Auto White Balance on Canon digital SLRs

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited July 2009 in Lifestyle
So having experience with several Canon dSLRs now, I have to ask:

Is it just me, or does the automatic white balance setting frequently get it very wrong?

I feel like I have to adjust white balance on almost every photo I take. Is there something I can do differently to improve WB?

Comments

  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Well, you can use the user-defined white balance. Basically, it'll take a picture of a 'white' piece of paper and define that as 'white'.

    If you're in a situation where you know you'll be shooting a lot of pictures under the same lighting conditions, this is probably the what to go.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    primesuspect wrote:
    So having experience with several Canon dSLRs now, I have to ask:

    Is it just me, or does the automatic white balance setting frequently get it very wrong?

    I feel like I have to adjust white balance on almost every photo I take. Is there something I can do differently to improve WB?
    It gets it wrong pretty much of the time. If you're shooting in RAW though it doesn't matter because white balance doesn't get saved.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Yeah, I don't bother with white balance. It can always be tweaked.

    That said, I have done the manual WB several times; it's pretty cool.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    I was gonna ask what would be the result of using an off white piece of paper for manual WB but I figured the answer would be to go and try it.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    ... your white balance will be slightly off.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Can anyone tell me if my Cannon PowerShot has a user-defined white balance option? I've been looking for it the last few days, but I can't find the option (and I can't find the manual)
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    What model?

    Also, you can probably get a pdf of the manual at canon's website.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    A610

    /me goes to cannon.com
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Doesn't look like it's listed on usa.canon.com anymore. CB, will this work?
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    I found the manual PDF on www.usa.cannon.com in the downloads section. It does have a section on custom white balancing. I have to go the the White balance menu, select AWB, then the option for custom white balancing appears. I feel like I've looked there before, but it wasn't there... They must have updated my camera software by satelite or something.

    [me]* CB puts a plain index card in his camera bag.[/me]
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    My cannon doesn't need white balance, the cannon balls fly straight in any light.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm
    hearts the irony in mocking cannon whilst exchanging "fly" for "flight."
     Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    hearts the irony in mocking cannon whilst exchanging "fly" for "flight."
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    hehe. i think it was having 'light' in the same sentence that effed me up.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    The white balance settings are only accessible from the manual setting modes on our cameras, CB.
    "Auto" and all the scene modes are AWB. If you looked from one of those modes, you wouldn't have seen the option.
  • chrisWhitechrisWhite Littleton, CO
    edited July 2009
    Hold up here, white balance? Excluding camera-phone photos I haven't shot anything that wasn't RAW in two years and last time I did I deeply regretted it later.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    Congratulations. Not everybody shoots with DSLRs and has access to RAWs.

    ...
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    ...
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    dotdotdot
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited July 2009
    ---

    ffffs, I fail.
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