White balance issues

Hi all. I was just sorting out some photos and thought I'd ask everyones opinion on this. This photo was taken at 9:30 AM in full sunshine, the air temperature was around 20*C maybe a fraction warmer at a guess.

When I was messing with the white balance in DPP I tried a few variations. Which one do you think is more accurate? These are exactly the same, straight from the camera with any and all flaws, bar a crop and resize to 1024 wide. The only difference is white balance

First one set to "auto" from the camera, it decided.
Second one I set to "daylight"
Third one I set to "cloudy"

Now to me it looks as if the cloudy one looks the closest to accurate, but I'd like some opinions if I can. I need to understand WB a little better I think....

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This is the one set to "cloudy"

P.S That reminds me, I need to reset my camera clock to revert back from daylight savings time

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I would agree that the cloudy gives the "best" result.

Thats probably because the subject is grey (exactly what clouds are) and the setting is supposed to enhance exactly those sorts of colours.

Ahh, good point neil. I was tending to look toward the landing gear being white. In that case the daylight one is better, but the rest of it looks too cold..........is that the word? The top one seems to be too green?

Boy, all three are REALLY close. 3rd looks best on my screen.

dave

Dont get hung up on white balance; look for what is pleasing to you...not what is accurate. For what its worth, the wheel is not the white point of the image...the landing gear strut is actually closer to white than the wheel.

Feka: I actually was refering to the landing gear (the nose gear as it's in the light)
Problem is I get confused sometimes when people post pics on here and C&C given out as "wrong white balance" and in a lot of cases I can't tell for the life of me if it's out or not. So I thought I'd post these with different settings and see how my opinion of what looks the best reflects with others.
My initial thing was even though it was taken in full sunlight, the cloudy setting seems better. Neil had a good explanation, but it also affects the color of the sky in each image.

What do you guys use for WB setting by default? I have always used auto on the 20D i used to use, and now with my 50D. Thing is if cloudy works best for this type of shot, I may change it in the camera next time I go out there if only to save a step in DPP

Silly question, does the actual temperature of the day have any affect on the settings? or are color temp settings referring to the color of the light? I'm not even sure I asked that correctly!! i need to go to WB school 101!

At least my monitor is showing the same tint, as everyone here seems to be voting for #3 looking the nicest.

This thread has nothing to do with the actual shot as such, it's only so I get a better grip on the WB thing for my own benefit, and maybe someone else here too.

It will have an effect on the sky but my opinion is to make sure the main item in the photo (the plane) is correctly WB'd as if you get the main point correct, ost people will barely even notice the background is ever so slightly off.

The only way to get an absolutely true WB is with a Custom WB set in camera but that might not give the best looking image. Often the impact a photo will make can be greatly enhanced by giving it a different WB to the "correct" one.

The "cloudy" setting should actually decrease the blues to some extent - it's designed to correct the greater degree of blue in an image resulting from cloudy compared to clear skies. This results in a "warmer" image, which I think is why your third sample is perceived as preferable to the first two. Using a "shade" WB setting would result in an even warmer image.

pixelbasher-
To answer one of your questions, color temperature refers to the color of light associated with different light sources, which have specific temperatures assigned in the Kelvin scale; the ambient air temperature is irrelevant. For more on white balance take a look at http://www.nikondigita​l.org/articles/white_b​alance.htm

Another good explanation:
http://duncandavidson.​com …perature-and-sensors.html

Try using an ExpoDisc Neutral. All my WB issues went away after I got one!
Oh,and get something to calibrate your monitor.