Auto WB today

<p >I am amazed at the auto improvements to the WB function in the Nikons that I have been using.</p>

<p >Shooting RAW could have solved the problems but I shoot JPG. Why is an other discussion held here frequently.</p>

<p >Starting in 2005 with a D70 I would need to always be conscious of the settings, changing from sunny to overcast or measuring the custom setting.</p>

<p >If I did not I would need to make major adjustments in post processing and the image would suffer.</p>

<p >I was impressed with the D300 AWB when I got that. I could shoot indoors in most situations and have very usable files.</p>

<p >Now with the D7000 I am hooked. I find that I do not need to change from AWB at all as the program can adapt. In fact, in situations where there is a mix of light sources, AWB works better than a static setting because it adapts.</p>

<p >While I do adjust shots afterwards, most of that is minor.</p>

<p >How bout you?</p>

<p > </p><div></div>

<p>I do use RAW and AWB all the time. Manually selecting white balance or using a pre-shot setting never worked at all for me, and that is over five DSLRs. AWB gets it right more than 50% of the time which is still very poor but at least I can tell when it's wrong and easily correct a series of images during the RAW conversion process in PS4/5. If AWB is wrong it is usually within 400K, and only on challenging lighting.</p>

<p>Your example is pretty good. With snow I usually error on the side of slightly warmer, rather than cooler, but that is probably personal.</p>

<p>Errol, I,ve had almost identical WB experiences as you. D70, D2X, D300, and now the D7000. Improvements every generation and the D7000 is great. Always close to perfect, needs tweaking only occasionally. </p>

<p>Errol, I,ve had almost identical WB experiences as you. D70, D2X, D300, and now the D7000. Improvements every generation and the D7000 is great. Always close to perfect, needs tweaking only occasionally. </p>

<p>I always shoot in RAW and usually use the WB presets or do a white balance card for important stuff, but occasionally I use AWB on my D300 and it is usually pretty good. I tweak in post processing anyway in most cases.</p>

<p>I shoot at night with mixed light, and find what works best for me to is shoot NEF and adjust in CS5 as needed.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>I find my D300 AWB reasonably accurate if I do not use polarization filter. With filter you have about 1.5 stops light attenuation and the contrasts are shifted so the AWB has the problem to find the white parts of the picture and to adjust the colors. When I take pictures with the polarization filter my AWB makes much too warm pictures. Anyway I shoot RAW so I can adjust WB in Lightroom later.<br>

Regards, Marko</p>

<p>AWB may work fine in normal lighting situations. However, it does not work as well as a preset like cloudy in special lighting situations such as sunrise or sunsets when there is a unique color tone to the light. To fully capture that color tone you need the preset, not the auto WB which will cancel out some of the unique color tones present. Like others have noted, I shoot in RAW so I can adjust WB during post processing if necessary. Joe Smith</p>

<p>Yes, AWB often gets the job done well. I use it for most of my studio work, and window light. Outdoors, however, I prefer the look from the Sunny preset...maybe from years of shooting with daylight-balanced film?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I am pleased to see that so many are having the same experience as I am with Nikon's auto white balance. I don't use it all the time but I have noticed a number of times when I did that I was not able to do as good a job in post as the camera had done and this was mostly in mixed lighting. Personally I sure do not think it has to be bright sun. I am shooting shoot RAW on the D700.</p>

<p>Auto White Balance is pretty good, but it's not infallible. For example; it doesn't cope at all well with the new compact fluorescent lamps that we're being persuaded to use. They always come out horribly yellow. AWB can also suffer from "subject failure", where a dominant colour in the frame fools the white-balance into giving a complementary cast to the picture. And I've yet to get large areas of shaded snow to be a neutral grey with my D700's AWB instead of pale blue.</p>

<p>I was commenting on the improvements to WB since the D70. Not perfect but very dependable now.</p>