White balance

Bountyphotographer

Ok, I got my white balance on auto on my Canon 30 D (old I know) I hear people saying that they forget to change the white balance but since they shoot raw its ok they will correct it later?????
If htey didnt forget what will they use manually?
Isn t auto what we should be looking for???

Bounty

ziggy53

If you want to shoot a sunset/sunrise, or a subject illuminated by a sunset/sunrise, and if you chose Auto-WB, the scene will try to adjust for a "neutral" color balance, when you may really want to balance for daylight to preserve the warmth of the sunset/sunrise.

Using RAW workflow you can indeed chose daylight WB in your RAW converter, regardless of your camera's settings. Using a JPG workflow, you need to be sure to select the proper WB setting in the camera for the effect you wish to produce.

Likewise, if you want to shoot images in daylight and then post-process the images to look as if you shot at night, you will need to "cool" and darken the image (amongst other things), which is easier to do with a RAW workflow.

Bountyphotographer

Ok what about using orange filter during sunset and process it later , same thing?

Dan7312

Sometimes a 1/2 or 1/4 CTO (i.e. orange filter) is put on a flash when it's being used for fill in an sunset/sunrise photo so that the flash doesn't put the foreground in a different color than the background.

One problem with using an orange filter on the lens in the middle of the day is that the shadows will look wrong for sun rise/set.

Bountyphotographer wrote: »

Ok what about using orange filter during sunset and process it later , same thing?

ziggy53

Bountyphotographer wrote: »

Ok what about using orange filter during sunset and process it later , same thing?

Please do some experimentation on your own. You don't need expensive filters in order to do basic color experiments.

The bottom line is that if you use AWB (Auto White Balance) in your camera, your camera will attempt to WB a color filter back to neutral white balance, and you will potentially lose the effect when shooting to JPG. Shooting in RAW allows you to set color balance in the RAW converter, as always, and that should improve the situation somewhat. (See Dan's reply.)

Experimentation will show you how these concepts work to your benefit or to your disadvantage. Experimentation with cheap filtration materials will also help guide your expensive, high-quality filtration needs and purchases. (Don't buy any expensive and high-quality filters until you know what you need according to the results of your experiments.)

chuckdee1

Like you said, if you shoot raw, doesn't matter what balance you have set. If jpg, post production will damage the image significantly. First thing I do before shooting is check my WB and file size. Good habit to get into.