Apeture/White Balance question

When I want to use the dropper in the White Balance adjustment, I'm supposed to choose neutral gray. What do you choose if there is no neutral gray in the shot? What numerical values should I be targeting that appear in the Loupe? Thanks.
Jerry

Any color where the amount of 'red', 'green', and 'blue' are all equal will work -- including "white".
But you're not searching for color values where the R, G, & B values are equal... rather you're searching for colors you know are supposed to be equal -- yet are not. The white-balance will then adjust them based on how out-of-balance your selected color is to correct the color to be in-balance (and everything else in the image will be adjusted relative to that selected point.)
This just gets you a starting point -- you might need (or want) to tweak it off that starting point just a little. e.g. At a wedding with candles the images probably should appear just a touch to the warmer side -- a true & "perfect" balance that fails to represent that candles would have put a slight warm cast on the room would make the pictures appear "cold".
At the very least, make sure the color adjustment appears consistent from image to image.

Similar Messages

  • White Balance Questions

    Is there a way that I can shoot a pic of a gray card at the beginning of a photo session and then magically apply that neutral gray to an entire project automatically? Or, do I have to go through and adjust the white balance on each and every picture in the project? If the answer is the latter, how do I pull the neutral gray from the pic of the card and apply it to the real pictures in my project, on a pic-by-pic basis? I've been playing with this and I just can't figure it out intuitively, nor do I find it addressed in the aperture manual.
    One more question ... If I don't take a pic of a gray card and instead use the eye dropper tool to find a neutral gray within the picture, what numeric levels am I aiming to find for the four different colors that appear? For the life of me, I don't know why that simply question is not addressed in the manual!
    I appreciate any insight you can give.

    I use a gray scale instead of a gray card, and I click white instead of middle gray. However, I just tested on middle gray, and the difference is less that 70 degrees Kelvin.
    So, if you use the eyedropper in the white balance brick, you can then use Lift and Stamp to apply it to the rest of the images in your project.
    See Applying Adjustments to a Group of Images page 438 of the user manual.
    DLS
    PS welcome to the forum
    Message was edited by: MacDLS

  • Tethered and White Balance question

    I am using the latest Aperture and also the latest Aperture Hot Folder to shoot tethered using my Canon5d to my powerbook g4 1.67ghz. The issue is shooting images with the same white balance applied as I shoot. Is there an obvious way to do this that I am missing? Or does anyone have an idea how to do this using Applescript? My main app to shoot is CaptureOne and white balance is quite easy to do using this app. I am trying to integrate Aperture into my shooting workflow not just my post workflow. Any ideas would be appreciated.
    - Rudy

    i don't know what your canon is like, but the D200 also has the ability to 'read' a white balance setting (probably from the same sort of calibration card that you're talking about... i've never tried one, but often want one). this calibrates the in-camera white balance setting based on the light you're shooting with. this again would hopefully get you close to correct without software post production (this is a theme for me: shoot correctly and then spend less time correcting).
    and you've still got the ability to tweak if its not perfect and then lift/stamp those tweaks everywhere else. i like the fact that CapOne had thought of that for tethered shooting, but i also don't like to stretch and pull my image data any further away from the raw data than necessary.
    keep us posted on how you finalize the workflow
    scott
    PowerMac G5 2.5GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   MacBook Pro 2.0GHz

  • White Balance question

    I have taken a few zillion pictures of various minor hockey games. I have not been wise enough to use a WB card, so most of the pictures are various shades of yellow due to bad lighting in the arena. EVERY picture however requires me to use the dropper to find a gray target and set the white balance that way. No big deal. But do I really have to do it for every picture? Why wouldn't the TEMP and TINT be the same for a whole game?
    Paul

    Because the arenas are usually lit by high-bay lights, possibly a mixture of metal-halide and sodium. Each light has a different color, and they flicker at 120Hz. If you are shooting at shutter speeds faster than about 1/30th, you are catching pieces of cycles from individual lamps meaning the color and lighting are always changing.
    The solution to this is lighting the arena yourself with big strobes. Sadly, getting them to install electronically-ballasted lamps into the arenas is not going to be so easy.

