"Disappointing auto white balance in incandescent lighting"

[urbivore]

I keep seeing this in reviews of DSLRs.

How lazy can you be not to pre-set the WB, when it yields such excellent results? I found it even improved the WB for my flash shots.

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[Patco]

I keep seeing this in reviews of DSLRs.

I keep wondering why auto WB is so-so at best in many DSLRs, and spot-on, or close to it in so many P&S's ;-/

--
Patco
A photograph is more than a bunch of pixels

 

[Allan Brown]

I keep seeing this in reviews of DSLRs.

How lazy can you be not to pre-set the WB, when it yields such
excellent results? I found it even improved the WB for my flash shots.

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I read somewhere - may have been our friend Ken - that some cameras - Nikons for example, don't cover the light colour temperature range of incandescent lamps while in auto WB mode. Hence the poor results.

There were numbers proving this.

Allan

 

[timak]

Just one of the reasons I shoot in raw... One less thing to forget.

Tim
--

 

[ramnrom]

Ah, does it mean that while shooting RAW you do not have to care about setting up or adjusting WB?

Ram
--
Nikon D80, Nikkor 18-200 VR, Canon S410. Learning more every day ;-)

 

[robert pb]

You don't have to but you should.
--
Regards,

Robert

 

[Marwood]

If you set up WB beforehand, then you don't need to change it when you process your raw files (one less thing to do).

However, since the WB isn't applied to the image until the processing stage, there is no advantage in terms of image quality in getting it right beforehand. It simply saves time later.

 

[ramnrom]

Another related question. Once you set up WB and finish your shooting work (RAW or not), when the camera is turned off, those WB settings are lost and have to be reset again the next time?

Ram
--
Nikon D80, Nikkor 18-200 VR, Canon S410. Keep on clicking. ;-)

 

[urbivore]

You can even save a reference photo to recall a previous WB setting, if my memory serves me correctly.

If you want to produce decent jpegs, you need to nail WB and exposure. I think it's a worthwhile skill to be able to produce good jpegs right out of the camera. I bet wedding photogs are good at this.

I guess if you're shooting RAW, it's one less worry, although you have to make sure you're not caught in a mixed lighting situation, eg, fluorescents and daylight.
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http://billkosloskymd.typepad.com/urbivore/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bkmd/

 

[larsbc]

I keep seeing this in reviews of DSLRs.

How lazy can you be not to pre-set the WB, when it yields such
excellent results? I found it even improved the WB for my flash shots.

But if you manually set white balance, it introduces the risk of having the really wrong colour balance for the lighting (eg: tungsten when shooting under fluorescent light). I just shoot in RAW and make colour corrections in post processing.

Of course, IIRC, metering changes depending on the WB (some colour channels may be amped up more than others) so for shooting in borderline situations like low light, setting the proper WB might make an improvement in getting the correct exposure.

larsbc

 

[Giao Nguyen]

Try to set WB manually by pointing the camera to a white wall and do a "preset WB". This is pretty easy to do on Nikon DSLR. No DSLR can give you good color under incandescent lighting. You even get more accurate color if you have a gray card. I use this method frequently and it works great. It only takes 10 secs to do manual preset WB against a white wall.

 

[BRJR]

Just one of the reasons I shoot in raw... One less thing to forget.

Tim
--

timak:

1. As, I am now using Adobe Light Room; for inside shooting, I find it better to shoot in RAW, with my in-Camera WB setting set to AUTO.

2. Once the images are in Adobe Lightroom ---- under WB settings, I simply click AUTO, and all the inside images usually look exactly as I saw them, with none of the "yellowish/orange" look typically seen when a Camera is "fooled" by indoor lighting. And, should one prefer, there are other WB settings to quickly click back and forth on too, until you find just what you prefer. And, still both "Quick Develop" and more detail "Develop" settings are quickly available for more WB fine tuning, as desired ------- also, it's easy to make "presets" to have this and more done "automatically for you, upon import of your images, either from the camera or a card reader.

3. Though it's controversial by some, shooting in RAW versus jpg, I am starting to use RAW more and more, as I am beginning to appreciate more and more the benefits of doing so.

--
BRJR....(My cameras & lenses are listed in my profile)

 

[ramnrom]

D80 does allow you to set the WB from a neutral gray or white card as a preset value (with the PRE option in WB) which can be referenced later.

Or, alternatively it does let you to choose the WB from an existing image. One thing is curious though. Though they show you images from other camera models to select WB from, only the one corresponding to the D80 will actually work!

So, my assumption that the WB settings may get wiped once the camera is turned off is incorrect. I stand corrected!

Ram
--
Nikon D80, Nikkor 18-200 VR, Canon S410. Keep on clicking. ;-)