur with the rest of your post, at least in the context of a RAW workflow.

You adjust the WB on one shot, select the rest of the shots in the group and sync them. It only takes a few clicks and it makes no difference how consistent they were to start. That's part of the beauty of RAW.

That sort of contradicts itself to me.

If AWB is least consistent (which it is) then so will your corrected RAW files be, if only using one for a reference.

I prefer CWB and still include a reference for back-up.

Edit: There is two ways of looking at this (after reading over)
If the light source is constant, then yes AWB wont have an effect when correcting in Raw workflow.

steveathome wrote in post #4446054
If AWB is least consistent (which it is) then so will your corrected RAW files be, if only using one for a reference.

The camera's white balance setting merely affects the embedded JPEG and serves as a default starting point for the RAW conversion software. It doesn't affect the RAW data.

With RAW conversion software, you can set the white balance any way you like. You can adjust individual shots, or you can synchronize a group of shots to set the same white balance for all of them. In this process, the "as shot" data is replaced with your selected values for color temperature and tint. So it doesn't matter if the "as shot" values were equal or not.

You could take five shots on AWB, five shots on Shade WB and five shots on Tungsten WB. They'll look different initially. But when you sync them, they'll all look the same (assuming they were all shot under the same lighting).

Thanks Curtis. I was thinking that the RAW data was affected.

Just as an added note, if you are using the 580EX and the 430EX flash units, setting the WB to AWB or Flash will automatically have the flash communicating the correct WB to the camera.

In any case, the WB should always be set for the flash, not the ambient light, if the flash is your main light.

You may have missed my edit,

You are absolutely right with what you say above, Raw is not affected by any of the WB settings.

But as said in my edit, there is two ways of looking at it, and the light source would need to be constant for raw synchronisation to work.

I think maybe we are on two different lines of thought.

Curtis N wrote in post #4446135
The camera's white balance setting merely affects the embedded JPEG and serves as a default starting point for the RAW conversion software. It doesn't affect the RAW data.

With RAW conversion software, you can set the white balance any way you like. You can adjust individual shots, or you can synchronize a group of shots to set the same white balance for all of them. In this process, the "as shot" data is replaced with your selected values for color temperature and tint. So it doesn't matter if the "as shot" values were equal or not.

You could take five shots on AWB, five shots on Shade WB and five shots on Tungsten WB. They'll look different initially. But when you sync them, they'll all look the same (assuming they were all shot under the same lighting).

This is good to know, as I faced a similar issue and was told the AWB setting was the culprit (studio shots, nothing changing, but different color temps). I thought maybe you could adjust all files, regardless of WB, to the same WB, but I wasn't positive. To be honest, I don't think I've ever processed a set of files at once. Who needs consistency, eh?

To OP - if you want consistent results on the camera's LCD, don't use AWB.

Ok so what you are saying is that RAW is what it is and when you choose to view the image it displays itself to you using your setting as reference? So i can shoot everything in X and convert it to Y later and I will see no difference in quality if i shot it in Y to begin with?

steveathome wrote in post #4446265
the light source would need to be constant for raw synchronisation to work.

Agreed.

Right. It all depends on how much post work you're willing to deal with. You can use custom WB and attempt to get it right in camera or wait until post. It won't affect the IQ if you're doing this as part of your RAW workflow.

whiskaz wrote in post #4446347
Right. It all depends on how much post work you're willing to deal with. You can use custom WB and attempt to get it right in camera or wait until post. It won't affect the IQ if you're doing this as part of your RAW workflow.

If you want the WB to be the most accurate, then custom white balance is the way to go. Otherwise, matching WB in post what you would have gotten with CWB is going to be very difficult unless you get lucky.