Color temperature vs. white balance - are they the same?

[loren]

hi i was wondering if white balance and color temp are one in the same? i am using a canon 30d. i noticed you can not hi-lite the "k" and the custom white balance icon at the same time. any explanation would be helpful and appreciated. thanks loren

[crisscross]

Hi Loren - White balance can be adjusted in PP either by colour temperature, which is subjective, or by choosing and correcting a white or grey point, which is meant to be technically correct. It would help if you said what software you are using, then someone familiar with it can go into the detail. There are camera settings for it, but they will not be once-and-for-all if you are shooting RAW; will leave a Canon man to say what setting is best in the camera.

[Jim B.]

Hi Loren,

You can't use both the "K" and the CWB at the same time.They are 2 different settings.The way you use the CWB in camera is,you have to take a reference shot.Then go into your menu to pick the shot to use as your CWB.There are more details,but I don't have my manual with me.As Chris stated,you can change white balance in PP also.I bought a ColorRight disk(for white balance) and used it 3 times.It's easier to deal with it in PP.
Regards,
Jim

[loren]

thanks for the reply. should color temp be a major concern in shooting photos or do i leave the camera make those decisions? just a quick note i just started shooting everything in manual mode lots to learn and know!but i am having fun and trying to learn the correct technique along the way. i have not gotten into to much pp yet. i am also shooting jpeg should i start shooting Raw? thanks again loren.

[Colin Southern]

thanks for the reply. should color temp be a major concern in shooting photos or do i leave the camera make those decisions? just a quick note i just started shooting everything in manual mode lots to learn and know!but i am having fun and trying to learn the correct technique along the way. i have not gotten into to much pp yet. i am also shooting jpeg should i start shooting Raw? thanks again loren.

Hi Loren,

Great to have you with us.

To answer your questions ...

should color temp be a major concern in shooting photos or do i leave the camera make those decisions?

It's really a judgement call - AWB (Automatic White Balancing) is often surprisingly accurate - and if your happy with the results you're getting then there's probably no point in going to extra work just to get a result that you're also happy with, unless you prefer the more technically accurate result.

i am also shooting jpeg should i start shooting Raw?

Again, it's judgement call. Personally I only ever shoot RAW (I'd be quite happy for the JPEG option to be removed from my camera). RAW offers several advantages over JPEG, but whether or not those advantages matter to you really depends on what your shooting, and how particular you are about the results.

What kinds of photography are you participating in, and what do you do with the resultant images?

[loren]

Hi I am shooting a wide variety of photos. Baseball, indoor volleyball, motocross, weddings, portraits, etc. Tomorrow night I have an indoor shoot with very low lighting, no flash allowed. I will be using a Canon 2.8 70-200 IS lens on my 30d. I will take your advice and shoot RAW. Looking forward to this new to me format! As to what I do with my images, right now I just download onto my PC and do no PP to them. Primarily because I haven't taken the time to toy around with the software. Thanks again, Loren. PS: Any pointers for this type of gig tomorrow night? I'm open for any of your expertise. Thank you.

[Colin Southern]

tomorrow nite i have an indoor shoot with very low lighting,no flash allowed. i will be using a canon 2.8 70-200is lens on my 30d. ... any pointers for this type of gig tomorrow nite im open for any of your expertise.

The Canon EF 70-200 F2.8L IS USM is a great lens - but you need to remember that the IS is only good for reducing camera shake - not for freezing subject motion - so - if there's movement at the gig then you're probably going to need to shoot wide open (F2.8) and you'll probably need to use a very high ISO (often in the 800-3200 ISO range), which will give you higher shutter speeds but also more noise. Usually noise is the lesser of two evils.

A Monopod would also be a big help.

Does this help?

[loren]

yes,exactly what i plan on doing. i will be using a tripod. awb? and should i be concerned about color temp, or am i thinking too much! ty loren

[Colin Southern]

Yes, exactly what I plan on doing. I will be using a tripod. AWB? ... and should I be concerned about color temp, or am I thinking too much?! Thank you, Loren

Tripod is good.

If you shoot RAW then it's easy to adjust the colour temperature in post processing later (well it is if you use Photoshop - can't vouch for other programs) - but - it's important to have an accurate white balance reference - so if you can, try to shoot something white that's lit by the same lighting that you'll be shooting under (like a white piece of paper) - this can then be used as a starting point for correct white balancing.

Having said all that, personally, I'd leave the camera on AWB as a starting point ... but be aware that with gigs that are using a wide variety of coloured lighting it can be difficult or even impossible to get a perfect result.

[loren]

thank you very much. i will try these techniques and i am sure i can figure out the best one from your advice. thanks again loren.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Loren,

Just a quick note, while Colin's advice above is excellent as always, if you shoot RAW only you are forcing yourself to Post Process every single shot in order to be able to use it anywhere - and I'm guessing you may be doing, or sharing these shots with others.

