White balance- again

[agaimages]

Ok, for the 100th time- white balance- soon will be my first digital

wedding? I thought I would feel at ease with digital rather than

film yet that?s not the case

I read most of the earlier replies, but how can I get consistency in

the color while on the run? Do I meter off of white each time I

move? Seems dreadful to me! Shall I just go safe and do auto WB? I

just recently made the switch to digital, can anybody point me to

any info, or explain to me what I fear and are my fears reasonable?

I shoot JPEG not RAW. Thanks

[jimstrutz]

If you are shooting weddings, start shooting them in RAW. That way if you don't nail the white ballance you can fix it. To some degree exposures can be corrected too.

 

If you insist on shooting JPEGs, just make sure you set the white ballance for the type of lighting in the room, or to flash, if that is the dominant light source. Too much room for errors though, I'd shoot RAW.

[todd1664878707]

Set your WB to Auto and shoot in RAW. I recently shot a wedding where I was frequently moving between rooms lit with tungsten, fluorescent, flash, and a mix of all three. If you leave your WB on Auto, it will take care of it for the most part. If there is only one type of lighting you are shooting under, you will get the bests results setting your WB to that type, BUT you have to remember to keep changing it when your lighting changes. It is far easier to leave it on Auto. Just about all of the time it does a fine job, and if it doesn't, you can fix it post process. That's why you shoot RAW.

[andre j.]

Amen to shooting RAW! Personally I find the exposure latitude available in RAW to be

nothing short of miraculous, while the latitude for white balance seems a bit less

generous, but still miles ahead of shooting JPEGS where the camera embeds its own

decisions more or less permanently.

 

One caveat: color balance your monitors!

[picturesque]

If you're going to shoot jpeg, you need to nail your white balance when you take the picture, meaning you should be using custom white balance, and not auto white balance. Either gray/white card every time the light changes or use an Expodisc. If that seems like too much to do, shoot RAW.