30 October 2008
Easy White Balance Tip - TWIP
Posted by
Scott under:
Tips
Photo by Scott Bourne
In this photo, model-turned-photographer Lisa Bettany holds a white reflector so I can grasp the true white balance.
Digital white balance is really easy if you shoot in RAW mode. All you have to do is place a white card near where your subject is, and include it in the first frame of any session. As long as the light doesn’t change, you can count on perfectly neutral white balance.
To make this work, your next step happens inside Photoshop/Lightroom/Aperture.
Open up the RAW image that contains the white card inside Adobe Camera Raw. Select the WHITE BALANCE TOOL and then use it to click on the white card in the image. You should see the image white balance perfectly. Most color casts should be removed and you can consider that picture a benchmark for all others shot in the same session under similar light.
You can do this same trick in Aperture. Simply grab the eye-dropper from the White Balance brick in the Adjustments palette and click it on the white card. Again, you’ll get perfect white balance for that lighting condition.
This post sponsored by Lensbaby.
20 Comments so far...
Adam Says:
30 October 2008 at 6:16 am.
What are the advantages/disadvantages/differences between a white card and a grey card?
[Reply]
Scott Says:
30 October 2008 at 6:36 am.
@Adam White card is for white balance. “Grey” is for exposure.
[Reply]
Bruce Says:
30 October 2008 at 6:51 am.
In Aperture, I believe you can select all your images and adjust the white balance for them by using the eye dropper on your white card frame.
[Reply]
Adam W (of Ontario) Says:
30 October 2008 at 6:57 am.
My Nikon manual says I can set white balance against a grey card or a white card. I have tried it with my grey card and works fine.
One software tool not mentioned (and understandably as it is a Nikon tool) is Capture NX. The same thing can be done as illustrated in this Tip. I am sure there are many other tools that will do the same thing, but on the topic of Nikon NX, some don’t realize the very useful ‘batch’ feature it offers. Just as Scott explains, you have an image with your white (or grey) card and in Capture NX you set your proper white balance from that “dummy” image. In Capture NX you then save that setting under the Batch menu as a “preset”. Then, under that same Batch menu you run a Batch job against all of your images that you want to apply the previously saved “preset”. I put all of the images that I want to apply this preset to into one directory/folder all unto itself. I then run the batch job against all the images in that folder, applying the white balance preset I made and have the output directed to a different directory.
Watching a batch process run on the computer is pretty slick because you just sit back with your arms crossed and watch the job run as it does the work for you because of the first “dummy” image you took, as recommended in this tip.
[Reply]
Scott Says:
30 October 2008 at 6:57 am.
@Bruce you can apply any white balance to any group of images using Aperture, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. Most post-processing software offers some sort of batch processing capability.
[Reply]
Scott Says:
30 October 2008 at 7:02 am.
I should mention that many people use gray cards for white balance too. I just personally get better results using a white card for white balance. Some cameras will react similarly to a gray card but NOT all cameras.
[Reply]
JP Says:
30 October 2008 at 7:45 am.
Scott, how would you adjust white balance for indoor events (reception or wedding for example) when you’re shooting at 800 ISO for ambient light and some flash (-1 or -2 compensation) to fill foreground subjects? Those usually come good for the foreground colors but ambient and background are yellowish because of the tungsten lighting. Would if best to warm up the flash with an amber gel to match the ambient light color (tungsten) and then “cool” back the whole shot in Lightroom?
[Reply]
Kevin Hillabolt Says:
30 October 2008 at 7:52 am.
I generally use a PhotoVision Calibration Target. They have black, gray and white lines, which help you set exposure, as well as white balance.
The idea is, in manual mode take an exposure of the target (by trying to fill the frame as much as possible) and check the histogram. You are looking for three distinct spikes (black, gray and white). Once you exposure is set, set the custom white balance (in camera), based on the picture you used to set the exposure.
You can also use the targets in post-production as well, if you only looking to set your white balance.
