WB Questions
WB Questions
- Subject: WB Questions
- From: Louis Dina via colorsync-users <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2023 13:34:04 -0600
Okay you gurus, I have some questions about white balance, and I’ll use an
example to hopefully make it clearer.
I often take nature photos in the woods, and it’s not unusual for my DSLR’s
AWB to set the WB to something like 4200K and a tint of -3 or so. The
camera sees all the greenish yellow leaves on the trees, reddish yellow
leaves on the ground and probably assumes there is a yellowish cast, so it
assigns a cooler WB to neutralize the “color cast” it thinks it sees. The
result is an overly bluish image, and depending on the amount of green
leaves or yellow-red leaves, it adjusts the tint as well. Not very accurate.
If I use a gray card and use it to set an “accurate” WB, it forces the card
to be perfectly neutral. That’s great for portraits, skin tones, or when
you want a specific object in the scene to look more like it would when
shot under daylight conditions (I.e., no shady woods to influence the
color).
However, if the goal is just a photo of the woods themselves, I often find
this gray card WB to be overly warm and yellow. I’m guessing that our eyes
and brain pick a WB that is somewhere between the above extremes. Perhaps
we don’t really see a gray card as perfectly neutral under these
conditions, so forcing it to be 0a/0b, may not be the best choice. I did a
search on the internet, but didn’t find anything other than the “accurate”
gray card method.
There’s probably no simple answer, but I thought I’d see what folks on this
forum have to say (assuming anyone hangs out here anymore!!).
Thanks, Lou
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
colorsync-users mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden