Custom White Balance.

[laupek9]

Just started photography a few months back and am not very high-tech, my children bought a X-T10 as a present for me. Just read an article on WB and the WB custom setting. The article advised that custom set the WB to grey would produce ideal colour . Let's say if we set and let the camera remember the grey colour as the reference setting would the camera revert to its original white reference when we set the WB to auto.

[adzman808]

Just started photography a few months back and am not very high-tech, my children bought a X-T10 as a present for me. Just read an article on WB and the WB custom setting. The article advised that custom set the WB to grey would produce ideal colour . Let's say if we set and let the camera remember the grey colour as the reference setting would the camera revert to its original white reference when we set the WB to auto.

In short, yes! The camera would revert to "original" WB if reset too AWB.

 

Custom WB is not a set and forget feature.

 

The correct WB value varies depending on the light, eg to get the correct looking shade of red it's a different WB setting (for EXACTLY the same shade of red) depending on the light, for example in sunlight the colour temperature would be somewhere around 5000K, but under artificial light (ie not the sun) the correct WB temp might be only 3200K

 

AWB works by analysing the scene, and deciding what colour temp should be applied.

 

Generally AWB works very well, although it can get confused in scenes with different types of light sources.

 

Personally, when I want the most accurate WB I can get, I use a WhiBal card. The time I most often find myself doing this, is if I'm using a ND filter.

 

But I also use a custom set WB if I'm taking a lot of shots under a consistent light source, this way not only do all those shots have the same value, but also if that value is a bit off, then in post, I can fix it in one shot, then copy/paste the correct value to all the rest. Which is quick and easy.

[Adam Woodhouse]

I believe in the manual it says to use a white card, not a grey card for custom white balance.  But I could be mistaken.

[adzman808]

I believe in the manual it says to use a white card, not a grey card for custom white balance. But I could be mistaken.

A proper white balance card is grey, (but a different grey to a exposure card.) It's just called a white balance card, because it sets white balance, it's not actually white!

 

Whibal is not a lazy abbreviation, it's a product name, of a product that is industry certified to be the correct shade of grey for setting a custom white balance

 

IMO, if one goes to the trouble of setting a custom WB, then one really ought to use a product that is certified to do the job....

Edited March 28, 2016 by adzman808