Shortly afterwards, when I looked into the screen, I nearly jumped when I saw the photo above. Then, I realized that the last time I picked up the camera I had set the Tungsten (white balance, that is, the little light bulb) white balance. That got me thinking... and wondering what would it be if I used the neon white balance setting.
Here it is, only a bit cool, not by much, the Neon white balance seems unnatural. Does it really need to be this cooling... Then, I considered another choice, so I dialed it in.
It was the Cloudy setting. Even though the day was actually cloudy, it doesn't seem that this setting actually helps with the color. Or am I being excessively demanding here? Given the circumstances, I switched White Balance to another setting: Sunlight.
Here's it! The same image, or at least its idea, in all the glory of Sunlight (that is, the nice sun sign).
Now, I do not intend to show any camera or software flaws, but rather present the things this camera can do if we, users, stop putting our brain on hold and take the reins.
A result of my own experiment is that I have found a satisfactory setting, even cooler than the Tungsten one: I call it the 2500 degrees view. That's it: for serious tungsten situations, just set the light temperature at its lowest parameter (2500°) and there you go with a perfectly adequate WB for tungsten lights.
More on this later. Thanks!
2 comments:
A cool tip for your white balance needs is to go into Photoshop and get to the "Levels" control.
Hold down the alt button when you click on the black or white slider and the image will change to either black or white. As you move the slider under the histogram, you will begin seeing the darks or lights start to peak out in the image. It will be shown as little hot spots in the image sort of like a topographical map. This shows you where absolute white and black sit. I only like to set things to where I just start to see a tiny bit. If you see it in a blue, red or green color then that is the color channel in RGB that is peaking out. Usually skin tones show red peaking out first and the snow example you have would show blue.
This also helps to ensure that your image is properly exposed so the benefit is two fold.
There are also little eye droppers in the Levels pop up that allow you to select one of them (black white or gray) and click on the appropriate part of the image that you just seen in the Levels where it just peaked out...
Clicking on that will establish a proper black and white point and all the colors in between fall within that rage.
Whola. Your image is accurately calibrated.
Take care! Great post by the way. Proper white balance is often overlooked by many.
Thanks a lot, Michael! Let's see if this works with PSE. In any event, I'll make sure your comment gets read, somehow. Take care!
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