[Accel Junky]

I'm neither a noob nor a pro, but I managed to learn something very useful the other day about Custom White Balance. Some of you probably already know this... but as for the others...

You can set your camera's white balance to a specific environment more accurately than with the camera's preset or auto white balance modes.

All you need is a plain pure white index card or sheet of paper. I've tried this on a 30D and an XTI, but I'd think most Canon SLR's should be the same.

1. Set your white balance preset (WB) to Custom (symbol with the two ramp things)
2. Take a picture of the index card or sheet of paper trying to fill the frame up if you can.
3. Then go to your menu and find Custom White Balance and select it.
4. It will ask you to select an image as a basis. Pick the image you just took and set it.

Now go back to your shooting and take a picture. You'll notice that the colors are much more true to life. As a comparison, switch your preset to AWB (auto white balance) and take the same picture. This is especially helpful when shooting indoors. Just make sure to carry that paper with you and repeat the steps when you change lighting environments.


Example:

Auto White Balance: Co-worker at my office



Custom White balance: Co-worker at my office (specifically set to this environment)



-Daniel

[neuzpeed]

yeah learn this in photography.. Good tip.

[155MPH]

I like the tones of the pic with the auto white balance better.

[The_Blob]

Yes, pretty much everyone knows about this tip if they have taken photography classes or read photography books. I prefer the second pic because it's more naturally, it's what you normally see in real life. Also, you can perform custom WB most non digital SLR cameras too.

[vachss]

Just take all your pics in RAW and adjust color temperature to taste in post.

[Gig103]

What about using a preset instead of auto white balance? Does your camera have "flourescent" or "outdoors" etc settings? I'd be curious to see how all three stack up.

[- Paul -]

You can do this on most point and shoots also.

[Chowbow]

You can also use that to force your pictures into a warmer or cooler tone. A quick trick is to custom white balance off the blue sky, and it can make your images a little warmer that way. You can contrast that by doing a custom white balance off a brownish rock or something to get cooler colors in your photo.

It's not always about photo realism, you can adjust the image as you see fit to create the picture that you want.

Or, shoot in RAW. I don't like sitting in front of a PC editing images all day though when I can just set it on my camera.