Manual White Balance or Auto WB ?

[dennis_mansour1]

I have used Nikon and canon pro cameras and never had a problem with the skin

tones on my images. I am stsreting to see so much about doing manual white

balance. Is there that much of a difference or no difference ?I use now the

canin 5D and 24-70L 2.8 lense, I use flash with various diffusers.I shoot on

Auto WB. thanks, rollsman

[Ed_Ingold]

A lot depends on your camera and photographic environment. My D1x had relatively poor Auto White Balance, however it is very accurate in the D2 cameras. I use the manual mode (incandescent) for theater and concerts - the light is just too flaky at times and AWB doesn't work well in spotlights where there is too much black and too little subject. I use manual-everything for formal groups and portraits - consistency is paramount, nearly everything else can be tuned in post.

 

The best solution is to shoot in RAW mode, where white balance is not permanently assigned, and use the setting which is most consistent (the least editing is required).

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

Capture in RAW format. Adjust in the process stage.

 

However, different sources (temperatures of light) in the same environment can pose

challenges. Different circumstances require different solutions.

[bruce_rubenstein___nyc]

I use manual WB set to some thing close to the primary light source and RAW under anything other than plain day light. This way all the files shot under the same lighting conditions need the same WB correction, rather than doing individual corrections on every image. It saves a ton of time.

[bob_osullivan]

It's funny how my new G9 P&S actually has the best AWB of any of my camera's. I guess this is one area of the technology where the latest version rules.

 

However, for serious shooting, I would never rely on AWB.

 

1) Shoot RAW & Jpeg and correct RAW in post. Best possible result.

2) Use custom WB with a grey card to set for the Jpeg (which I only use for preview/print selection anyway since it saves time)

3) In mixed lighting, determine which is dominant and "Gel the flash" to match it.

 

Example of #3. I've been in halls where there were flourescent ceiling moutned burning green. Tungsten sconces on the walls very orangish and mid day cloudy day blue light streaming in the windows. Not fun! In this case the Tungsten was most dominant. So I gelled the flash Amber and decreased ambient exposure "dragged the sutter less" to allow corrected flash and the dominat tungsten to tone down the green and blue light. RAW adjust ment for tweaking.

[johnmottershaw]

I always just leave it on AWB for weddings and forget about it.

 

People get so hung about white balance at the time of capture and I wonder why they

make it so difficult for themselves. I can adjust colour far quicker and easier in Adobe

Camera Raw afterwards.

 

If it's a very colour critical commercial job (for example), I will do a shot both with and

without a grey card and colour swatch in the scene and again sort it out in PP.

[david_le1]

depending on the type of file you shoot (jpeg or raw) will depend on whether to use auto and wb. but also your camera auto wb. I would use manual, if you can go by temprature to get a more accurate reading, but if you have any of the d2 cameras with the wb light right in front of the hotshoe, you can't go wrong with either.

[james_nealy]

I set a custom wb with my expo disc for every weddding I do. Only takes a couple of seconds and I have a WB for the room and situation I am shooting. Remember AWB actually stands for "awful white balance"!!

[david_currier]

I use the SAME setup, and the only time i use manual WB is when I am shooting portraits with my strobes. The light is so cool that it makes the skin tones dull, but it literally takes 2 clicks in ACR to correct in afterwards...

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

This looks like an interesting product to balance flash with ambient light:

 

http://stickyfilters.com/

 

 

Have a great 2008 wedding season!

[michelle_allmon]

Darn it, James beat me to it! I second Expodisk.

[nefty_v]

manual white balance 100% and keep a gray card shot in the photos for use in photoshop or lightroom

Why leave it for the after process, I believe the job gets done 90% at the wedding day, the post production should be the 10% left over

The job should come out of the camera as best as possible and keep out of your mind this quote: 'I will fix it later in photoshop"

Fix it while you are there and your work will look better than the average photographer plus less time in post production.