5D II and white balance

chrismoore

Hi, I'm a few weeks into breaking in my 5DII. I used to always shoot on AWB with my previous 5D and that usually nailed the white balance with minimal adjustment in ACR. I've noticed that the 5DII on AWB seems to shoot on the cool side, and when processing the RAW files if I use the dropper in ACR on a white surface it seems to over correct and make the image super warm. I do use a calibrated monitor and my prints confirm that my subsquent "custom" WB adjustments are correct, but I do notice having to fiddle a lot more with WB in ACR since switching to the 5DII. I was wondering if other users had similar experiences, and do you use any particular WB settings during shooting that seem to make subsequent adjustments in RAW a little easier?
Thanks

Manfr3d

Same here with a 5D II and lightroom. I get correct WB when I selekt a (not so bright) grey area instead of one that is supposed to be white for wb adjustment in PP. My monitor is also calibrated btw.

Manfr3d

double post

chrismoore

Manfr3d wrote:

Same here with a 5D II and lightroom. I get correct WB when I selekt a (not so bright) grey area instead of one that is supposed to be white for wb adjustment in PP. My monitor is also calibrated btw.

Do you always shoot on AWB or do you find that using a preset works better based on the conditions?

Manfr3d

chrismoore wrote:

Do you always shoot on AWB or do you find that using a preset works better based on the conditions?

I always shoot AWB. If I was shooting JPEG I might set custom WB first.

Village Idiot

I always shoot with a custom WB or one of the presets so I know what color temp I'm shooting at. There was an article I read once about how AWB is not AWB and that the range is really limited.

chrismoore

I may try some of the presets to see what happens, but I think what I'll do this weekend is shoot some white and gray cards just to get an idea of what's off. I did shoot a little bit the other day on AWB just to test, and same problem-- too cool out of the camera and too warm in ACR using dropper.

ziggy53

chrismoore wrote:

I may try some of the presets to see what happens, but I think what I'll do this weekend is shoot some white and gray cards just to get an idea of what's off. I did shoot a little bit the other day on AWB just to test, and same problem-- too cool out of the camera and too warm in ACR using dropper.

Both white and gray targets may be useful, especially in artificial, non-daylight balanced environments. The reason is that while a white target may fully saturate a single color channel in say, tungsten lighting, the gray target may not get color clipped and lend itself better for automated WB. If you have both targets available in the image, use whichever gets closest to acceptable. Further adjustment may also be required for best color overall.

Mixed lighting is very hard to correct and may require specialized treatments for correct processing. Filtered flash to match ambient is often the preferred method.

Scott_Quier

I've also noticed that AWB is a bit cool under outdoor sunlight conditions. I haven't been able to fully characterize it yet. However, it seems to be consistant enough that I'm giving serous thought to creating a Lightroom Preset for just that situation as a starting point.