white balance issues

[freshjetblast]

Hello all

Would like to query about white balance correction. For example, when shooting in a tungsten-lit room without flash, the whites (for example that of plates, china, etc) will tend to be yellowish or orange. Hence, is it actually appropriate the correct the yellowishness back to pure white or just leave it as it is?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[Rashkae]

Tungsten light can easily confuse WB sensors. Your best bet is to manually set the WB to Tungsten before shooting, or do a manual WB setting first.

 

[geraldkhoo]

White balance is for you to correct the colors so that a white will appear white in the picture. However, white balance is also a matter of preference, and some people like a different tinge in the picture.

White balance is more important when you take pictures of people, where the skin tones can turn out blue, yellow, orangy, etc. If you want to maintain a skin tone that is true to the real color, this is when white balance would be important.

What I have found to help to adjust my white balance is to use an Expodisc and do a manual preset of it. There are other tools to help you adjust your white balance as well, e.g. grey card, so its up to you to see what works best for you

 

[freshjetblast]

Tungsten light can easily confuse WB sensors. Your best bet is to manually set the WB to Tungsten before shooting, or do a manual WB setting first.

Hi there thanks for your quick response, wow! I shall try that the next time I shoot. So is it correct to say that when set correctly to tungsten, the white plate will look white?

White balance is for you to correct the colors so that a white will appear white in the picture. However, white balance is also a matter of preference, and some people like a different tinge in the picture.

White balance is more important when you take pictures of people, where the skin tones can turn out blue, yellow, orangy, etc. If you want to maintain a skin tone that is true to the real color, this is when white balance would be important.

What I have found to help to adjust my white balance is to use an Expodisc and do a manual preset of it. There are other tools to help you adjust your white balance as well, e.g. grey card, so its up to you to see what works best for you

Hi there thanks for your quick reply as well! So whether or not the white plate looks perfectly white or has a yellowish tinge is up to personal preference? I will be doing a little more reading on white balance and all. Appreciate the replies

 

[night86mare]

Hello all

Would like to query about white balance correction. For example, when shooting in a tungsten-lit room without flash, the whites (for example that of plates, china, etc) will tend to be yellowish or orange. Hence, is it actually appropriate the correct the yellowishness back to pure white or just leave it as it is?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

it depends on what you want

do you like the plates to have a yellowish tinge?

for products, and inanimate objects that would really depend on personal taste; if you are doing it for a client, then usually the original color would be important, based on what i've heard from product photographers

another type of photography where wb must be correct is probably portrait; otherworldly colorus usually do not work.

on another note - shoot in raw, and all your problems will be solved afterward, so long as you definitely have a white point to work on

 

[freshjetblast]

it depends on what you want

do you like the plates to have a yellowish tinge?

for products, and inanimate objects that would really depend on personal taste; if you are doing it for a client, then usually the original color would be important, based on what i've heard from product photographers

another type of photography where wb must be correct is probably portrait; otherworldly colorus usually do not work.

on another note - shoot in raw, and all your problems will be solved afterward, so long as you definitely have a white point to work on

Hi there. You are right, it depends on personal taste. Sometimes the images look weird after auto-color correcting the photos in photoshop (the whites will become white but the other colors will look rather odd). So just to confirm, switching the WB to tungsten when shooting in tungsten lighting will not make the whites look white?

Will check out the RAW mode the next time.

Many thanks!

 

[night86mare]

Hi there. You are right, it depends on personal taste. Sometimes the images look weird after auto-color correcting the photos in photoshop (the whites will become white but the other colors will look rather odd). So just to confirm, switching the WB to tungsten when shooting in tungsten lighting will not make the whites look white?

Will check out the RAW mode the next time.

Many thanks!

it might, it might not, it depends on your lighting; different brands have slightly different temperatures that might differ from your in-camera "temperature" for tungsten; if you want to be more technical you can look here.

in mixed lighting situations it is even more tricky

 

[freshjetblast]

it might, it might not, it depends on your lighting; different brands have slightly different temperatures that might differ from your in-camera "temperature" for tungsten; if you want to be more technical you can look here.

in mixed lighting situations it is even more tricky

Roger that. Found out that can adjust the WB by temp using the K function. Way cool. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[geraldkhoo]

Roger that. Found out that can adjust the WB by temp using the K function. Way cool. Thanks for the heads up!

Just a note... the Kelvin scale for adjusting has limits, i.e. a min to max, and if the adjustment needed are beyond this range, this is where setting the preset with a grey card or Expodisc would be necessary.

 

[zoossh]

Hi there. You are right, it depends on personal taste. Sometimes the images look weird after auto-color correcting the photos in photoshop (the whites will become white but the other colors will look rather odd). So just to confirm, switching the WB to tungsten when shooting in tungsten lighting will not make the whites look white?

Will check out the RAW mode the next time.

Many thanks!

tungsten or incandescent mode means they will try to correct the yellowish lighting from these sources back to white. similarly nikon's shade mode is to correct overtly yellow light in shades and fluorescent mode is to correct blue light in your study room, so that they look more neutral. but these modes are presets of estimated "deviation" from white light, and may either under-compensate or over-compensate, so it may become less yellow or too blue.

as previously mentioned, these are of personal preferences as long as they are subtle, which is to say you can get either you make it neutral or with slight but suitable cast. and also the light souce may be mixed, and that complicates things a little.