Setting White Balance With Aperture And WhiBal
I just remembered that I never made that post about using a WhiBal gray card to get proper white balance in your photos. Man, that was a long time ago — so I guess I'll go ahead and make good on it now, and show how to use it with Aperture.
For starters, if you shoot RAW like I do (now that I'm using a 40D), you don't have to worry about setting your camera's white balance. Only in the most rare of circumstances will setting camera white balance affect camera exposure, but I can assure you that statistically you'll never know when that situation happens, because any change will be so minute you won't notice it. I repeat: if you shoot RAW, quit worrying about if it's just cloudy enough to use the Cloudy setting, or if those glass globes really cast a light more tungsten than fluorescent. I will say, though, that one reason to adjust the camera white balance is so that the pics look better when you preview them on-camera or when you first import them.
With that said, here's a shot I took using incorrect camera white balance, and we'll have it fixed in no time:
Obviously, this picture's white balance is all kinds of wrong. To fix it, I need to specify what pure neutral is so that my software can color shift the other pixels to their proper values. To do that, I simply place my WhiBal card in-frame and take a shot.
Before moving on, though, let's address the placement of the WhiBal card in a few potential photo situations. Let's say you're taking portrait shots to where the subject and the camera are in different light (you have light on the subject, etc.). In this type of light-controlled shoot, you can simply have the subject hold the WhiBal card, then you take a shot. That one frame will establish the proper balance for that light situation.
Now let's say you're outside taking shots, and the subject and camera are now sharing the same light source (the sun). Assuming the amount of ambient light stays moderately constant, you can simply hold the WhiBal card in your hand and take a shot yourself. Since both subject and camera are in the same light, you don't have to worry about the light 20 feet away since it should be the same as the light at your location.
Another potential situation is when you're taking spur of the moment shots to where you don't have a chance to setup a white balance shot. For example, you're taking random shots at a Christmas party. What you can in this situation is take your shots, then when you get a chance to, go back to the shot location and take your WhiBal-in-hand shot. For example, if you took a shot of people standing in the kitchen by the bar, go back later and hold the WhiBal in that general area and shoot it.
With that out of the way, here's the same shot with the WhiBal in-frame:
So now I have my main shot (the first one) and my shot with the WhiBal, and that's the one I'll use to tweak the original — and I'll do it in Apple's Aperture. I'm a long-time Adobe user, but Aperture is just so much nicer and all-inclusive when compared to Adobe Bridge or Lightroom (to me, anyway). If you don't have Aperture already, I highly recommend downloading the free trial and giving it a shot for a couple of weeks.
There are a couple of ways to tweak the white balance in Aperture, so I'll start with the least elegant, and I'll do so by making my WhiBal picture the active image. I then click the white balance eye dropper button and click on the WhiBal card's gray area. As you can see from the screen shot, there is a bit of camera noise due to the photo setup, but you get the idea.
Notice the new color temperature and tint readings in the yellow circle. What we can do now, is use those numbers as a baseline for all the other shots taken under the same light — so now I can simply make my main shot active, then manually enter those numbers into the Temp and Tint fields, like so:
You can also use the white balance eye dropper to select your neutral color from an image in the browser, like you see in this shot:
A more elegant way to implement mass-white balancing is to simply balance your WhiBal shot, then use Aperture's Lift Metadata Tool to copy the changes. You can then select any number of images and paste the changes across all of them. This is also handy for copying/pasting copyright info and any other metadata you have stored.
So, that's basically all there is to shooting with a WhiBal, or any other white balance card. Here are the before and after balancing shots:
From here, it's just a matter to fine tuning levels and such to get the image to where you want it for whatever mood you're going for — but the foundation is decent white balancing. Let's review the goodies out of this post one last time:
So there you have it. Quick and simple, and an indispensable tool to ensure you get the best shots possible post production — especially portrait shots where skin tones can vary so much from shot to shot, and subject to subject. I use the little WhiBal since it's so portable, and it's one of the best photo equipment investments you'll make.
For starters, if you shoot RAW like I do (now that I'm using a 40D), you don't have to worry about setting your camera's white balance. Only in the most rare of circumstances will setting camera white balance affect camera exposure, but I can assure you that statistically you'll never know when that situation happens, because any change will be so minute you won't notice it. I repeat: if you shoot RAW, quit worrying about if it's just cloudy enough to use the Cloudy setting, or if those glass globes really cast a light more tungsten than fluorescent. I will say, though, that one reason to adjust the camera white balance is so that the pics look better when you preview them on-camera or when you first import them.
With that said, here's a shot I took using incorrect camera white balance, and we'll have it fixed in no time:
Obviously, this picture's white balance is all kinds of wrong. To fix it, I need to specify what pure neutral is so that my software can color shift the other pixels to their proper values. To do that, I simply place my WhiBal card in-frame and take a shot.
