UKC

For me its usually trial and error to get the white-balance correct. Have any UKC photographers found a good way to correct this after the shutter has been clicked and you are back at home viewing them on a screen?

Just found this interesting youtube that seems to work, but there seem to be a few hoops to jump through first before the final result looks as if it fixes the colour cast.

youtube.com/watch?v=MUh3vZT0tbo&

In reply to The Lemming:

If you shoot RAW, the WB is not is'set' when you click the shutter. So there is nothing to 'fix'. The camera will give you its best guess at what WB it thinks is correct. If you are not getting good results most-of-the-time with the Camera's recommendations, then most likely its either your camera being completely useless or you have a poorly calibrated/color-managed screen making you think the Camera's WB estimate is out...

If you need to set WB, then use Lightroom to set to your taste - very fast and easy, just point the WB tool at a whitish area, or use Auto, or go custom. Needs a half decent calibrated screen, else you'll just be shooting blind and might as well leave at the cameras best guess..

In reply to The Lemming:

Almost all image processors will allow ways to correct white balance even from a jpg, it is less destructive with RAW

The three main methods are:

Do an auto white balance. This assumes that image contains some white.

Let you click on a neutral tone, my usual method with a bit of trial and error

Adjust sliders for colour temp and tint until it looks correct

In reply to John Clinch (Ampthill):

>t is less destructive with RAW

I think is generally accepted to be 'non-destructive' (in the typical language applied, without getting too philosophical about it).

It will be 'destructive' when the RAW is rendered to a JPG (or when the RAW is printed ... or even viewed on a screen, I suppose, but that's getting pretty pedantic/deep .

In reply to John Clinch (Ampthill):


Strictly speaking that's not true (having implemented such algorithms in the past). Automatic white balancing typically works by assuming that the average colour in an image should be a neutral grey, and adjusting the colours in the image to make that the case. It also depends on the colour profile of your image (Adobe RGB, sRGB etc).

In reply to The Lemming:

"White-balance and how to fix it?"

Do away with border control ( according to the lovely Nigel, at least )

In reply to krikoman:

That made me chuckle.

In reply to The Lemming:

Interesting tutorial that looks pretty effective. Like you say it's a bit long. Why don't you just shoot RAW though? In camera RAW correcting white balance takes just one click.

It's also worth saying that sometimes you might not want perfectly neutral colours though. Shots in the snow can have a blue cast in certain light but that's because the light is quite blue. It gets even more complicated because our brains may then correct the real colour to make it more neutral. Just like if you wear sunglasses for a long time. Take them off and everthing looks like it has a colour cast for a short time - until your brain adjusts again. And since colour temperature can strongly affect the mood of a photo you might want to set it in a way that reflects the mood of scene rather than the most accurate or neutral portrayal. Again this is really easy in camera raw.