  • Basic white balance questions

    1.) What do you do if you are working on an image that has absolutely no white in it or neutral colors? Maybe the white detail is all washed out, maybe the image is made up of blues, reds and yellows. How do you use the white balance tool in this case?
    2.) If you have the option of choosing both a white color or grey color to use the white balance tool on, is there a general rule of thumb for using one over the other? Or do you just try both to see which looks better? Does clicking on white result in a better white balanced image generallly than when clicking on grey?
    Thanks.

    Jeff Schewe wrote:
    Most of the time I don't bother with the White Balance tool and simply adjust the image to taste. But if you do need an "accurate" WB, then it's better to use a non-specular non-blownout white. Grey is too far down the tone scale and can be a bit less accurate.
    A non-specular non-blownout white would be best. Unfortunately, such a target is not readily available. The "white" patch of the Colorchecker has a reflectance of about 90% (optical density = 0.05) and is not spectrally neutral, so it is recommended to use the second brightest patch for white balancing with the color checker. It is apparently difficult to make a spectrally neutral white paint. The second brightest patch has an OD of 0.23 (~60% reflectance) and is reasonable spectrally neutral. The darker neutral patches will result in a higher signal:noise in the image, but can work relatively well if your sensor has good noise characteristics, and a darker gray neutral area of an image can be used if a lighter neutral area is not available.
    Babel Color used to provide a spectrally neutral white target, but it is no longer being offered. Their web-site FAQ gives useful information on the section on the of a white balancing target. Besides not being spectrally neutral in many cases, the Kodak 18% target is too dark, but can give acceptable results as many photographers have found. The WhiBal target has a reflectance of 50% (OD = 0.32, L* = 75) and is a reasonable choice for white balancing.
    http://www.babelcolor.com/main_level/faq.htm#FAQ-white_balance_target

  • New to RAW, White balance question

    I've been using Lightroom for years, but with my camera outputting JPG images only. I've now started working with RAW (NEF) files from my D90 recently, and am having newbie's difficulties.
    LR 2.6, Mac OSX 10.5.8, iMac 24" 2.8GHz
    The problem that brings me here is that I just did a shoot without setting a white balance. Shot JPG & NEF, and I see that Lightroom is extrapolating the AWB values the camera came up with onto the NEF files "As Shot". For a series of similar images I have found a white balance that seems to work. I set that on my chosen image, shift-select the rest, and attempt to SYNC white balance to the other images.
    It doesn't take. WB's remain "As Shot" for the other images, and all over the place, following the camera. Expanding the items synced to include "Treatment (Color)" doesn't help.
    How can I "Sync" white balance with NEF files, please?
    Many thanks in advance.

    So Lightroom is essentially applying an "Auto WB" on its own when displaying images "As Shot"?
    ON EDIT: I ask this because every image has a different, individual "As Shot" WB when first seen in Lightroom.
    Hardly seems "As Shot" if LR is going in and altering the WB right off the bat.
    MethodPhoto wrote:
    The white balance information that Nikon knows about is not information that Lightroom uses.
    Camera Raw and Lightroom use Adobe's method of profiling the camera which is different from Nikon's. So you won't get an exact match, however Adobe provide a set of profiles which are intended to match as closely as possible the Camera looks - these are in Develop > Camera Calibration
    If you find there are a certain set of adjustments that you repeatedly make then save them as a Preset and you can apply them to a batch of images or on import. (These can include White Balance settings and Calibrations and Profiles).

