Good morning everyone!

Ok. I did a bit of searching to see if this has been discussed already but I couldn't find a thread, so here's my question...

We are going borderline insane with tweaking the whitebalance when batch editing our 2000+ photos (in Bridge)! Gear wise, we shoot with 5D's and a bunch of the popular f1.8 primes and we pretty much shoot auto WB all the time (sometimes indoors we'll try some other settings but generally it's all on auto). Oh, and we also shoot with natural light (except reception), we shoot raw, and we batch edit a la DJ method outlined in his Camera RAW presets video (auto checkboxes etc...).

Now here's the deal. When the both of us upload all our photos into the folder and look at everything in bridge it's usually a big mess...especially the indoor photos where there are a ton of different lighting situations (lamps, windows, green walls etc....)

It can take forever just to figure out what looks good for each batch of pictures from a given location! Too blue, too yellow, too green arrrghhh!

Now, outdoor photos usually look fantastic when shooting auto WB! We hardly tweak these ones.

So here's the question...
How do you guys and gals do it? I was thinking just to select all and change all the photos to auto WB within Bridge?! And then adjust from there? But I haven't tried that yet. I know people like Jasmine Star have said that they shoot auto WB all the time and it works beautifully....but we've tried it and like you see, we still need to do a ton of tweaking later.

Anyways, I hope to learn a good method to apply to the wedding we're editing right now. There's gotta be a better way! =D

Cheers everyone,
Bartek

shooting multiple flashes on/off camera tends to work pretty well with AWB...
If you're gunning for mostly available light then you can run into all sorts of WB craziness... especially if the dj or band has multi colored lights and so on... The thing with canon AWB is that it usually provides pretty predictable results, even if its off its usually off by the same amount across the board so making wb presets either in bridge, LR, or even shooting Kelvin can help... but yeah, if theres all sorts of colors in the room its going to change all the time...

Thanks for the reply!
We're not so much concerned with the reception since we have that pretty much under control with our on/off camera flash gear.

The main issue is the rest of the day when we're shooting with only available light. And I can't predict what the auto wb will do with different lighting scenarios in different colored rooms etc... know what I mean?

oooh... shoot a grey card and set a custom (K) wb... I know its not always feasible, but when you have the time it certainly helps in post.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/2315...ray_Card_4.html

Take one picture of it in every sitiuation and use it to make a whitebalance preset. Easy, cheap, and consistent.

Do not shoot on AWB. That will cause you to have to WB each file. For outside or natural light I stay on "Sunny/Daylight", for inside I use Tungsten or Flourescent, whichever is appropriate for that room. If I'm using flash I have a gel on it to balance with the room light. Then when you process, it's easy to batch groups to get accurate WB if need be.

+6 great tip... for the same reasons we shoot manual exposure... lessen the variables to save on post time!

I tried doing the whole daylight/flourescent thing, but it's not accurate
I think auto WB turns out way better for outdoor situations under the sun.

And the grey card is way too much hassle, but I have thought of it!

My main confusion is that I know that some of the top photographers out there shoot in auto...and somehow get it to work?!

Grey card is too much hassle? You won't have to take more than 10 total pictures of it all day. Lets say that takes 5 minutes.... how long are you spending in post? Sure it'll take a little bit to get used to. But man... it speeds up post "like woah."

There's also always the expos disk solution as well. Just toss it infront of your lens, snap then keep going. Another simple and effective solution.

Also maybe update your firmware? Could be a bit of a tweak or fix in there? (No idea, just a guess)

Good luck!

Grey card custom white balance is WORTH every second (and it's really only seconds) spent doing it. I would never shoot in a church without a custom white balance.I don't know which top photographers you are talking about, but if they are using auto, then they know *when* to use auto, and when to use other settings. That's how they get it to work.

he's talking about me b/c I use auto

even though the preset arent acurate it is all off by the same value, so if a scene is shot at daylight... 5700k or so but is closer to say 5300, its just one adjustment in ACR vs say some being 5700 or 5500, etc...

I know mike colon and bob davis use kelvin being mostly jpeg shooters... so those are two top photographers that dont use awb

Hmmmm. This grey card thing might be a good idea then, I guess I never realized how quick it would be to shoot it?! Thanks for the tips guys!

As for who I'm referring to, one person that has personally told me she shoots auto wb almost all the time is Jasmine Star. I asked it on her comments one day and here's what she replied:

me: "I love your WB, so I'm wondering if you'd have a second to one day share a little WB love?"

Jasmine*: "I shoot with the 5D and leave it on auto white balance almost the entire time. This camera is insane when it comes to soaking up the right colors!"

So you see...I am still confused
I'm guessing maybe she's got a killer method for making sure it works awesome all the time?!?

5d awb isnt bad at all, it struggles a bit with tungsten, but outside in good light its almost always spot on... hard backlight under a shady tree is a different story...

Ooooh Acronym time! YMMV. Your mileage may vary. So her 5d picks up the right awb and yours doesn't. Sadly, that happens. Canon has churned out millions of them and there will be all sorts of differences between them. All you can do is work around it, or try sending it in to canon and complain that the AWB is inconsistent and see if they can/will fix it.

Yep! That's exactly what I'm saying! :)So, is there a good method to tweaking all of this if one doesn't use a grey card?

Another idea is to use your Histogram. I live by my histogram, and I also use a digital calibration target (similar to the grey card).

But you can use your histogram as your "color meter". For example, a perfect white balance shows up in a histogram that is in perfect alignment. By the way, I am talking about the split histogram that shows you the RGB and luminance channels individually. If you see that the red channel is creeping (extending) beyond the other channels, then you know that there is too much red in that scene. If you are using the WB presets like Sunny or Cloudy, I don't know about Canon, but on Nikon you can further adjust those as well to +- a certain amount.

