Huge upgrade in image quality!

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.

Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.

I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

carrie said:

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance
button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.
Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one
with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail
and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not
near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen
in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.
I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white
balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of
people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix
it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

Click to expand...

--
Galleries: http://www.koo22photos.com/-/koo22photos/default.asp

Hi Carrie,

I tested the whitebalance too.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the manual white balance.
I think the fotos have been to yellow.
I am using the auto white balance.

greetings

TM

carrie said:

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance
button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.
Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one
with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail
and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not
near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen
in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.
I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white
balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of
people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix
it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

Click to expand...

T:-)M said:

Hi Carrie,

I tested the whitebalance too.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the manual white balance.

Click to expand...

You are getting yellow with manual one push WB? You'd be amazed at how much a little difference in your WB reference can make a significant difference in your final shot. Even with the same card, just tilting it one way or another can reflect the ambient lighting differently.

T:-)M said:

I think the fotos have been to yellow.
I am using the auto white balance.

greetings

TM

carrie said:

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance
button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.
Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one
with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail
and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not
near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen
in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.
I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white
balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of
people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix
it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
TurboTed

(It's easier just being insane than acting insane)

TurboTed said:

T:-)M said:

Hi Carrie,

I tested the whitebalance too.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the manual white balance.

Click to expand...

You are getting yellow with manual one push WB? You'd be amazed at
how much a little difference in your WB reference can make a
significant difference in your final shot. Even with the same
card, just tilting it one way or another can reflect the ambient
lighting differently.

TurboTed said:

I think the fotos have been to yellow.
I am using the auto white balance.

greetings

TM

carrie said:

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance
button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.
Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one
with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail
and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not
near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen
in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.
I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white
balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of
people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix
it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
TurboTed

(It's easier just being insane than acting insane)

Click to expand...

--

Hi Ted,

What do yo mean by manual one push WB? And how can you really tell when turning the card a little more to change the yellow? in camera. Those fine details are hard to see on the camera.

I did notice it was a little more yellow than I prefer, but that seems like an easier to fix in photoshop, and the end product has alot less CA and more detail.
carrie

carrie said:

TurboTed said:

T:-)M said:

Hi Carrie,

I tested the whitebalance too.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the manual white balance.

Click to expand...

You are getting yellow with manual one push WB? You'd be amazed at
how much a little difference in your WB reference can make a
significant difference in your final shot. Even with the same
card, just tilting it one way or another can reflect the ambient
lighting differently.

carrie said:

I think the fotos have been to yellow.
I am using the auto white balance.

greetings

TM

carrie said:

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance
button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.
Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one
with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail
and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not
near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen
in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.
I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white
balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of
people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix
it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
TurboTed

(It's easier just being insane than acting insane)

Click to expand...

--

Hi Ted,
What do yo mean by manual one push WB? And how can you really tell
when turning the card a little more to change the yellow? in
camera. Those fine details are hard to see on the camera.
I did notice it was a little more yellow than I prefer, but that
seems like an easier to fix in photoshop, and the end product has
alot less CA and more detail.
carrie

Click to expand...

--
Carrie,
Tell us how you are doing the wht bal.
What are you metering off of?
Are you using a gray card?
Tim.

Tim Brennan said:

carrie said:

TurboTed said:

T:-)M said:

Hi Carrie,

I tested the whitebalance too.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the manual white balance.

Click to expand...

You are getting yellow with manual one push WB? You'd be amazed at
how much a little difference in your WB reference can make a
significant difference in your final shot. Even with the same
card, just tilting it one way or another can reflect the ambient
lighting differently.

Tim Brennan said:

I think the fotos have been to yellow.
I am using the auto white balance.

greetings

TM

carrie said:

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance
button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.
Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one
with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail
and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not
near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen
in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.
I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white
balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of
people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix
it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
TurboTed

(It's easier just being insane than acting insane)

Click to expand...

--

Hi Ted,
What do yo mean by manual one push WB? And how can you really tell
when turning the card a little more to change the yellow? in
camera. Those fine details are hard to see on the camera.
I did notice it was a little more yellow than I prefer, but that
seems like an easier to fix in photoshop, and the end product has
alot less CA and more detail.
carrie

Click to expand...

--
Carrie,
Tell us how you are doing the wht bal.
What are you metering off of?
Are you using a gray card?
Tim.

Click to expand...

White balance wouldn't affect detail. In the first shot (manual), the camera focused on the paw. In the second shot, it's focused on the window screen.

--
-Dave G
Sony F717 (no HAF, ETV fix soon)

I think Dave G. may be right that you are seeing some focus theft, but I looked at parts of the screen back there and they seem in similar focus. In any case, white balance CAN affect sharpness. I've included a link to an excellent article about ISO and its relation to noise. In the "Summary" at the bottom, they mention that altering the White Balance will simply increase the effective ISO of certain channels (depending on the setting), thus introducing more noise in that channel (and overall). For exmaple, when shooting with "indoor" white balance, it boosts the blue channel and you get more blue channel noise.

