Auto White Balance

[Pehpsi]

Hey. Got a few examples here.

Most shots during the day came out like this one when set on Auto:

5264 K, Tint -13



This one I adjusted manually:

4898 K, Tint 4



What you reckon? Does the adjusted version seem good?

The reason I ask is that I always leave WB on Auto and mostly always have, but I would like to get it right in-camera from now on, and want to learn the way of the WB.

Cheers.

[Yi-P]

Both looks ok to me.

First one is tad bit warmer, but its still good.

Second one seem to have a tiny over blue tones. But its not something that I would mind.

Your subject (the yellow car) is more 'standing out' in the first one I think.

[AndyL]

I have been through the same. My current fix is a 6x4 Kodak grey card in my hip pocket or hanging from my neck. A few seconds to set a pre-set is worth the effort as a huge time saver in post processing - I have a lousy eye for WB in post.
There are still times I shoot auto as a matter of expedience as it is not always possible to do a pre-set.

Cheers

[Pehpsi]

Thanks for the insight.

I have never set WB with a card before.. Guess I better go and do some reading.. Back soon.

[devilla101]

I don't mind both but im always a bit more biased to blue. So yeah, second one is a winner for me

[Pehpsi]

Yeah same here, I think I prefer a fraction more blue in my pics.

[Pa]

there's not much difference in the two.....my learning is towards the first, the subject appears a little more vibrant

[AndyL]

Yeah same here, I think I prefer a fraction more blue in my pics.

FWIW, It is also easier to tweak to taste if it is right out of the camera. Also, I find that the D70 can be quite variable. Recently I posted a sequence of two bulls sorting it out where the shots were taken over ~20s and the variation of auto WB was something around 300K. The D70 WB seems to perform best between 4000K and 6000K. Get out of that range and it seems to go to hell.

[seeto.centric]

red lights and gig environment seems to make it go nuts on me..
99th degree burns on people's skin

-j

[Pehpsi]

Yeah it's a bit weird. And red lights = Evil on the D70!

[kiwi]

I use a WhiBal card, but, don't set camera on auto if you intend to use a card to take a sample photo that you can use to adjust in PP. Much better to set WB to the closest preset (eg cloudy). AutoWB will obviously change all the time as lighting/exposure changes.

Does that make sense ?

[phoenix]

I'm the opposite to some here. I like the first one because it seems a tad warmer to me than the blue one. I'm not usually a fan of the blue for a lot of stuff. But both are really nice shots!

[methd]

Also consider that the 'correct' WB is not always the best. It's entirely up to you what you want and like in -your- photograph... so leave it at that

[Matt. K]

I don't recommend auto WB at any time because if you take 60 shots of a subject every single frame can have a different WB. How do you then make a global correction to 60 pics? Best is to do a pretest off a Kodak grey card or shoot it all on sunny and finetune as a batch process.

[Viz]

I don't recommend auto WB at any time because if you take 60 shots of a subject every single frame can have a different WB. How do you then make a global correction to 60 pics? Best is to do a pretest off a Kodak grey card or shoot it all on sunny and finetune as a batch process.

Also consider that the 'correct' WB is not always the best. It's entirely up to you what you want and like in -your- photograph... so leave it at that

You can neutralise/rectify MOST WB situations in PP with a simple curve adjustment on either the Y channel in CMYK or B channel in RGB - really. I think that Matt K's method of daylight is good as a last resort esp if RAW, though JPG, greycard all the way!!!.

[Pehpsi]

Good to hear all your thoughts. I think I'm gonna stick with the 2nd image, as the wall which is meant to be white, looks a fraction more white to me. Next time I'm at the strip I'll try dialing in some manual WB numbers..

It's weird how the more time that goes by, the more you care and realise that little things make a big difference in photography. I remember when I first started almost two years ago, thinking that f5 and f16 wouldn't make a difference and nobody would notice it in my landscape shots! This was because I didn't want, or know how to, use the Bulb shutter setting.. Silly me.

[mickeyjuice]

#1 for me - I reckon the yellow looks better, and the second is, as people have said, a bit blue.

I leave my 40D (and my 10D before that) in daylight, always, because then I've got a fixed point of reference for changing the WB if required (and if the lighting is the same across them all).

[digifrog]

expodisc may be your answer, Just pop on front of lens before shooting