550D White Balance

<p>I've noticed some difficulty with white balance in certain situations with my 550D. It occurs when I'm using AWB indoors, usually with tungsten lights. I get major yellow orange color shift, and it doesn't help to change the WB to tungsten color temp in WB select. I still have an orange shift even with flash. I have not tried custom WB yet. </p>

<p>Has anyone else seen this issue?</p>

<p>John O'Donnell</p>

<p>Yes: I duplicated your unacceptable results with a warm color shift using AWB and WB tungsten manual select (3200k). I tried custom WB using a sheet of white photo paper and the results are more in balance with what I would accept (based on the LCD view only). I tried the WB/Shift feature (the GAMB X-Y grid) without using the custom WB and could not get acceptable results due to my lack of experience in using WB/Shift. My T2i does not have a "k" selection mode to incrementally cool the 3200k down to 3000k or less. Does anyone know how to set the X-Y axis to change the Kelvin in increments or doesn't it work like that.<br>

Ed Carlson</p>

<p>I only use the WB/shift to neutralize the canon color rendition, So far I haven't used it as an alternative to tungsten WB, But I think it can be used that way. My guess is ,Shift it to blue.</p>

<p>Camera's "tungsten" light setting is around 3000-3200K whereas household bulbs are usually 2700-2800K. That's why you get yellow/orange tint on the photos. AWB doesn't seem to work well at extremeties. Get a piece of white paper, photo graycard or even better colorchecker and use it as reference to set custom WB. Keep in mind, that even with custom white balance you may not be happy with the colors. This is because indoors there's usually not that much light in the "cold" part of the spectrum, so colors start looking weird (but using colorchecker to create DNG camera profile for given light will give you better results than no profile and AWB).</p>

<p>Reviews of Canon DSLRs have long commented on how Canon's AWB tends to return excessively warm results with incandescent lighting. And, as pointed out above, the tungsten setting is for tungsten studio lights, which are not the same colour temperature as various household bulbs (and note that household incandescent bulbs of different wattages have different colour temperatures, too: not surprisingly, lower wattage bulbs tend to have lower temperatures).</p>

 

<p>Custom WB is the best solution if you want to set it in-camera. If you want to do it on your computer, you'd be best to shoot RAW, since you're then working with the full bit depth of your camera (14 bits per pixel on reasonably recent EOS DSLRs, 12 on older models) instead of the 8 in a JPEG, and also working with an image that hasn't already had an incorrect WB applied to it. If you want to do this with a JPEG, then try to get the in-camera WB as close as possible so you need only make relatively minor corrections in post-processing; as with any other tonal adjustment made to an image with limited bit depth, the greater the adjustment you're making, the more likely you are to experience posterization.</p>

 

<p>As for incandescent plus flash, that's mixed lighting (unless you're covering the flash with a gel or other filter that makes it about the same colour temperature as your incandescents). Be careful with mixed lighting, because if different parts of the scene are lit with light of different colour temperatures, you can't apply one WB setting that will be right for the whole scene. If you balance for flash, the areas mostly lit by incandescent light will look very warm; if you balance for incandescent, the areas mostly lit by flash will look very cool; if you balance somewhere between the two, then pretty much everything will be at least slightly off (somewhat warm for the incandescent areas, somewhat cool for flash areas). To fix this completely in post-processing, you'll have to adjust the colour balance in each area separately.</p>

<p>I shoot a lot in low light, indoors.<br>

Typically I use Manual WB and set K = 2800 which is the lowest my cameras can go.<br>

That does not alleviate all the yellow/orange as typical household globes are way down at 2600K or even 2400K - but it gets you a long way and the remainder can be done in postproduction.<br>

I have played with the x-y axis shift in custom WB but that is quite fiddly, IMO, and not as "accurate" as my method of setting K =2800 and working from there.<br>

I have also attempted WB shift in addition to setting K=2800 and that is even more fiddly, IMO, but yes shifting it to blue as Mars C suggested, is where I experimented.<br>

Also if shooting sans flash you will help yourself if you open up about 1/2 stop or even a bit more, as I have noticed the TTL metering is a bit ratty in this particular shooting scenario<br>

(All these experiments on a: 400D 450D 20D 30D and 5D).</p>

<p>If you are using FLASH then either gel the flash to suit the Ambient Light . . . set for FLASH CT and <strong>ensure the flash is key</strong> AND the <strong>Tv (Shutter Speed) is FAST enough and the Av (Aperture) small enough to make the AMBIENT exposure at least 5 stops or more below the Flash Exposure.</strong></p>