When I use the digital calibration target I don't do a preset WB, I leave the WB on Auto but I take a shot of the target at that scene and then simply batch WB all the images from that scene in post by selecting the grey area of the target. So this makes it a little faster during shooting. If I am doing portraits and I am not rushed, then I set the WB on camera with the target, that way I don't have to color correct in post. Hope this helps.

Hmm...I don't think that's the case here? Since we have two 5D's and they both have the same results?

Thanks for this rgb histogram explanation, I never knew that! But as far as exposure goes, we use it ALL the time while shooting to make sure it's spot on I'll have to try the rgb one now.

But essentially your "target" method is pretty much like shooting a grey card?

you dont have the magical west coast light that is so perfectly in tune with 5Ds.

I'm assuming that was sarcastic....

Bartek, shooting a grey card takes about three seconds tops. If you shoot it ten times throughout the day... that's thirty seconds. Compared to hours in post, I'll take it. It will still take time to process the images in batches, but nowhere near as long as the fiddling you're doing now.

Here's a sample of how you can shoot them in advance:
http://www.editbunny.com/whibal

Not only can you shoot them in advance, but you can also shoot the card after the fact as long as the lighting hasn't changed. Just make sure you catch the light falling on the card. If you're outside, don't aim the card down to shade it. Let the sun hit it head on.

http://www.colorright.com/

This is a new product it is basically like a WB card but built into a lens filter, you just hold in on the front of your lens for a custome WB, super fast and you don't have to pull out and place a grey card or calibration target. I tested it against my Ed Pierce calibration target (I have the warm coloright model) The calibration target is a little better and slightly more accurate and warmer than the colorright but not enought to make up for the speed of the colorright. Keep it in you back pocket and WB any time. The only quirk is you have to take off the Single Servo focus beacuse there is nothing for the camera to see when it does the WB. Also you need to get LR and work much better than Bridge, copying your WB settings and adjustments.

This is the absolute fastest most efficent and less intrusive way to WB and this is how I do it. Occasionaly I will do it if tsomething in the room is damn close to grey. I am working on memorizing Kelvin mode settings and that will be the next step.

The single color histogram is fine for exposure, but the RGB one will help you with the WB and also to see if any of your colors are clipping. Yes, the target method is the same as shooting a grey card, but it also gives the added benefit of verifying exposure as well. The calibration target has 18% grey, it has 5% black and 95% white. So when you shoot the target you are shooting a standard that never changes, at that point I just check my histogram to make sure my exposure is right without blowing highlights and I just shoot away.

Again, I don't this for weddings because the pace is much faster, but when I shoot portraits, whether indoors or outdoors then I use the target every time I change locations or lighting. That way I make sure that my images are not only properly WB in camera, but that my exposure is spot on as well. Hope this helps.

I know one person that keeps his Nikon on Cloudy, dialed to +3, and then say he has images that are all off the same. Click balances one image and syncs the rest. I don't know about that, but that's one method being used.
I have the expodisc, but rarely use it. I need to keep it handy. It nails the WB. I don't like the warming one. If I want it warm I'll do that in post. I want accurate to start with.

I carry 3- 4x6 pieces of neutral white, gray, and black matte laminate in a pocket of my bag. I use it whenever possible, especially inside, to set a custom white balance. I spread them out deck of card style at arms length and shoot a frame. I then use that frame for the custom white balance and the black and white cards give you a good indication via the histogram whether or not you are over/under exposed. In truth this is really helpful for most folks but I rarely if ever really check the exposure with it as I know I'm on. But for white balance it is great, simple, and durable. I got the laminate as free samples too btw and just use a cable tie through a small hole to hold them together.

Outside AWB works pretty good on todays DSLR's but I prefer for wedding and portrait work to set the camera to one of the presets or custom WB as above to keep the WB consistent from frame to allowing a batch correction with just a click or two. Otherwise you may have to adjust the WB individually on each image. Headache.

I shoot only the ceremony in RAW usually and the rest of the time JPEG with custom white balance. Saves time and hard drive space later.

BTW if you get the Photovision DVD's their product is used in exactly the same manner as I described above. You can also find a similar product called a Whi-Bal and video tutorials online showing you how and why.

I'm dredging this up because I'm having white balance issues at times.

I use a Nikon D200 and have found that AWB works pretty well outdoors, not so much indoors. I've used an ExpoDisc, both indoors and out, but have found it's not foolproof--in shady situations in particular, it registers way too warm. Anybody else with an ExpoDisc find this? I also have a Kodak gray card but, as I understand it, they're not ideal for digital white balance.

So--I'm looking for another white balance product or technique. Any experiences with the following (or similar) would be helpful:

Robin Meyers Digital Gray Card - $15
http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/im6700/

X-Rite Color Checker - $55
http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/MO2305/

X-Rite Gray Scale - $55
http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/MO2315/

Or anything else that you swear by?

If your camera system says not use a gray card shoot a white piece of note book paper (it doesn't get cheaper or easier then that) or use any of the methods in my post above. They all work reasonably well.

As for the Expo-Disc they make one that is supposed to register warmer. Maybe you have that version...

Also if you want it to register warmer you could throw a bit of a blue gel on it. That should work as well.

No, I've got the "original" (non-warm) version of the ExpoDisc. And I don't want it to register warm--I want WHITE!

*ahem*

+1 to the whibal.
IT only takes a second to shoot it - and it saves you a bunch of time at the other end!

I shoot RAW and I shoot AWB. After doing alot of processing I can now see where my WB is off and I can adjust it almost by sight.

I find its better to err on the warm side then the cooler side (die blues)

For more colour critical work - final album images etc - I jump into PS and use levels and curves to remove any colour casts.