Article
Other Steps We Can Take On White Balance
White balance is normally set when taking the
photograph, but there are ways to either change it after or to use another way
to correct the white balance. In this article we are going to explore these
options.
Changing it later
Providing you have taken the photographs as RAW
images (not Jpg's), you can change the white balance setting after. You have the
choice of all the white balance settings except PRE, which has to be
measured at the time.
You can change it in:-
- Nikon ViewNX - go to details on the picture (left
of screen fly out) and look
towards the bottom.
- Nikon CaptureNX - look in the edit list, under base
adjustments, then RAW adjustments, then white balance.
- Photoshop RAW - available from a screen
parameter.
- Some others - details vary but will only be
available if they handle RAW images for your camera.
Using a Grey Card, EzyBalance,
TriBalance
or XpoBalance
With these you can take an image with your
chosen target included, and the white balance set to a fixed setting for example
outside sunny or cloudy, and then continue to take a series of photographs on the
same white balance setting.

Lastolie Ezybalance |

Lastolite TriBalance |
See
TriBalance, Ezybalance, and
XpoBalance
for a fuller explanation of these targets and their uses.When you have your images on the computer you
can use an editing program to adjust the colour to get it exactly right, to
illustrate how this is done let's use the XpoBalance as an example, used with the
side that has black, white and grey as the included target. |

Lastolite XpoBalance |
We are also, for illustrative purposes, using
Nikon CaptureNX but you can apply this to many other programs.
We are also assuming it was a consistent cloudy
day.
This is done by:
-
Taking the first photograph so it includes
our chosen target, in this case the XpoBalance, with colour balance (WB) set to
cloudy.
-
Taking remaining pictures in sequence with
colour balance (WB) set to cloudy.
-
Back on the computer, load the image
including the chosen target, loaded into a suitable program (CaptureNX).
-
Use the black control point and put it on
the black area of the target (toolbox row, left of F4 group or from control
point menu).
-
Use the white control point and put it on
the white area of the target.
-
Use the neutral colour control point and put
it on the grey area of the target.
-
Optionally we can make slight adjustments if
we want to the luminosity on the black and white control points.
-
Press 'new step' bottom of edit list (not
really necessary buts makes sure all is recorded to date).
-
Select by clicking on, in edit list, the B/W/N
control point line/step.
-
From drop down on batch controls (cogs at
bottom of edit list) select either, save settings, or copy settings.
-
You can now apply this setting to as many
other images as you like using the batch processing commands. For example if
you had copied settings, you could now go to the browser (fly out on left) and
select the other images to edit, and then right click and select paste settings.
Although it's better to shoot in RAW this will
work in other formats, and faster with smaller files.
You could also choose to do other operations at
the same time, perhaps increasing colour saturation, warm up, and a little
sharpening, as well as resizing..... it's just more steps that are undertaken and
included in your selection.
This batch process approach is often used by
wedding and fashion photographers. If the light changes its important to stop
and do an extra shot with the target, then allowing you to work in batches.
Personally I prefer to use the
PRE setting method,
but on occasions this can be a useful technique.
Many more options
You can also use the white balance system to
get specific effects for example warming images, and this can be applied in
several ways including false grey targets, that have a similar effect to using
filters.
White balance is a large topic and we have been
able here to show you some of the basics of this here, take a look at our other
articles and find out more.
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