Bonus: you can also use the back side of the target as a reflector…
[Reply]
Steve Reynolds Says:
30 October 2008 at 10:04 am.
Ditto on Kevin’s post. I’ve been using the PhotoVision Calibration Target for the past 6 months. It’s great for exposure in manual flash mode, but most of the time I’m not in manual flash mode and it works perfect for white balance only.
[Reply]
Adam Says:
30 October 2008 at 11:48 am.
Thanks for the help Scott. I thought I remembered Richard Harrington say to choose a white or neutral grey with Apertures white balance eyedropper in the Quick Tip podcast.
[Reply]
Wolfman-K Says:
30 October 2008 at 2:27 pm.
Man I have been using Aperture for over a year and I never knew about that trick. Very cool, Thanks Scott.
[Reply]
Frank Jonen Says:
30 October 2008 at 6:23 pm.
I wonder what you guys think about a balancing filter. For some years I had an Expodisc as my lens cap but shooting rock shows was a bit of a problem with that.
Now I saw this Color Balance Lens a while back http://www.internationalsupplies.com/cbl/ and wonder if that’s a better one for when you’re shooting against colored light.
Obviously I can’t just put up a target on the stage after the show started. And with no assistant to run up and hold a target up that possibility is a bit of a goner.
[Reply]
Chris Says:
30 October 2008 at 9:32 pm.
A WhiBal card works pretty good as well http://www.rawworkflow.com/whibal/ Nice and robust as well
[Reply]
Genuine240 Says:
30 October 2008 at 11:11 pm.
@Frank,
When I shoot a concert I set my white balance to tungsten. Most of the lighting until recently has been tungsten with colored gel’s. Because leaving the camera on auto white balance with the wide variety of colored lights used in a concert, will leave you with white balance that can change from shot to shot.
That being said, most concerts now use moving lights that have an HID light source that has a color temperature closer to daylight. Sometimes if the LD (Lighting Director) knows anything about this, they will add color correction (CTO) to match them to tungsten.
Hope this helps,
Ernie
[Reply]
Links - October 31, 2008 « Photo Notes: Photography by Patty Hankins and Bill Lawrence Says:
31 October 2008 at 7:57 am.
[...] TWIP has an Easy White Balance Tip. [...]
Jason Says:
31 October 2008 at 12:07 pm.
The white card is a great idea - especially, if you are wanting the natural tones of your subject. However, some of my favorite pictures have a color cast to them from a rainy day, a sunset/sunrise, and so on. How can I capture the natural cast? Is it possible?
[Reply]
JeffDM Says:
31 October 2008 at 12:26 pm.
The problem with the Aperture eyedropper & lift and stamp tricks is that they aren’t very quick, even on my Mac Pro, it’s not very fast. I find I save so much time if I have the opportunity to tell the camera what white is by snapping a shot of a known white object and having the camera do a set white balance or “evaluative white balance”. That information gets passed to the RAW metadata, and Aperture will just read that. So knowing the trick can be handy, in my opinion it’s still a distant second, such as if there is no good way to do evaluated white balance.
[Reply]
Jason Says:
31 October 2008 at 12:27 pm.
Let me clarify as my question seems silly without more context. When you go to get a picture printed, for example, is there a way to indicate to them the “true” cast of the photo?
[Reply]
Scott Says:
31 October 2008 at 12:35 pm.
@Jeff I don’t share your experience or opinion as to Aperture’s performance on that tool but I think regardless of what software you’re using, there’s always a good argument to be made for doing what you can in the camera. I just rarely have time to do it in camera so I use this method.
[Reply]
Frank Jonen Says:
7 November 2008 at 12:37 am.
@Ernie Mostly indie stuff this and last year. Where you’re lucky to have grips at all not to mention a director. The LA Music Awards was an exception, they had fairly good grips. I actually had someone hold up a piece of paper for me there which I used as reference 
@Scott back when I was shooting Sigma (Foveon) I mostly captured “geometry” and did all the rest in post. I’m switching to lesser sensors just because Apple hates Foveon and after 5 years still ignore them. So I have to get it right in camera. Those bayer RAWs are just not there compared to a true RGB image.
[Reply]