Back when I was a kid, I remember seeing flash-bulbs with a blue coating on them. Apparently, this was to compensate for the lack of blue light in incandescent lighting. This article suggests applying a "color correcting" filter when shooting indoors to amp the blue channel in the analog domain.

[I sure wish Sony would give us raw mode. I really don't want the camera jacking with my data as much as it does.]

http://www.betterdigitalonline.com/HTML%20Files/isocontrol.html

Charles.
--
The other day I went to... no wait, that was someone else.
Sony 707 (Since Oct 14, 2002)
Canon S100 (Since Feb 2001)
http://homepage.mac.com/charlesclloyd

Charles C Lloyd said:

I think Dave G. may be right that you are seeing some focus theft,
but I looked at parts of the screen back there and they seem in
similar focus. In any case, white balance CAN affect sharpness.
I've included a link to an excellent article about ISO and its
relation to noise. In the "Summary" at the bottom, they mention
that altering the White Balance will simply increase the effective
ISO of certain channels (depending on the setting), thus
introducing more noise in that channel (and overall). For exmaple,
when shooting with "indoor" white balance, it boosts the blue
channel and you get more blue channel noise.

Back when I was a kid, I remember seeing flash-bulbs with a blue
coating on them. Apparently, this was to compensate for the lack
of blue light in incandescent lighting. This article suggests
applying a "color correcting" filter when shooting indoors to amp
the blue channel in the analog domain.

[I sure wish Sony would give us raw mode. I really don't want the
camera jacking with my data as much as it does.]

http://www.betterdigitalonline.com/HTML%20Files/isocontrol.html

Charles.
--
The other day I went to... no wait, that was someone else.
Sony 707 (Since Oct 14, 2002)
Canon S100 (Since Feb 2001)
http://homepage.mac.com/charlesclloyd

Click to expand...

--

Thank you for the information. It helps make sense of this.
carrie

-Dave G said:

Tim Brennan said:

carrie said:

TurboTed said:

T:-)M said:

Hi Carrie,

I tested the whitebalance too.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the manual white balance.

Click to expand...

You are getting yellow with manual one push WB? You'd be amazed at
how much a little difference in your WB reference can make a
significant difference in your final shot. Even with the same
card, just tilting it one way or another can reflect the ambient
lighting differently.

-Dave G said:

I think the fotos have been to yellow.
I am using the auto white balance.

greetings

TM

carrie said:

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance
button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.
Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one
with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail
and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not
near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen
in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.
I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white
balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of
people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix
it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
TurboTed

(It's easier just being insane than acting insane)

Click to expand...

--

Hi Ted,
What do yo mean by manual one push WB? And how can you really tell
when turning the card a little more to change the yellow? in
camera. Those fine details are hard to see on the camera.
I did notice it was a little more yellow than I prefer, but that
seems like an easier to fix in photoshop, and the end product has
alot less CA and more detail.
carrie

Click to expand...

--
Carrie,
Tell us how you are doing the wht bal.
What are you metering off of?
Are you using a gray card?
Tim.

Click to expand...

White balance wouldn't affect detail. In the first shot (manual),
the camera focused on the paw. In the second shot, it's focused on
the window screen.

--
-Dave G
Sony F717 (no HAF, ETV fix soon)

Click to expand...

--

Hi Dave,

You may be right about it focusing on something different. I don't think it was the screen though. This an extreme crop of the original. I took a picture of my cat in the window. I will look closer at her and maybe it focused on another part of her body. But I have to say I am impressed with the difference anyway, and the CA>
carrie

Tim Brennan said:

carrie said:

TurboTed said:

T:-)M said:

Hi Carrie,

I tested the whitebalance too.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the manual white balance.

Click to expand...

You are getting yellow with manual one push WB? You'd be amazed at
how much a little difference in your WB reference can make a
significant difference in your final shot. Even with the same
card, just tilting it one way or another can reflect the ambient
lighting differently.

Tim Brennan said:

I think the fotos have been to yellow.
I am using the auto white balance.

greetings

TM

carrie said:

-I finally decided to get to know the whitebalance
button.Surprisingly it is much easier than I thought it would be.
Here are some examples of cropped photos of my cats paw. The one
with white balance is much warmer in the color, alot more detail
and sharper(didn't know that would make such a difference) and not
near as much purple fringing on the edges of her fur and the screen
in the background.
Hopefully you will be able to see the detail difference.
I decided to try this out after reading some forums on the white
balance. I was getting very disappointed with the skin tones of
people being more on the pink side. For the most part I could fix
it in Photoshop with curves and red saturation.

http://www.pbase.com/carriea/white_balance



Manual White Balance



Auto White Blance

carrie

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
TurboTed

(It's easier just being insane than acting insane)

Click to expand...

