White balance settings?

[Tintype_18]

Couldn't find the dog show photo. Someone edited it with proper WB. Is there a rule of thumb for setting WB or set to Auto? I had used the shade icon as the exhibition center is shaded but open sides and artificial lighting.

[ebiggs1]

"I used to use ColorMonki before X-rite got it"

You do not need a calibrated monitor in most cases. Certainly not a hobbyists but perhaps a hobbyist is the most demanding. Who knows?

Your monitor does need to have two things adjusted to do photography. Its grey scale needs to be correct and its contrast/brightness needs to be correct.

Most people have the brightness set too high. That makes judging photos more difficult.

[FloridaDrafter]

---

@kvbarkley wrote:

Isn't Color-Munki a display proffiling system? That is not what we are talking about here. We are refering to portable color / white-balance standards that you can take to the field to give yourself a reference you can use during post.

---

I used it to create profiles for all three of my monitors (I used three 21" CRT's) and our Epson large format printers 17" and 42" roll). The version that I used had color and gray cards to use as a reference in the field or studio. I never used the feature, but you could integrate it with PS.

But you are correct, that isn't what the OP first asked, but later showed interest in. He already had/has the best advice, which, IMO, is to set Auto in camera and if need be, adjust in post. But, I shoot Raw so I am biased.

[wq9nsc]

Setting white balance to auto usually does a good job but certainly not always.  The ability to change white balance in post isn't the main reason I shoot only in RAW but it is one of the reasons.

My newer Canon bodies have two options for auto white balance, one for white priority and the other for ambiance priority.  I shoot mostly sports and for me the white priority setting is spot on most of the time and in photos when it isn't, I use the click option in DPP to select a sample to set white balance.  You can also set it via color temperature in DPP if you prefer going that direction.

I think for most users, either the "all in one" AWB or AWB-ambiance works quite well but the lack of auto white priority was one of the few drawbacks I found when using my original 1DX alongside the 1DX II and 1DX III bodies where their auto white option works wonders under varying field lighting conditions.  I am surprised this white priority isn't something DPP could work with for any of the bodies but apparently there is some reason that Canon didn't create a white priority option for files where the original camera doesn't have that setting.

Rodger

[ebiggs1]

" Is there a rule of thumb for setting WB or set to Auto?"

You have gotten several differing opinions about WB.  The over riding thing is, either set your WB in the camera or set it in post.  But the point is "set your WB" 

I prefer to set it to auto WB in the camera and pretty much forget it. Then adjust it if need be in Photoshop. That is easy and very simple.

BTW, do check your monitor's grey scale setting along with your brightness/contrast setting. I would wager one or both are off.

Another very simple task and very helpful.

Modern or current computer monitors come from the factory with pretty darn good color settings. For the most part I don't think you need to mess with any calibration settings. The big benefit with calibrating your monitor is if you do a lot of home printing.