white balance - lightroom

[5teve]

Hi guys

quick question, whenever i alter the white balance in light room from as shot to anything else light sunlight, auto etc etc it gives the shots a very yellow / orange cast..

is this normal? or do i have to tweak my white balance in camera? (its on auto).

also is there any good online guides to setting white balance up (sorry still new to this!)

Thanks

Steve

[wjwncpro]

Originally Posted by 5teve

Hi guys

quick question, whenever i alter the white balance in light room from as shot to anything else light sunlight, auto etc etc it gives the shots a very yellow / orange cast..

With most RAW converters if you process in the auto modes, cloudy or shadows mode will go yellow on you

is this normal? or do i have to tweak my white balance in camera? (its on auto).

With the K20 and PPL conversion, I've not had to do any adjustments in cam. I shoot mostly in AWB, Av, or Manual, RAW + JPG****. Most of the time the K20 gets it right and I only need to convert the RAW about 10% of the time

also is there any good online guides to setting white balance up (sorry still new to this!)

Don't know about that but I calibrate my LCD once a month with a spyder and print with an Epson 1400 with out having to waste to many 4"x6" proofs before printing a 13"x19" photo.

Thanks

Steve

K20 + DA 17-70, AF-540 + Sto-Fen, JPG****, AWB, only cropped and resized with no other adjustments made.

[Marc Sabatella]

Originally Posted by 5teve

quick question, whenever i alter the white balance in light room from as shot to anything else light sunlight, auto etc etc it gives the shots a very yellow / orange cast..

is this normal?

Well, what kind of light was it, really? If it really was yellow/orange (eg, ordinary light bulbs), then yes, lying to your PP software and telling it you shot under sunlight will cause it to display as very yellow orange. If you want your software to *remove* the yellow/orange cast, you need to tell your software that the light really *was* yellow/orange, either by selection the Tungsten / Incandescent preset or adjusting the sliders yourself to select a temperature in that range.

In short, it sounds like you are thinking of WB setting as telling the software what color you light to look like, but that's *not* how it works. The WB settings is so you can tell the software color the light actually *is*, so the software can *remove* that color cast.

[5teve]

sorry Marc

a quick badly worded question!

there is one example specifically that i noticed it on.. it was really bright sunlight (midday time in australia!) camera gets it fine, and it looks great in Lightroom, i was just playing with the settings (my way of learning!) and noticed that when i changed the white balance then it really messed things up! any of the daylight settings (cloudy sunny etc) all gave a varying yellow cast..

i was just wondering if that was normal behaviour or if it was something to do with the white balance setting in camera, that is on auto and nothing has been changed.

all part of my education!

Thanks

Steve

[Marc Sabatella]

Does LR not report the specific temperatures of these settings? Setting WB to any temperature that is higher than the As Shot temperature will make it look more yellow; setting WB to any temperature that is lower than the As Shot temperature will make it look more blue.

[Frogroast]

I've had this happen in Lightroom as well - you can't forget about reflected light and filtered light in your photo - for example, taking a photo near a blue building or vehicle and are close enough to it to get some reflected light cast on your subject.

As Marc suggested, take a look at the specific temperature as reported by LR for those shots in question and you might find the answer.

[rayallen]

Try this - go to LR and then to the Develop module and Basic settings. Then select the large eye-dropper and move it over the image. As you do the the preview image in the Navigator panel will change to show you what the image would look like if you clicked at the point where the cursor is now.

Select a point in the image that should be light gray and click there. That should select the correct white balance. In fact, I just tried it on an image I thought was OK and the improvement was dramatic.

It is certainly worth a try.

[photog]

RE: Hover ...
Excellent tip. I'll do it in future.
Ron McDermott
Brisbane, Qluunsland

[dawsonjm]

My normal method for white balance changes is to just use the slider. The K10D usually gets it pretty good, but sometimes I have been shooting inside, then go outside in the morning and it is really awsomely bad. Any way, the slider is easiest for me to use.