Sunlight, Fill Flash, White Balance, D300

[jan_nielsen]

<p>I have a D300 and am very pleased with the Auto-whitebalance on it. I seldom have to set the WB manually.<br />But when I use fillflash (either the built in flash or the SB800) in sunlight I have found out that the photos come out too yellow. It's because the camera is choosing WB=Flash when using fillflash, even though the subject is in bright sunlight (which is the mainlight).<br />If I manually choose WB=sunlight the photos come out right.<br /><br />I discovered this in Disneyland where many shots are of the park and figures but when I have persons in the frame it's nice just to pop-up the little flash so shadows around eyes are filled in.<br />It would be nice not having to manually change WB in these situations.<br />I shoot jpg for these situations and don't want to go raw.<br />Picture Control was set to SD (standard).<br />Is there some way that I can set the camera, so it's priority is still the auto-WB even when the flash is popped-up ?</p>

[joe_a2]

<p>Jan.... Can you post an example? Resize it to 600x400 in Nikon ViewNX so the EXIF data isn't lost to the Photoshop gods.</p>

[titospna]

<p>Try using D2X mode; see if that works for you.</p>

[acbeddoe]

<p><em>If I manually choose WB=sunlight the photos come out right.</em><br>

There's your answer. The automatic WB is good but not perfect.<br>

You can correct the color in post on the jpg; I never use auto WB any more.</p>

[Two23]

<p>Sometimes you have to tell the camera what you want it to do. It's not a magic box, it's just a machine. The alternative might be to gel your flash with a bit of blue correction. Dialing in the correction on the camera would be simpler though. My solution was to simply shoot NEF. I took about 1,000 photos while in Disney/Orlando last May, but really only liked about 100 or so. I don't go through and PP everyone, obviously. Just the 10% I liked. BTW, flash is actually daylight balanced, so I'm wondering if something else is going on. Are you using a calibrated monitor?<br>

<br />Kent in SD<br /><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2432/3870096461_3205a312a1_o.jpg" alt="" width="335" height="500" /></p>

[richard_driscoll]

<p>Jan,<br>

Like Kent I'm a bit puzzled. I always thought that electronic flash was supposed to match sunlight pretty closely. My D40 manual says that the sunlight setting is 5200 degrees Kelvin and flash is 5400 degrees. The difference is 7 mireds which is a very small difference. I recall that a weak colour balancing filter is about 15 mireds. I guess that a D300 will be similar. I suppose that the auto WB setting using flash could be different from the flash setting using flash but I rather doubt it.<br>

You could try an experiment with photographs using flash WB, sunlight WB and auto WB both with flash as the sole light source and also with mixed flash/daylight.</p>

<p> </p>

[Two23]

<p>Sunlight color temp K does vary through out the day, being warmer as it nears sunrise/sunset. Clouds will cool the color temp down considerably, of course, as does taking photos in indirect light (i.e. shade.) K=5400 is actually slightly bluer than K=5200. As I recall, there can be some variations in color temp from the flash depending on what power level it's using, but the camera is supposed to adjust for this. Considering all the variables, it wouldn't surprise me if the auto setting doesn't always get it exactly right.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

[joseph_smith3]

<p>This is one of the reasons I rarely if ever use Auto WB. Joe Smith</p>

[StefDevos]

<p>Jan, I experience(d) exactly the same phenomenon with the D3 + sb800 (and use RAW to get rid of it, after the facts)</p>

[glenjo]

<p>I have seen this too with a D200 and SB-800. I almost always shoot RAW so it's easy (but time consuming) to fix.</p>

[brooks_lester]

<p>Interesting; I find that when using fill flash with both Auto WB and Sunlight WB subjects tend to look a little cool in warmer sunlit conditions. Using Flash WB setting while shooting with flash in such conditions will at least deliver flesh tones that don't look too cool while ambient values go warm. I prefer this to cool-looking flesh tones with fairly accurate backgrounds that Auto and Sunlight WB seem to produce. I shoot RAW so I'm more concerned about matching flash color temperature for subject to ambient values for backlight and background illumination. I can then move WB values in whatever direction seems appropriate to get a warmer or cooler overall value.<br>

You may simply desire a cooler WB value for you images. </p>

[walterh]

<p>"(and use RAW to get rid of it, after the facts)"<br>

Shooting raw is a good starting point since you can correct WB later. It does not help if you get uneven illumination to start with. If e.g. the left and the right side of a face get different light what are you going to adjust in PS? Yes a pro knows how to deal with that in PP but he would not ask the question ^^.<br>

Use a gel filter on your flash in such situations and try to avoid other light sources and dont do what Kent did with all those green leaves :-P<br>

Kent horrible WB situation in purely technical terms but great picture ^^. Some images do not want "correct" WB.</p>