As long as you have a big, or enough, memory cards, I'd suggest shooting RAW+jpg, then you can get a feel for what RAW processing involves, but not hold up any potential 'clients' waiting on seeing your shots.

Yes to AWB on the night, especially if producing jpgs.

No time for more now, I may expand this later in day.

Cheers,

[Colin Southern]

if you shoot RAW only you are forcing yourself to Post Process every single shot in order to be able to use it anywhere

Sorta / kinda ... In a 1-stop Adobe shop images (RAW or JPEG) open for viewing in Adobe Bridge without having to convert (technically Bridge is running ACR behind the scenes, but it's transparent to the user).

These days it's easy to batch convert RAW to the same standard as in-camera JPEG - just harder to go the other way.

[crisscross]

Just for other blunderers into this Canon+Photoshop thread with a universal title, a translation to NikonSpeak.

No problem with shooting just NEF, Nikon View NX automatically generates previews (which also automatically become current edit in NX2) and allows batch operations.

AWB fine. And back to where we started, if you opt for 'set colour temperature' when editing, the first choice is a sub-menu describing the type of lighting during shooting. That gives a 1st guess of appropriate correcting 'k' temperature (blue-yellow scale) and tint (red-green scale). You can then fine tune them by eye.

PS do look at the CinC tutorial too.

[loren]

thanks for the follow-up,i was intending on raw+jpeg. i have a 4gb cf card. also my father has a canon 40d. is this camera a big improvement over the 30d? if i were to upgrade would you suggest the 40d or the 50d? i have done some research on the new 50d seems the differences between the 40d and the 50d are subtle. what do you think? thanks loren

[loren]

hi, just wanted to let you know i will be using "photoshop pro" for dpp. loren

[loren]

hi i have another inquiry. does a higher megapixel camera create a better photo when you crop a pic or do any other pp to it. ex. 30d 8.2mp vs 50d 15mp. ty loren p.s. keeping photo sizes the same.

[Colin Southern]

thanks for the follow-up,i was intending on raw+jpeg. i have a 4gb cf card.

To be honest, I've never found any benefit in doing this; It's possible to turn RAW files into the same quality (or higher quality) JPEGS with just a few mouse clicks (to setup a batch conversion), whereas if you shoot both "in camera" on a single 4GB card you'll chew through the card much faster.

also my father has a canon 40d. is this camera a big improvement over the 30d?

No, not really.

if i were to upgrade would you suggest the 40d or the 50d?

50D

i have done some research on the new 50d seems the differences between the 40d and the 50d are subtle. what do you think?

Each model builds upon the specifications of the previous model, so the bigger the jump in models, the bigger the jump in specifications. My suggestion is to simply buy the best that you can afford.

[Colin Southern]

Does a higher megapixel camera create a better photo when you crop a pic or do any other pp to it. ex. 30d 8.2mp vs 50d 15mp. ty loren p.s. keeping photo sizes the same.

The more megapixels you capture, the more information you have to play with - and the more information you'll have left to play with when you've finished cropping, which is never a bad thing. Whether or not you'll be able to see the difference in the printed image depends on a number of factors like the resolution of the image after cropping, subject matter, viewing distance, print size etc.

[loren]

thanks for the reply Colin. so in summary i should shoot in raw only and the higher the mp's on a camera the better the reproduction will be in pp. so the 40d with 10.2 mp's will produce better pp pix than my 30d with 8.2. i would suspect very little difference. would that be a safe assumption? ty loren

[Colin Southern]

So in summary I should shoot in raw only

It's really a judgement call - the best choice probably depends on how comfortable you are working with RAW images. In my case I'm very comfortable - and RAW offers me far greater potential in terms of dynamic range - so that's what I shoot. If you're not comfortable processing RAW images then you might like to shoot either JPEG or JPEG + RAW. There's no absolute right or wrong - just what's best for you, with your level of knowledge and experience.

and the higher the mp's on a camera the better the reproduction will be in pp. so the 40d with 10.2 mp's will produce better pp pix than my 30d with 8.2. i would suspect very little difference. would that be a safe assumption?

In theory, the more information the image contains the better the reproduction of the photo, but in practice a number of other factors come into it. If you want to double the resolution of a photo you need FOUR times the number of megapixels, so yes, 8.2 -v- 10.2 will be virtually indistinguishable. Even the difference between 8MP and 21MP isn't anything to get overly excited about (I have many prints 22" x 44" taken with a 8mp Canon 20D and they really don't look any worse than those taken with my 21MP Canon 1Ds3). But if money isn't a concern then personally I think it's silly not to buy more MP rather than less MP - just my opinion though.