  • Another white balance presets/settings question

    (this is related to two other posts regarding white balance presets, but didn't want to hijack those threads with my own specific questions...)
    i've got a canon s70, and have been messing around with a friends copy of aperture. the raw files of my camera are recognized (though the aperture camera support page identifies it as not optimized support), but the problem is that the white balance settings in camera are ignored.
    when i view a raw file from my camera in aperture, the exif data shows that it is recognizing different white balance settings (various numbers are displayed here, for example, 1 for auto, 3 for tungsten, 6 for manual, etc). however, the temp. and tint settings are the same for all the images, regardless of wb setting (5278K temp, -18 tint).
    so, here are my questions:
    - is there any setting i'm missing that would let aperture correctly interpet the wb temp for a specific setting? in another thread regarding canon cameras and wb someone stated that aperture reads wb 'as shot', but it seems odd that it would recognize these different wb settings but apply the same temp and tint calculations across the board.
    -i noticed that i can create white balance presets and apply them manually. i was wondering if it's possible to apply preset wb settings automatically. for example, is it possible to create an approximate wb setting for 'tungsten' (3), and then have it applied to all images with the '3' setting, either automatically on/immediately after import, or through an applescript or automator action?
    while i could use lightroom, atm lightroom is lacking some features that i crucial to my wider image management/workflow needs (though it does correctly interpret my white balance settings). aperture seems like the best bet for me, but i would rather not go through my library of raw files and manually change the wb settings for each image.
    thanks in advance for any help.

    I don't know about your other white balance issue, but yes, you can apply a white balance to a selection of images.
    Create a set of WB presets (one for daylight, cloudy, fluorescent, tungsten etc.). This takes moments and will be available on any future occasion.
    Select and apply your WB preset to an image
    Fine tune as needed (since in-camera auto white balance or presets often do not nail it)
    Select Lift/Stamp tool
    Click on your adjusted image
    In the Lift/Stamp HUD, deselect all adjustments except the WB
    Select all target images
    Click "Stamp Selected Images" button in the Lift/Stamp HUD

  • White balance presets and other random questions

    Hi,
    I'm new to aperture and I had a few questions:
    1) Is there a white balance preset, i.e. daylight, shade etc, or do you manually have to dial these numbers in each time?
    2) Is there another color meter aside from the loupe? Something that I can leave on the same spot in the image while I'm trying to correct color?
    3) I have roughly 5000 nef images on a second hard drive on my G5, is there a way to keep the library external (like Lightroom), or do I have to reimport all of these images in to aperture's library?
    4) Where does the image library like to live – where will it be fastest? Should it be on the startup drive, or is there a speed advantage to putting it on a secondary drive (like photoshop)?
    Cheers,
    G5 Dual 2.0g   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   macbook pro 2.0g

    Hi Ned(bot?),
    1) Unfortunately, no. You have to dial these in each time. If you dial it in for one image you can lift and stamp to others, but it's a bit hit or miss.
    2) The color meter is always active -- check near the histogram, it shows the RGB and L values for each pixel... this has been since 1.1.
    3) You must import the images into Aperture's library. Note Aperture can have multiple libraries... the only thing is to switch between them you need to make a preference change and re-launch Aperture. For the photos to be accessible from other applications, while inside Aperture's library, you can either make a smart folder which exposes them from the Finder, or you can use a tool like iView Media Pro which can peer inside Aperture's library (which is really just a folder).
    4) On a desktop machine, the library will be fastest on the internal drive. On a laptop -- it depends... A Firewire 800 connection to a 7200 RPM disk will be faster than an internal 4200 or 5400 RPM drive... a Firewire 400 connection may be slower. Does your MBP have a 5400 or 7200 RPM internal drive? The latter is better, but the difference won't be colossal.