<p>WW</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for the helpful responses. I guess this was never issue for me in the past as I would have never attempted to shoot indoors like this without a flash. However, the quality of the 550D images at high ISO has made easier to shoot without flash. From what you've said I now understand:<br>

1. The "tungsten" preset is still too cool for most indoor lighting<br>

2. Should use custom WB in these situations. Although not perfect will require less heroics in PP<br>

3. With flash, adjust exposure to limit effect of ambient lighting</p>

<p>Hope this also helpful for people who search this in the future.</p>

<p>Your question has now broadened:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>1. The "tungsten" preset is still too cool for most indoor lighting<br /><br /></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yes.<br />***</p>

<blockquote>

<p>2. Should use custom WB in these situations. Although not perfect will require less heroics in PP<br /><br /></p>

</blockquote>

<p>On the topic of shooting under household (incandescent) lights <strong>without</strong> Flash.<br />There will likely be more comment here, or you might read elsewhere, that if you shoot RAW then setting the WB in the camera is un-necessary.<br />The logic to this line of thinking is the WB preset in the does not affect the RAW capture but only the JPEG file, or conversely the RAW’s White Balance can be changed after at the computer desktop.<br>

(Steve has already outlined this in more detail, in his post above)</p>

<p>I use Canon DSLRs and I <strong>capture RAW + JPEG(L)</strong>, always** – so that explains better why I preset the WB to 2800°K – one reasons is because I get the JPEG file very close to the correct WB and I often use the JPEG file, and not the RAW file.<br />Using the JPEG file is not an uncommon practice, but you will find advice such as “Never Shoot JPEG, but shoot RAW and correct the WB in Post”</p>

<p>Also, it is the JPEG file (kind of), which is viewed in the LCD sceren and there are some Photographers, me inlcuded, that use the LCD image as a tool on site, so having the LCD appearing as close to correct as possble, is an advantage.</p>

<p>***</p>

<p> </p>

<blockquote>

<p>3. With flash, adjust exposure to limit effect of ambient lighting.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not the complete answer, no.<br />On the topic of shooting with Flash where there is MIXED lighting.<br />“Mixed Lighting” <em>usually</em> means Flash and Tungsten; Flash and Household Incandescent; Flash and Fluorescent.<br />“Mixed Lighting” doesn’t <em>usually</em> mean Flash and sunlight or Flash and Filtered Window Sunlight, but for the purist it DOES.</p>

<p>The Flash Colour Temperature is close to the Temp of (most) sunlight, so the effect of mixing these two lights is <em>usually</em> minimal.<br />But the effect of mixing Flash and Household incandescent lights can be dramatic.</p>

<p>ONE solution is to adjust the exposure to limit the effect of the Ambient Lighting. The outcome will be a subject illuminated by FLASH, <strong>but the background might be a dark hole,</strong> because either the Flash is only powerful enough to light the Subject – or the Flash’s Automatic mode has limited the Flash to only light the Subject – either way you get <strong>Flash Falloff</strong>, and the Background might look like a cave.</p>

<p>So if this is NOT what you want and you still want to have balanced LIGHTING (apropos Colour Temperature) <strong>then you must GEL the flash</strong> to make it about K=2800° and you can adjust the exposure such that the ambient light does affect the exposure.</p>

<p>Also, often Photographers purposely DO NOT gel the Flash.<br />For example shooting a B&G inside a Church, and they will use a soft / diffused flash on the B&G and also adjust the exposure so that the Ambient is about 2 stops below the Flash exposure.<br />The result is a soft warm glow and gentle relative darkness seen in the surrounding Church, but Skin tones the White Gown of the Bride maintains the correct CT and exposure from the Flash.<br /><br />***</p>

<p>Finally and most pedantically, there is merit, but somewhat limited practicality for most shooting situations, in the use of Colour Correction Filters when shooting under, (for example) Household Incandescent lights. This was the practice when using film for example.<br />I do not wish to begin an in depth argument about this practice, but suffice to say it is useful and the simply explained reason being to get a more even stimulation from the RGB spectrum at the digital sensor.</p>

<p>WW</p>

<p>** except on the extremely odd occasion when I choose to use a Basic SHOOTING MODE: but that is irrelevant to this conversation as the BASIC SHOOTING MODES do not allow Custom White Balance anyway.</p>