EOS 90D Advice on Auto White Balance settings

[Anonymous]

Hi 

I was recently reading Understanding Exposure and am already on RAW and M, 99% of the time. Really enjoying the learning process and trying to work without things that say Auto. 

I wondered what the feelings and thoughts are on AWB settings - any good advice welcome 

Thanks 

Twiddler

[justadude]

The odd thing is that no matter how I change the WB in camera on two similar images, obviously it shows on the camera screen... but the untouched RAW files on my Mac in Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, and DPP, you can't see any difference at all.  

[ebiggs1]

Gary it is simply not possible for a raw file to store or know WB. Brian below makes a great point.

You know I don’t read reviews or really any articles on the ole inner web. I went through all this when my company switched to digital from film. We had PS and Adobe folks in all the time because we were such a huge company and user. That’s where I got most of my experience and information.

[stevet1]

Twiddling,

You've gotten some advice and recommendations from people whose opinions I value highly.

All I can say is that in my own experience, I found that AWB yielded photos that seemed too washed out for my tastes. I started using the Presets like Daylight and Cloudy and was happier with the results. Nowadays, I predominantly use a Kelvin setting of about 5300K, but on cloudy days, I might use the Cloudy Preset to add a little warmth.

I once read that if you want to emphasize the blues and yellows in your picture, use Daylight, and if you want to empasize the reds and greens, use Cloudy. 

On my camera, (a T8i), Daylight has a Kelvin temperature of 5200K. A Cloudy Preset has a Kelvin temperature of 6000K.

One way you can test this for yourself is to put your camera in Live View and hit your Q  button.

Select the white Balance and choose Kelvin. Using your arrow keys, you can raise or lower your Kelvin temperature and see the effect it has prior to taking your shot.

Steve Thomas

[Anonymous]

Hi 

Thanks for your reply. I was also trying to use the K setting, prior to this post. I prefer that option - its just one more thing to remember. And as we say in the UK we have a lot of weather!

Twiddler