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

[p4pictures]

Auto white balance is generally very good, it's one of Canon's significant strengths. In auto, the camera can actually apply different white balance at different parts of the image. If you have a scene lit by household lights, and daylight through a window the camera does a great job of balancing the different light colours and making a good looking result.

Since you shoot RAW you can change the white balance in your editing, either selecting one of the presets like daylight, tungsten, cloudy etc. or dialing in a Kelvin temperature value. A final option is to use the click white balance to select something that should be neutral toned in the frame and then use that to set the white balance. 

On the camera itself there are similar presets, and you can use them if you like. Some use shade or cloudy on an overcast day to add warmth to shots but I often find it a bit too warm for my taste.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Brian

That makes sense. I'll just set it on AWB and do any adjustments later, which is basically what I was doing. I got hooked on getting rid of anything with Auto in the title, trying to make my brain work!

Twiddler

[Ron888]

Auto white balance to different parts of the image?That's fascinating.I'll see if i can find more info online.
How long has this been a thing?I've been out of photography for awhile

[p4pictures]

Auto white balance works like that for at least the last 20 years in Canon cameras. 

[wq9nsc]

I always shoot in RAW so the camera setting for white balance isn't critical.  Most of the time, auto white is fine but I frequently use white priority for sports under unusual lighting conditions.  This will often correct color shifts due to color temperature variation and even when fine adjustment is needed, it gets me very close.

Rodger

[FloridaDrafter]

I'm not sure if it's a MILC thing, but my Raw come in with  "Auto ambiance priority" as default WB adjustment (in DPP) and that works fine. It's nothing I intentionally set in the camera because, like Rodger, I shoot Raw and don't concern myself with WB. In fact, I seldom have to mess with it in post.

Newton

[Ron888]

Never heard of that one! Thanks,i'll go check it out

[p4pictures]

Auto white balance gained the option to choose ambience priority and white priority in some of the DSLRs, certainly my EOS 5D Mark IV had the setting, and from a quick check so did EOS 5DS R and EOS SL3 (250D).

Originally Canon only offered the single auto white balance. By Canon engineers chose they elected to make it render warm toned scenes under tungsten lighting as warm. In some magazine and online reviews this was commented on quite often. So the engineers added the option for auto white balance with white priority to make the camera render tungsten with a more accurate white, but less of the ambience of the scene.

[ebiggs1]

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

This is a bit confusing. But WB and most all in-camera settings are no stored or do they effect a raw image. None of those settings, WB for instance is saved in a raw file which is essentially just ones and zeros. However when you upload to your computer or view them in the camera LCD screen they do show WB obliviously. The raw file can not be viewed as is so a conversion must be made. The raw converter which ever one you use, I.E., Photoshop, DPP4, etc., does use the camera settings to create that viewable image. But it is just a parameter to make the viewable image. You can set WB and/or most other settings as you please in a raw file. Even then it does not get backed into the raw file. About the only setting that does effect a raw file is exposure.  The raw file basically saves the unprocessed, uncompressed data directly from the camera's sensor without any in-camera adjustments like white balance or sharpening, etc.