White Balance: set it and forget it?

i just watched a photography dvd where the guy said "just set the camera to the cloud white balance and never worry about it again"

does this guy know what hes talking about?

That will only work if you are happy adjusting the WB of your photos in post (except those that were actually taken under cloudy conditions of course.)

360° wrote in post #9824188
i just watched a photography dvd where the guy said "just set the camera to the cloud white balance and never worry about it again"

does this guy know what hes talking about?

That's a pretty strange statement. I, personally, find that cloudy WB gives an image that looks unnatural, even if the scene was cloudy.

Unnatural in that the scene is flat because of the overcast but colors look sorta like there was sun. The scene didn't look like that to my eye and I don't want it looking like that in my image.

I've found AWB works pretty well in daylight, but I still wouldn't say "set to AWB and never worry about it again". AWB works for me in sunlight, overcast, deep shadow (like a forest), even for sunsets. But it sure doesn't work for tungsten lighting. And it usually isn't good for fluorescents, either.

-js

Here's what I'm talking about. This shot is of no particular merit, I was just trigger-happy.

I shot in raw, so I can recreate the WB settings in DPP.

Landscape style, AWB:

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360° wrote in post #9824188
i just watched a photography dvd where the guy said "just set the camera to the cloud white balance and never worry about it again"

does this guy know what hes talking about?

I suspect that the statement was taken somewhat out of context with other things such as always setting up a custom white balance or always shooting in RAW mode and adjusting color in post-processing or something similar.

he just said, set your wb to the cloud and you'll always get warm, inviting photos

360° wrote in post #9825952
he just said, set your wb to the cloud and you'll always get warm, inviting photos

Depends on the light. Cloudy is 6500k according to Lightroom. If the actual light was 5500k, using cloudy will warm it up. If the actual light was 3000k, you'll wind up with oompa loompas. And as shown above, it can make plants look sick. I just leave mine on auto and shoot raw in case I need to adjust it later.

360° wrote in post #9825952
he just said, set your wb to the cloud and you'll always get warm, inviting photos

Was it inferred that the suggestion is supposed to work in all different lighting conditions or just during ordinary daylight conditions?

The reason there are many different WB settings is that there is no one setting that is right for all occasions.

The person making that DVD was taking out of his..... hat

Was it Joe McNally?

If you're a RAW shooter I don't think it makes any difference. I personally shoot mostly AWB, then tweak the color balance in ACR.

Dragos Jianu wrote in post #9882775
If you're a RAW shooter I don't think it makes any difference. I personally shoot mostly AWB, then tweak the color balance in ACR.

This is what I do too. One less thing to worry about while shooting, which is one of the benefits of RAW.

I always leave my camera on AWB and adjust in post. I always like to adjust it anyway to give the shots the feel I am looking for.

JeffreyO wrote in post #9882169
Was it Joe McNally?

I think it's Bryan Peterson. I seem to recall him explaining this in his book "Understanding Exposure". He says he likes the warmer feeling it give his photographs.

I'm in the "Shoot in RAW and adjust in PP" camp. I've found that even with the WB set properly, i.e.; flourescent setting under flourescent lights, I still have to adjust the WB in the RAW editor. If it's set properly it doesn't have to be changed as much, but it always has to be changed. I suppose it's better if it doesn't have to be changed radically, i.e.; from 6500 to 3500, so I still try to remember to set it properly for the conditions so that it only has to be changed from, say, 6500 to 5500.