[johnkrumm]

I've noticed a tendency for my K1 shots to lean blue, especially outdoors. Today I played with the white balance fine tuning option and so far think the shots look more natural and balanced. Clouds look more neutral, greens more natural, blue sky good. I moved the white balance four clicks to Amber and one click to magenta. That seemed to do it. Anyone else have other preferences?

[Paul the Sunman]

On a particular monitor?

[Bruce Clark]

White balance is one of those things that can drive one to distraction if you let it. For most applications I find AWB to be quite good although it can be fooled. I don't believe it is possible or desirable to adjust it on the fly by eye or by formula to suit every occasion.

If it is critical I suggest the following.

1. Shoot RAW.
2. Set WB to Daylight and keep it there unless it is absolutely necessary to change. (Deep Shade, Heavy overcast, Tungsten Lighting etc)
3. Switch off White Balance Adjustable Range. (I presume K1 has this facility)
4. Calibrate your monitor.
5. Set PP Software Auto Tone or similar settings to OFF.
6. Adjust WB in Post Processing if necessary using eyedropper tool on white or grey object.

Alternative to 2. is to use a white card to set white balance in the current light. You may have to do this fairly often as light conditions do change throughout the day.

[johnkrumm]

Thanks. I've tried the daylight approach. All it meant was I spent too much time trying to get things right after the fact. Part of it is that I'm coming from Olympus, which is known for a slightly warmer look. This is with a calibrated monitor. Yes the white card is an option. I think that's why white balance looked better to me indoors because the camera could find something white enough to use.

I'll keep experimenting, but so far I like my results with the adjusted wb.

[alvaro_garcia]

Hi johnkrumm,

I did notice the same thing than you since I have my K-1 (tonal balance leaning towards coldish/blueish) and recently did test (some months back) the same thing: in WB AUTO mode I did move the dot few steps (2-3 clicks) towards the "A" on the right side (amber) of the color chart. I even posted a similar thread here on Pentaxforums regarding this concern.

I initially thought that I got the result I was looking for since long time ago, but right after I realized that moving the dot on the chart, resulted on removing the same amount of suplementary color than the amount you added by moving the dot towards the color you want to enhance. For example, by moving 2 clicks the dot to the right "A" (amber) you are actually adding that amount of yellowish (warm) cast to the tonalily, but you also are removing the same amount of its suplementary color, the blue. In theory that's exactly what we were looking for, isn't it?: adding some warmth (yellowish tonality) and removing some coldish cast (blueish tonality). But the result wasn't that satisfactory, as we were actually playing with the color palette, not with the actual cold/warm balance.

So I just realized that the solution wasn't editing the color palette on any WB mode, but editing instead the color temperature on the last mode of the WB list called "K". This mode has 3 program settings (K1, K2 and K3) to program different temperatures. By default the value is 5000K in all three settings (which is the standard temperature value used by Pentax in direct sunlight conditions). After a quick test, I noticed that 5100K shows more natural (less colder/blueish = warmer) results in very natural way, so I decided, for now, to leave the WB in mode "K" with 5100K (slightly warmer than the default 5000K), but only in direct sunlight, as when the sun sets or in cloudy days, it is better to set the WB in Auto (the camera will then automatically select higher temperatures to compensate).

Right after, I searched on Internet the default settings of WB temperatures on Nikon cameras (I also have Nikon and find its color cast quite pleasing and neutral), and it casually came out to be 5200K with "direct sunlight". So I believe that this color temperature value (5100K) is a much more natural and balanced tone for the K-1 as well (in direct sunlight conditions).

Another tip: It did take me months to figure out how to improve the weak (extremely soft) looking JPG images on my K-1, and the solution was to change the setting "Clarity" to its maximum value (+4). The difference literally was like night and day. Like looking through dirty plastic glasses or through extremely clean high quality crystal clear glasses.

Hope this helps.

Regards.