Share your digital darkroom white balance trick

Nordentro · Expire: 2015-01-29

Every photographer has experience with white balance that is a bit off on some pictures. Skin tones are to red, picture have a green or blue cast from a difficult light source and more...

What is your best digital darkroom trick to adjust the white balance? Very Happy

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

What I usually try first is using the simplest white balance adjustments in the photo editing sortware I'm using. I have an Epson scanner and I find that the Epson Scan software often does a great job of color correction when I click on that option. So if I'm scanning an image from film, and it looks like the colors are off, this is the first option I'll try.

If it is a digital image where the wb is off, there are several option in Photoshop, as I recall, that allow for adjustment. I don't use PS as much as I use Paint Shop Pro. PSP is similar in that there are several different menu selections that allow for the control of color. Typically they all boil down to using a pencil or pen or eyedropper shaped icon where you will select an area that is supposed to be white, or 18% gray, or black. Sometimes, I need to select only one of these levels to get the correct color, sometimes I'll have to select all three. If it's being difficult, which is not very often, I may have to try several different combinations before I get a good color balance. PSP also has a manual color control, where you adjust the cyan-red, magenta-green, yellow-blue, but I seldom use it. Chances are very likely that Photoshop has these same features.

In practice, I will usually look for an area in the photo that is 18% gray. If I can find one, I'll click the icon on that spot, and that usually takes care of things. If there are no good 18% gray areas, then I'll look for one that should be white, and click on it. This often works as long as the white isn't totally bown out (255, 255, 255). Same with black, as long as it isn't totally blocked up (0, 0, 0). If the photo is all mostly midtones with no whites, grays, or blacks, that is when I just start clicking on multiple areas to see if I can get it set right. If not, I'll then resort to the manual color control.

martinsmith99 · Expire: 2013-11-18

I use Bridge and just eyeball it. Not exactly scientific but I haven't had any complaints yet.

std · Joined: 09 Feb 2010 Posts: 1826 Location: Bulgaria

White ballance on what?
film scans or for developing raw files?

Nordentro · Expire: 2015-01-29

hexi · Expire: 2011-11-18

I tried auto wb, it sux. So i take a pic of a white carton board, and made it my manual set wb. The color temp given is 5600K, it's pretty accurate, at least i prefer to auto wb

i HATE wb stuff by the way Twisted Evil