Before moving on, though, let's address the placement of the WhiBal card in a few potential photo situations. Let's say you're taking portrait shots to where the subject and the camera are in different light (you have light on the subject, etc.). In this type of light-controlled shoot, you can simply have the subject hold the WhiBal card, then you take a shot. That one frame will establish the proper balance for that light situation.
Now let's say you're outside taking shots, and the subject and camera are now sharing the same light source (the sun). Assuming the amount of ambient light stays moderately constant, you can simply hold the WhiBal card in your hand and take a shot yourself. Since both subject and camera are in the same light, you don't have to worry about the light 20 feet away since it should be the same as the light at your location.
Another potential situation is when you're taking spur of the moment shots to where you don't have a chance to setup a white balance shot. For example, you're taking random shots at a Christmas party. What you can in this situation is take your shots, then when you get a chance to, go back to the shot location and take your WhiBal-in-hand shot. For example, if you took a shot of people standing in the kitchen by the bar, go back later and hold the WhiBal in that general area and shoot it.
With that out of the way, here's the same shot with the WhiBal in-frame:
So now I have my main shot (the first one) and my shot with the WhiBal, and that's the one I'll use to tweak the original — and I'll do it in Apple's Aperture. I'm a long-time Adobe user, but Aperture is just so much nicer and all-inclusive when compared to Adobe Bridge or Lightroom (to me, anyway). If you don't have Aperture already, I highly recommend downloading the free trial and giving it a shot for a couple of weeks.
There are a couple of ways to tweak the white balance in Aperture, so I'll start with the least elegant, and I'll do so by making my WhiBal picture the active image. I then click the white balance eye dropper button and click on the WhiBal card's gray area. As you can see from the screen shot, there is a bit of camera noise due to the photo setup, but you get the idea.
Notice the new color temperature and tint readings in the yellow circle. What we can do now, is use those numbers as a baseline for all the other shots taken under the same light — so now I can simply make my main shot active, then manually enter those numbers into the Temp and Tint fields, like so:
You can also use the white balance eye dropper to select your neutral color from an image in the browser, like you see in this shot:
A more elegant way to implement mass-white balancing is to simply balance your WhiBal shot, then use Aperture's Lift Metadata Tool to copy the changes. You can then select any number of images and paste the changes across all of them. This is also handy for copying/pasting copyright info and any other metadata you have stored.
So, that's basically all there is to shooting with a WhiBal, or any other white balance card. Here are the before and after balancing shots:
From here, it's just a matter to fine tuning levels and such to get the image to where you want it for whatever mood you're going for — but the foundation is decent white balancing. Let's review the goodies out of this post one last time:
- If you shoot RAW, you don't have to worry about setting the camera white balance. Just set it to auto and go for it, unless you're worried about getting closer-to-reality previews. Your RAW image doesn't need the camera's opinion on white balance, so it's totally unnecessary.
- Take your WhiBal source picture under the shot-specific settings. If the camera and subject are in different light, shoot the WhiBal at the subject's location. If sharing the same light, hand-shoot it yourself. If need be, go back after the shot to the subject's area, and do your own hand-shot.
- Don't trust your eyes to set proper white balance, and don't trust a sheet of typing paper to be pure white. Remember: our eyes will adjust to make color corrections over time, so what seems white may not be when you hold it next to pure white. This is why you need to use a legit white balance card, and the WhiBal is the best on the market.
- Like any post processing, things are subjective. Use the results from the WhiBal balancing as a baseline starting point, and tweak from there — just remember that the card won't lie.
So there you have it. Quick and simple, and an indispensable tool to ensure you get the best shots possible post production — especially portrait shots where skin tones can vary so much from shot to shot, and subject to subject. I use the little WhiBal since it's so portable, and it's one of the best photo equipment investments you'll make.
posted by Maury @ 5:03 PM Permalink | 4 comments so far 
4 Comments:
I used to carry an assortment of colored paper with me in college (when I was learning photography/videography)to "fool" the camera's white balance. It was a lot of fun to get some really funky "effects" with nothing but a cheap bunch of paper. Nothing anywhere as close to precise as what you're detailing here (great tutorial again, BTW).
Thanks. I should have taken a decent demo picture, though. I shot them this morning in our bathroom, under some heavily tinted glass lights — and it was still dark outside. Oh well, people get the idea. =)
This should really be in my Level tutorial, too, since you should WB first, and then do Levels (though I did mention that, I believe). They both work together to get the right contrast, etc.
Just properly order the chapters in your book. :)
two weeks ago I never would've known what you were talking about but I'm auditing this digital photography class and white balance (a problem for me with highly zoomed shots on my point and shoot) is a topic that has interested me. In fact, the instructor says that when they make (or did make, i don't know if they do it now) movies, they will be shooting one scene over several days. the light changes of course. so they hold a gray card and a white card in front of the lens before they shoot so that the film editors can make sure the white balance is corrected so that it is the same. fascinating.
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