  • Question about stamping white balance

    Hello,
    I'm a beginner in Aperture and have the following question for which I haven't found an answer yet.
    Let me explain what I did and where the problem rose:
    I have a set of photo's (400+, RAW), all taken at the same location under nearly same conditions (oldtimer rally, outside, sunny weather).
    I've adjusted the first image by choosing:
    Exposure: 'auto'
    White balance: 'auto'
    White balance was changed by Aperture in (in the Inspector): Temperature & Tint and for both a specific value.
    I changed the second image the same way.
    Again Aperture choose Temperature & Tint for white balance and specific, but other, values than for the first image.
    Fine sofar.
    I lifted the adjustments of the second image:
    Adjustments:
    White balance : Auto White Balance
    Exposure : Auto Exposure
    Deselected everything but Adjustments for White balance and Exposure.
    Selected image 3 until the last one and stamped them.
    80% of the image's OK but for about 20% of the photo's, Aperture came up (in the Inspector) with "White balance: natural gray".
    So I thought to be smart and changed one photo (White balance : natural gray) to Temperature & Tint.
    Photo adjusted: OK.
    If I lift the adjustments of this photo, Aperture shows:
    Adjustments:
    White balance : Temperature (4851.60), Tint (10.68)
    Exposure : Auto Exposure
    If I select this and use it to stamp all "White balance: natural gray" photo's, I have the problem that the 'stamp' also stamps the temperature and tint values where I want it, of course, to 'auto detect' these values as they are not the same for each photo for the best result.
    Any solution for this?
    Kind regards,
    emeu1

    oh, well that tell me a lot, it blends in on the other iPhones and iwas thinking about switching for the firs time and getting an iPhone 5s silver since its dropped down. I guess in all actuality it doest matter much, I'm jet one of those users with ocd and detail analysis, making sure its always up to standards. but all in all, I'm thinking to spend more time at an apple store messing with the white iPhones
    but it always helps to get a users opinion
    thanks

  • A dumb question about kelvin and white balance in Lightroom

    I keep reading a high kelvin number is cooler and a low number is warmer, but in light room, in the develope module, the lower number ( 3500 ) is blue, and a higher number, (7000) is very yellow. What am I missing?

    Lee is essentially correct with his analysis but incorrect with the details. The Kelvin colour temperature scale is between Yellow and Blue, not Red and Blue as stated.
    There's a lot of confusion about this, with many digital photographers missing the significance of the difference between cyan and blue, magenta and red etc.
    To be fair, the printing industry has added to the confusion by traditionally calling printing inks Blue, Red and Yellow when they really are cyan, magenta and yellow.
    Even Adobe can get it wrong. In the initial Lightroom beta release, the temperature scale had the colours Cyan at one end and Yellow at the other. I suggested it be changed to Blue to make it correct and less confusing which thankfully was implemented in the next update.
    Despite decades of working with colour both in the darkroom and with Photoshop, I too struggle with the counter-intuitive approach of the colour temperature reading in Lightroom.
    Essentially, if you shoot in light that is too blue, then you need to add Yellow. So the Kelvin number displayed in Lightroom isn't the 'Mired' correction or the amount of Yellow added, but a readout of the scene's original colour temperature before the Yellow correction.
    This can be really useful. I use several different branded flash units with various reflectors and attachments. I recently ran a test, shooting a Macbeth colour checker with all the different combinations.
    I then used the White Balance Selector (dropper) on the neutral 5 patch and wrote down the resulting colour temperature.
    From that I could work out what filter corrections I needed to use on each flash and reflector to produce consistent daylight balance.
    Most flashes seem to be around 6000ºK but I had variation between 5200ºK & 6400ºK with the combinations.

  • White Balance Adjustment question

    I have about 800 images from a wedding, and am now ready to go thru them and adjust the white balance.
    However, am I missing something?
    I click on the white balance option, then the dropper, then click on the image to adjust the white balance ...
    But, when I go to the next image, I have to THEN click on white balance AGAIN then the dropper, then the image etc etc etc???!!!
    Can I just click on the dropper once, then scroll thru the images to adjust without having to ACTIVATE the white balance option again and again and again?
    When there are 800 images, adding in those extra two steps is slowing me down big time.
    Does this make sense?
    Much appreciated!