--

Hi Ted,
What do yo mean by manual one push WB? And how can you really tell
when turning the card a little more to change the yellow? in
camera. Those fine details are hard to see on the camera.
I did notice it was a little more yellow than I prefer, but that
seems like an easier to fix in photoshop, and the end product has
alot less CA and more detail.
carrie

Click to expand...

--
Carrie,
Tell us how you are doing the wht bal.
What are you metering off of?
Are you using a gray card?
Tim.

Click to expand...

--

I could not find my grey card so I was playing around with a white piece of paper . I clicked on the manual white balance and focused it on the white paper in the area my cat was.
carrie

Charles C Lloyd said:

I think Dave G. may be right that you are seeing some focus theft,
but I looked at parts of the screen back there and they seem in
similar focus. In any case, white balance CAN affect sharpness.
I've included a link to an excellent article about ISO and its
relation to noise. In the "Summary" at the bottom, they mention
that altering the White Balance will simply increase the effective
ISO of certain channels (depending on the setting), thus
introducing more noise in that channel (and overall). For exmaple,
when shooting with "indoor" white balance, it boosts the blue
channel and you get more blue channel noise.

Back when I was a kid, I remember seeing flash-bulbs with a blue
coating on them. Apparently, this was to compensate for the lack
of blue light in incandescent lighting. This article suggests
applying a "color correcting" filter when shooting indoors to amp
the blue channel in the analog domain.

[I sure wish Sony would give us raw mode. I really don't want the
camera jacking with my data as much as it does.]

http://www.betterdigitalonline.com/HTML%20Files/isocontrol.html

Charles.
--
The other day I went to... no wait, that was someone else.
Sony 707 (Since Oct 14, 2002)
Canon S100 (Since Feb 2001)
http://homepage.mac.com/charlesclloyd

Click to expand...

--

So if the camera was indoors and pointing towards a window it would still adjust itself to indoor setting? (If you were in Auto whitebalance)
carrie

-Dave G said:

White balance wouldn't affect detail. In the first shot (manual),
the camera focused on the paw. In the second shot, it's focused on
the window screen.

Click to expand...

Good catch. That alone can explain the difference in visible CA.

-Dave G said:

--
-Dave G
Sony F717 (no HAF, ETV fix soon)

Click to expand...

--
TurboTed

(It's easier just being insane than acting insane)

carrie said:

So if the camera was indoors and pointing towards a window it would
still adjust itself to indoor setting? (If you were in Auto
whitebalance)
carrie

Click to expand...

Good question. I really don't know what's going on with White Balance settings, especially Auto mode. I suspect that it would be the same as being outside, though. The only way I know how to determine the optimal setting is to do it empirically.

Given that White Balance is just another way to set the ISO and given that choosing the lowest ISO is always best (from a noise perspective), I 'd like to know what White Balance setting alters the ISO the least and always use that. Then I can simply correct the colors in post'.

Charles.
--
The other day I went to... no wait, that was someone else.
Sony 707 (Since Oct 14, 2002)
Canon S100 (Since Feb 2001)
http://homepage.mac.com/charlesclloyd

Charles C Lloyd said:

Good question. I really don't know what's going on with White
Balance settings, especially Auto mode. I suspect that it would be
the same as being outside, though. The only way I know how to
determine the optimal setting is to do it empirically.

Given that White Balance is just another way to set the ISO and
given that choosing the lowest ISO is always best (from a noise
perspective), I 'd like to know what White Balance setting alters
the ISO the least and always use that. Then I can simply correct
the colors in post'.

Click to expand...

Charles,

I don't know if this is quite correct. I don't believe white balance is an exposure factor. It's just ISO, shutter speed and aperture, to my knowledge. I don't believe WB relates to, or is a component of, ISO.
I believe it relates more to film type. Like UV, IR, daylight or tungsten.
It's based on reflected color temperature.

For example:

1 candle is 1800 degrees K, in the red portion of the Color Temp scale. A 75 watt bulb is approx 2600 degrees, in the orange part of the scale. A flash is in the 5000-6000 degree, blue range. Noon is around 5500, again in the blue range. An overcast day is 6500 degrees, moving into purple. Shade in the daylight is 7500 and twilight 10,000, both in the purple range.

So I don't believe you will find one setting "better" than any others at reducing ISO-like effects. IMO, all the WB pre-sets do is get you in the ballpark, or correct color temp range. Auto tries to select the best range, or value, within the 8200 degree range cited above (1800 for a candle versus 10,000 for twilgiht). That's a big range and multiple light sources can really confuse it. I don't know how exact manual wb is. But it, almost always, will improve the image's color. It really helped reduce carrie's fringing too.

I'm pretty sure most of this is correct. If I am wrong, I wouldn't be too upset. I'd sure like to find the "best" WB for noise too

Steve
--
http://www.pbase.com/slo2k

'If one really wishes to be master of an art, technical knowledge of it is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an 'artless art' growing out of the Unconscious.'