What is "Foveon Blue"?

SandyF wrote:

Good question, and I hope a discussion will ensue. (Better on settings than on a non-released yet xQuattro.....)

I truly don't mean to be difficult, but it really does depend. Which camera? What time of day? Where? For example, I'm processing DP2Merrill photos from Nevada. Around sunrise, auto wb is giving me the 'best' results. Other times of day, I find sunlight wb may be 'best' results on the Nevada shots. Here in VA where the conditions are different, I find on the DP2Merrill that auto wb is usually 'best' Caveat there, if you're shooting a panorama, experienced pano shooters recommend keeping to one set white balance, either a pre-set such as sunlight wb or perhaps a custom-set white balance.

With my SD10 I generally shot sunlight wb; I rarely used auto wb. In Hawaii last summer, I generally shot the SD15 on auto wb but then edited to sunlight wb and adjusted color slightly with SPP colorwheel, for example https://www.flickr.com/photos/sandyfleischmann/8940818204/in/set-72157633910113966 although I kept many of the SD15 Hawaii shots on auto wb standard colormode

The correct white balance for a scene is the one that gets the message across. This may not be what comes out of the camera.

In mixed lighting, the correct balance is different in various parts of the picture.

It is worth while to study Monet's haystacks, cathedrals, etc.

The only time you need an objectively accurate colour balance is when you are photographing a painting (or similar flat surface) and trying to make a print that is indistinguishable from the original. This is where the Color Checker comes in; but I haven't yet found any easy way to get a profile from the Color Checker for a Foveon image.

Probably it can be done by carefully matching each patch to the measured RGB figures, using Photoshop's Curves panel.