    So, I wanted to adjust each image individually but
    without always having to click on White Balance
    Adjustment each and every time. I really just want
    to click thru and eye dropper the images.
    Is this possible, or do I have to always go to the
    adjustment pane and let the thing know I want white
    balance adjustment after each image ...
    I'm afraid the interface lets you down here. What's unfortunate is that there is no keyboard shortcut for the WB tool. There is for Edge Sharpen, for instance (ctrl-S) -- which means that for each image you can leave the HUD open and very quickly bring in the tool so its standard preset will be applied. It would be awfully nice to have that fast, mouseless capability with other tools.
    (Query: since you can't get rid of default tools, which is why they're grayed out in the "+" menu on the HUD, why do they have keyboard shortcuts?? Pressing the shortcut doesn't toggle the tool off-and-on, or anything. Why do Color and Highlights & Shadows have ctrl-key shortcuts, and Crop and Straighten have non-ctrl-key shortcuts? Mysteries, mysteries.)
    It might be most efficient to figure out what most images need, lift and stamp that setting, then go back and nudge or cancel the WB correction on the others. Depending on the numbers and proportion, of course.

  • Adobe Bridge - White balance metadata

    When I browse raw files from my Canon EOS Rebel XT/350D in Adobe Bridge I always look at the Metadata tab to check for the f-stop value, speed, white balance settings, etc. of the currently-selected raw image file.
    I noticed that the pictures shot in Automatic White Balance appear on the upper-left portion of the Metadata tab as an icon indicating AWB. However, whenever I take pictures with manually-set white balances, such as shade, day light, tungsten, etc., the metadata tab no longer indicates the white balance I chose, instead, it either shows an icon of a camera or two dashes, as in --.
    Is there any way I can set Adobe Bridge to show the appropriate White Balance icon for pictures I take with manually-set white balances?

    Hi Curt,
    Thanks for your reply. Yes, White Balance is checked in preferences/metadata. All of the Exposure metadata entries are also checked.
    I forgot to mention that my version of Camera Raw is 4.5 (the latest).
    You know, although White Balance is checked, I cannot find a White Balance text entry on any of the metadata lists (File properties, IPTC core, Camera Data (EXIF), etc.). The only place where I can see the White Balance setting in on the upper left corner of the Metadata tab, under the f-stop value.
    Here is a personal question for you: When you browse your pictures in Adobe Bridge and you select one that was taken with a specific White Balance (not Auto), does your Adobe Bridge display an icon for that particular White Balance setting? I just want to eliminate the possibility that this happening only in my computer.
    Thanks a lot for your time and attention.

  • Can you remove the camera white balance setting in Aperture

    I have a Canon 7D and use Aperture for processing and storing my images.
    With the Canon I shoot both video and still and frequently adjust the white balance in the camera.  I make a frequent mistake in leaving the wrong white balance setting on - eg when taking video indoors in the evening  I set the white balance to indoors (the Canon seems poor at white balance decision making on video) and then I forget I'm not using auto white balance and switch to taking a photo with flash.  The result is a horrible blue photo - which if I don't spot the problem at the time seems very hard to correct afterwards.
    I use the Aperture white balance adjustments frequently but unless there is a patch or white or grey I an use the dropper on, I find this particular situation seems to be right off the scale of what I can fix in Aperture.  I end up with sliders at the extremes of the scales and no intuitive sense of what numbers to type in manually to try and get realistic colour - so I often end up discarding these photos even if the shot itself is something I'd like to use.
    So my question is given I'm importing RAW, is there a way to show the phoo without the (wrong) white balance setting I applied in the camera, to let me choose white balance from scratch?
    Or if not, do you have any advice about how to adjust from this very bluey unrealistic colour of image?

