White Balance

[jonrayner]

This weekend I took the plunge and started to use RAW, although I used RAW + JPEG! When converting the RAW file, you can then set the White Balance as oppossed to the camera doing it for you. I noticed that when setting the WB you have all the options that you can set on the camera, eg Auto WB, Sunny, cloudy etc, but you also get the option of 'As Shot'.

A lot of my shots were most applicable under this setting. Why do camera's not have this as an option?

[gjtoth]

This weekend I took the plunge and started to use RAW, although I used RAW + JPEG! When converting the RAW file, you can then set the White Balance as oppossed to the camera doing it for you. I noticed that when setting the WB you have all the options that you can set on the camera, eg Auto WB, Sunny, cloudy etc, but you also get the option of 'As Shot'.

A lot of my shots were most applicable under this setting. Why do camera's not have this as an option?

John, some of the prosumer cameras do, indeed, have these options as well as going fully manual.

BTW, what software are you using to process your RAW files?

[jonrayner]

Trust me to get a camera that doesn't have the 'As Shot' White Balance setting. Oh well I would never even have known about it if it wasn't for the photographic learning curve I'm on!!

I use the in-built software within Photoshop Elements 6 to process my RAW files.

[dkippen]

Jon -

Have you tried to adjust your WB settings on your camera? There are settings for Cloudy, Sunny, Fluorescent, etc. By setting this before you take the picture, you may start out better in processing. The "as shot" setting in Camera Raw is just an override to what you've already set in the camera and in some cases may enhance what you originally shot.

[Snappers]

Jon, As Debbie had said, I would have thought that "as shot" just means that this is the setting you had the white balence set to on the camera hense "as shot" I do not think this is an actual setting. (I stand to be corrected though)

[jonrayner]

My understanding is that 'As Shot' is the image before any white balance has taken affect, I may also be corrected!!

[Snappers]

According to Abode Help file for After effects CS3 it says this:-

White balance controls in Camera Raw
In very simple terms, adjusting the white balance is a matter of identifying what objects in the image should be neutral-colored (white or gray) and then adjusting the colors in the image to make those objects neutral-colored. A white or gray object in a scene takes on the color cast by the ambient light or flash used to shoot the picture. When you use the White Balance tool to specify an object that should be white or gray, Camera Raw can determine the color of the light in which the scene was shot and then adjust for scene lighting automatically.

Color temperature (in Kelvins) is used as a measure of scene lighting because natural and incandescent light sources give off light in a predictable distribution according to their temperature.

A digital camera records the white balance at the time of exposure as a metadata entry. The Camera Raw plug‑in reads this value and makes it the initial setting when you open the file in the Camera Raw dialog box. This setting usually yields the correct color temperature, or nearly so. You can adjust the white balance if it is not quite right.
Note: Not all color casts are a result of incorrect white balance. Use the controls in the Calibrate tab to correct a color cast that remains after the white balance is adjusted.
The Basic tab in the Camera Raw dialog box has three controls for correcting a color cast in an image:

White Balance Camera Raw applies the white balance setting and changes the Temperature and Tint properties in the Basic tab accordingly. Use these controls to fine-tune the color balance.
As Shot Uses the camera’s white balance settings, if they are available.

Auto Calculates the white balance based on the image data.

Note: If Camera Raw doesn’t recognize the white balance setting of a camera, choosing As Shot is the same as choosing Auto.



Not sure if that answers your question or not.

[jonrayner]

Ah ha, that explains it, thank you.

[Snappers]

Glad that sorts it for you. As for me, I think I am still confused by it but as long as you understand it, thats ok.