White Balance - Color tem/filter

Mark J Kopczewski said:

Have you looked online for a Kelvin colour chart? It's useful to know and to have as a reference guide as I would never trust a box of electronics to guess what WB to select or anything else as results will likely be inconsistent from frame to frame and this would also apply to ISO and a bunch of other parameters. As a basic rule of thumb, if you set the WB to daylight and check the EXIF, I would imaging the Kelvin will read 5300K. This is actually too low as the optimum daylight WB is around 5800K - 6000K, so you're better off inputting the Kelvin setting manually as opposed to selecting a pre-set on the camera, but this is just one example. Try it next time you have a bright day and look at the difference in your PP software or just as an un PP'd JPEG image on your laptop.

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lem12 said:

Thanks! I'll keep this chart in my camera bag. Tried this once and forgotten. I wish Auto WB would give more constant proper reading. The actual WB filter and a simple in camera set up would make a useful tool for landscape and nature photography.

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lem12 said:

Thanks! I'll keep this chart in my camera bag. Tried this once and forgotten. I wish Auto WB would give more constant proper reading. The actual WB filter and a simple in camera set up would make a useful tool for landscape and nature photography.

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RichV said:

lem12 said:

Thanks! I'll keep this chart in my camera bag. Tried this once and forgotten. I wish Auto WB would give more constant proper reading. The actual WB filter and a simple in camera set up would make a useful tool for landscape and nature photography.

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BTW, I often use a system called WarmCards - there are cool ones too - that have a great standard white balance on one side and a "warming influence" on the other. The set comes with different warming (or cooling) levels so that you can quickly choose a level close enough to what you're seeking. The result is that you can warm up or cool down images based on your feeling for the shots (yep, you could do this with Kelvin adjustments, but this is easier - and their white balance has always worked well for me). There are other systems out there; my point is that there are some great tools that can easily enhance the effect of your shots.

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Chris Malcolm said:

RichV said:

lem12 said:

Thanks! I'll keep this chart in my camera bag. Tried this once and forgotten. I wish Auto WB would give more constant proper reading. The actual WB filter and a simple in camera set up would make a useful tool for landscape and nature photography.

Click to expand...

BTW, I often use a system called WarmCards - there are cool ones too - that have a great standard white balance on one side and a "warming influence" on the other. The set comes with different warming (or cooling) levels so that you can quickly choose a level close enough to what you're seeking. The result is that you can warm up or cool down images based on your feeling for the shots (yep, you could do this with Kelvin adjustments, but this is easier - and their white balance has always worked well for me). There are other systems out there; my point is that there are some great tools that can easily enhance the effect of your shots.

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Chris Malcolm said:

With respect to optimum daylight WB I'd like to point out that this varies a lot with latitude and climate. You can't make a global daylight WB colour temp setting claim as you did above.

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Mark J Kopczewski said:

Chris Malcolm said:

With respect to optimum daylight WB I'd like to point out that this varies a lot with latitude and climate. You can't make a global daylight WB colour temp setting claim as you did above.

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I don't see how this has anything to do with the Kelvin chart which is a scientific scale. My comment is accurate based on the standard daylight Kelvin pre-set which on average is 5300K but is much better between 5800K - 6000K, though you can input whatever setting you like irrespective of where on this planet you are, or should Sony camera's have an auto light detector that can be activated once the lens is fitted and the camera turned on and you press a button and the camera then shows on the LCD: 'WB has been set based on available light. Do you want to use this setting or input your own'? You then decide Y/N and if N, you set the Kelvin by number input or pre-set using the dial, therefore no need for cards, scientific Kelvin colour scale or guesswork, though maybe the Kelvin scale is also wrong!

As for my 'claim', this is based on fact depending on whatever WB setting is used that is pre-set (Daylight for example) and as I've clearly pointed out, setting this using the camera's dial sets the Kelvin to 5300K for daylight and this is too low, and therefore whether in PP or using the manual Kelvin input option to set the WB, 5800K - 6000K is where optimum daylight Kelvin needs to be, though it's easy enough to input a series of pre-sets and save them to one of the in-camera memory slots that can be recalled by using the MR option of the dial.

You don't need to explain anything to me because I actually know, so I would suggest you contact the people that created the Kelvin scale and discuss your findings with them. Maybe your world is also flat, but there's no setting on the camera for that either, but that also may be based on latitude and/or variable climate!

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