    Kirkby - thanks for the quick reply.
    Didn't know you could drag inside a value field - that's helpful.
    But being able to get different numbers on the slider isn't the root of my problem.
    In a specific example I have two photos - one taken with white balance set to flash and the photo was with flash, where after a bit of tweaking to get the colour I want the temp slider is at 5000K (and tint 0).  The second photo has my shooting error with interior lighting white balance but taken with flash.  The two shots were taken from almost the same point of the same view (but different people in frame).  The shot with the white balance error comes off camera horribly blue coloured. I can fiddle with the two sliders - I take temperature to 20000K and tint to 40 to do the best with it I can, and with those settings one of the two faces is approaching flesh colour but the wall behind the subjects (which is a light blue in reality) is now appearing light yellow in places.  I just can't get a good looking colour effect no matter ow extreme the slider settings.
    I may have phrased my question badly - as I totally agree you can't show a raw without a colour setting - so maybe I'm better asking to be able to use a different colour setting on the raw data rather than having to start with adjustments on top of my white balance mistake.
    Given the two shots were in the same place against the same background and the same lighting (both with flash) it seems to me I ought to be able to get a similar colour effect on both and I just can't.  To illustrate here are the two photos (the one on the left was shot with flash wb and in Aperture I'm viewing it with 5000K and 0 tint, the one on the right was shot with indoor wb and in Aperture I'm viewing it with 20000K and 40 tint and it looks terrible!)
    https://www.box.com/shared/qle3t6ovyhrd1egez3vc

  • White Balance Correction

    Hi all,
    This might be a question which is too "simple" for Aperture but here goes...
    I am used to using Adobe or Nikon products to edit my RAW images, in those apps you could change white balance as if you were in camera (ie: daylight, shade, flash etc...). In Aperture it seems the only way I can adjust white balance is to click somewhere in the image which is white, is this correct?
    Appreciate it.
    MBP 15'' 2.16   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

    I think it what would put Aperture in a
    better position would be to use the same system as
    the competition
    How can Aperture surpass the competition by copying them? The current system is workable for saving presets. I am looking for something much better out of Apple in the next revision of Aperture than just 'copying' the competition.
    Aperture is innovative and ground-breaking software in many areas. We will have to wait a bit longer for them to fill in some weaker spots in a application.

  • White Balance Setting Problem

    APPLE COMPUTER:
    THREE BASIC QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ANSWERED.
    1. HOW DOES THE WHITE BALANCE TOOL WORK IN APERTURE?
    2. HOW DO YOUR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS AND "PHOTOGRAPHIC CONSULTANTS" USE IT TO SET WHITE BALANCE?
    3. WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND/OR DIFFERENCES IN ITS USE AS COMPARED TO SIMILAR TOOLS IN CAPTURE ONE PRO AND ADOBE PHOTOSHOP?

    Test Results:
    Aperture 1.1:
    Image Temperature: 3594
    Tint: -17
    When using the white balance tool on a white section of a photo, the RGB values changed from R 255 G 234 B 192 to R 255 G 230 B 197 and the Temperature changed to 3946 and Tint to 12.
    The photo still remained unacceptable.
    When usint the white balance tool on a grey section of the same photo, the RGB values cahnge from R 211 G 178 B 126 to R 208 G 180 B 162 and the Temperatue changed to 3154 and Tint to 2.
    The photo still remained unacceptable but was notably improved.
    Using Capture One Pro, the results were as follows:
    Temperatue: 3850
    Tint: -10
    When using the white balance tool on a white section of the same photo, the RGB values changed from R 255 G 241 B 200 to R 244 G 244 B 244 and the Temperature changed to 2500 and Tint to -16.
    Photo was very acceptable with no perceivable colour cast.
    When using the white balance tool on a grey section of the same photo, the RGB values changed from R 190 G 153 B 108 to R 153 G 153 B 153 and Temperature to 2550 and Tint to -2.
    Photo was very acceptable with no perceivable colour cast.
    From this quick test on a photo, I can draw the following conclusions:
    1. Aperture interprets temperature and tint data differently from Capture One Pro, although this likely due to the use of a camera profile within Capture One Pro;
    2. Using the white balance tool in Aperture on a "white" section does not neutralize the RGB values;
    3. Using the white balance tool in Aperture on a "white" section does not correctly remove a colour cast within a photograph;
    4. Using the white balance tool in Aperture on a "grey" section does not neutralize the RGB values; and
    5. Using the white balance tool in Aperture on a "grey" section does not correctly remove a colour cast within a photograph, although it does work better.

Maybe you are looking for