Lightroom white balance presets for different HS venues

I had an idea just a few minutes ago to help speed my Lightroom PP workflow and wanted to run it past my fellow sports talk POTNers here.

I shoot high school sports at multiple high schools and was thinking about creating a white balance preset in Lightroom for each individual venue to help speed my workflow. I shoot raw and use auto-white balance, but I still end up having to tweak the white balance a lot of times in PP. I figured that if I took the time to get a good white balance setting for a particular gym, natatorium, etc, then I could just apply that wb to all the pix when importing into Lightroom and it would save some time.

Has anyone else done this at all, and if so, does a single the setting work well over time for a particular venue?

not a bad Idea... I might have to take a look into this! Thanks for the new idea!

The thing is that the color balance of the lighting in typical high school gyms varies through multiple colors per second ... it's always changing, so there's no one "right" setting for a gym to balance to if you're using the available light.

Best to setup strobes and white balance to them for consistent lighting shot after shot.

NickJushchyshyn wrote in post #9303575
The thing is that the color balance of the lighting in typical high school gyms varies through multiple colors per second ... it's always changing, so there's no one "right" setting for a gym to balance to if you're using the available light.

Best to setup strobes and white balance to them for consistent lighting shot after shot.

When I shoot ambient I usually use my calibration target and shoot a sequence of images - this captures the light as it cycles through it colors and then I have multiple images that I can use as the WB for any images I want to print.

canonnoob wrote in post #9303035
not a bad Idea... I might have to take a look into this! Thanks for the new idea!

Thanks, Dave! I'm going to try it this weekend and will let you know how it goes. I have basketball shoots in at least 2 gyms (maybe 3), so it'll be a good opportunity to try it out.

I do that now but also still take a grey card shot at virtually every game just in case. I don't do it with a preset but have a list of the kelvin color temperatures for various gyms, manually adjust the first image then batch update it to the others via Aperture.

The reason I still do the grey card shot is that things can change from game to game at the same gym. Light bulbs go out, get replaced, get older, some get turned off, etc. While the base setting works most of the time, having the card shot is a good safety backup.

Yes, the issue is not getting a good WB at the venue...its that the WB cycles with the lights. A preset wont help with that.

NickJushchyshyn wrote in post #9303575
The thing is that the color balance of the lighting in typical high school gyms varies through multiple colors per second ... it's always changing, so there's no one "right" setting for a gym to balance to if you're using the available light.

Best to setup strobes and white balance to them for consistent lighting shot after shot.

I agree, I get 3-5 different WB settings per game at the same gym. Unless I'm using strobes, that is.

For sure---strobes fix all the WB, high ISO, blah color issues

eigga wrote in post #9305733
Yes, the issue is not getting a good WB at the venue...its that the WB cycles with the lights. A preset wont help with that.

Yep, I know the lights cycle which gives a different WB for each shot (color temp and tint varies). My point is that if you find a good absolute setting for the temp and tint, then you would apply it to all the photos in the series, eliminating the shot-shot variation.

I agree with Kevin (BigK) that over time you could have slight variations due to lights being replaced, etc. But that would be more the exception than the rule and you would just update your preset accordingly.

It sure has to be worth a try to save time. At least you will have some settings that are closer than what you started with. Hope it works. I find that lighting of course is so different at one end of the gyms where I shoot than the other. I try to find a setting in Lightroom and cut and paste the settings until the scenes change from one end to the other. It is such a devil to deal with. I have tried using an ExpoDisc to deal with the issues, and I can not tell any appreciable difference because of the lighting, and I try to shoot with a fast enough lens to shoot without flash.