Technique Question about White Balance

White Balance to me is, by far, the most intriguing, confusing, and often times, frustrating photography experience. I know these questions sound stupid to some of you (heck, I might even ask for a picture of something) and I may be thought of an idiot here in POTN, but who cares? As long as I get the answers that I needed to know, I'm a happy camper. These are the things that I can't quite sink my teeth in:

1) What is an example of Tungsten light? (picture of a Tungsten light)

2) What is an example of Fluorescent light? (picture please)

3) What is Incandescent light and give me an example/picture please?

4) If I'm in a Tungsten or Fluorescent or Incandescent lighting environment, and let's say I'm not going to use a flash, off-cam or otherwise, so meaning I'm going to shoot using available light, should I use a WB setting that corresponds to the given lighting condition/environment? If I'm in a Fluorescent light, should I use Fluorescent WB?

5) Likewise, if I'm outside in sunny condition or let's say I'm outside but in the Shade, do I set my WB according to the light condition that I'm in? Set WB to SHADE if I'm in the Shade?

There are 2 reasons why I asked this and why I'm really starting to get frustrated about WB.

1) It is that I wanted to step out of the comfort zone that Automatic WB is giving me. I know AWB is oftentimes correct, but I really wanted to know how to set the WB myself.

2) There is one time I attended a friend's party. The lights there are a little bluish. So I (blindly - guesstimating) set the WB to Fluorescent and took pictures but MY OH MY, my pictures turned out to be so BLUE. And every time I shoot outside and (knowing that for people photography, warm photos are more pleasing to the eye) set my WB to Shade, for instance, my pictures are so warm you can incubate an egg there.

So what am I doing wrong? Please tell me the secret path to the Perfect White Balance.

Canonboi wrote in post #8762284
So what am I doing wrong? Please tell me the secret path to the Perfect White Balance.

Digital cameras should have custom white balance settings. Find a white item, piece of paper or cloth, get a picture of that and use it to set white balance.

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1. AFAIK Tungsten refers to standard bulb, car stock headlight, down-light, or anything with yellow-ish colored light
2. Fluorescent refers to neons, LEDs, anything with white or cream colored light.
3. I rarely use this...
4. and 5. What i do normally is expose for the dominant scene, for example of number 4, shade will gives you cooler scene and daylight will give you warmer scene, same applies to number 5 too, what works for me is that I have a small piece of paper with the temperature of each, so you can manually adjust as you see fit - easier way though is to carry a white card or grey card, guaranteed your WB will be perfect each time.

The camera's AWB isn't the most accurate representation of all lighting conditions. Then again, the individual white balance settings aren't always perfect either; however, might be the best option. Take a look at the link in my signature re: white balance.

Tungsten=incandescent.

Hi. +1 for what's been said. Mid-day light outside for photos is often a bit 'cold', so a way of warming up your images without the need for filters etc is to change the white balance from Sunny to Cloudy. Use Incandescent in candlelight which is very yellow. In mixed lighting - daylight in the window, fluourscent strip lights and a tungsten table lamp, for instance, I'd usually opt for 'auto' unless I want to do a custom. If your camera shoots RAW images, you may find it best to use that as you can adjust the white balance afterwards without degrading the image. Alternatively, you can change a .jpg using software like Photoshop.

DC Fan wrote in post #8762927
Digital cameras should have custom white balance settings. Find a white item, piece of paper or cloth, get a picture of that and use it to set white balance.

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Indoor stadium lighting with a XTi's automatic white balance.

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Indoor stadium lighting after custom white balance is applied. Just as simple and far more accurate than white balance presets.

Where will I shoot the paper or cloth? In the same lighting condition where I will shoot the my pictures? For ex, if I'll shoot at Tungsten (yellowish) lighting, I'll shoot the paper/cloth in there and use it as the WB?

Canonboi wrote in post #8763753
Where will I shoot the paper or cloth? In the same lighting condition where I will shoot the my pictures? For ex, if I'll shoot at Tungsten (yellowish) lighting, I'll shoot the paper/cloth in there and use it as the WB?

Yes, you will shoot the white/gray paper in the same lighting you're in and then set the camera to Custom WB. Then when it asks which image you want to use to set your Custom WB, use the image of the white/gray sheet.

DC Fan wrote in post #8762927
Digital cameras should have custom white balance settings. Find a white item, piece of paper or cloth, get a picture of that and use it to set white balance.

| Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Indoor stadium lighting with a XTi's automatic white balance.

| Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Indoor stadium lighting after custom white balance is applied. Just as simple and far more accurate than white balance presets.

asysin2leads wrote in post #8763967
Yes, you will shoot the white/gray paper in the same lighting you're in and then set the camera to Custom WB. Then when it asks which image you want to use to set your Custom WB, use the image of the white/gray sheet.

Thank you so much for a very helpful advice, asysin2leads.

asysin2leads wrote in post #8763967
Yes, you will shoot the white/gray paper in the same lighting you're in and then set the camera to Custom WB. Then when it asks which image you want to use to set your Custom WB, use the image of the white/gray sheet.

Is there a difference between using the grey or the white paper or card? Why and when should I use the grey paper/card to set the custom white balance? Why and when should I use the white paper/card?

They sell kits to set the custom white balance and I am not too sure why they sell these kits with a black, grey and white cards. Also, what is so special about the grey color in these kits? Can I just paint a piece of cardboard with grey spray paint and use that instead?

ergonzalez wrote in post #9214082
Is there a difference between using the grey or the white paper or card? Why and when should I use the grey paper/card to set the custom white balance? Why and when should I use the white paper/card?

They sell kits to set the custom white balance and I am not too sure why they sell these kits with a black, grey and white cards. Also, what is so special about the grey color in these kits? Can I just paint a piece of cardboard with grey spray paint and use that instead?

What is special with the "kits" is that the grey has been chosen as an entirely neutral grey (no colour bias) ie using colour picker in PS would give the values something like: Red 192 Blue 192 Green 192

Paint picked of a shelf is unlikely to exhibit this relationship which means that a WB taken from it will have a colour bias.

Shoot raw...

ergonzalez wrote in post #9214082
Is there a difference between using the grey or the white paper or card? Why and when should I use the grey paper/card to set the custom white balance? Why and when should I use the white paper/card?

They sell kits to set the custom white balance and I am not too sure why they sell these kits with a black, grey and white cards. Also, what is so special about the grey color in these kits? Can I just paint a piece of cardboard with grey spray paint and use that instead?

First, the gray that is used is 18% gray. Just spraying a card w/ gray spray paint really isn't the same. The cards with black/white/gray, uses the 18% gray for exposure and the black for shadows and the white for highlights.

merlin2375 wrote in post #9214818
Shoot raw...

Agreed!

I've never been afraid to jump in where my knowledge is shakey at best, so here goes . . .

The other day while at Lowe's, I was looking as some of those new funky light bulbs (the "green" bulbs that are environmentally friendly because they use less electricity, but are never as bright as their package claims). Many of them showed a scale on the package of light settings, from roughly 2700 or "warm" through the 3400 range that they called "daylight", and on to the 6700 range, they called "blue". Each bulb package had a pointer on that scale denoting which of these "temperatures" the particular bulb was. I haven't tried it, but could you use these bulbs in a studio-like setting, and set the camera's custom white balance setting to the same number on the bulb package?? Has anyone tried this yet?