Is White Balance Broken?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi all,

An interesting 8 minute video from Minute Physics popped up on my recommendations this morning.

He makes some interesting points, although for most with our understanding of White Balance, I found the repitition in the middle a little tiresome, but stick to the end for caveats and suggestions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WADuXiMZxq4

No doubt we'll discuss,
Dave

[DanK]

Very interesting. It is a puzzle why the developers don't use equal color intervals instead of equal numerical values

Lightroom uses increments of 50 if you use the eyedropper to set white balance. However, if you change white balance with the slider, or by entering numbers manually, the scale seems to be continuous. However, I'm not sure that has more precise effects than changing by 50.

[Manfred M]

Thanks Dave and interesting video.

To be perfectly frank, while the maker of the video is correct in how camera settings and our editing tools work, but so what. Can we still get a reasonable white balance with the existing tools, the answer is clearly yes, otherwise this "problem" would have been fixed long ago.

Most of my shooting takes place in the 5000K - 6000K range (daylight and electronic flash). I suspect most people are likely in that range as well. If I am shooting at sunrise or sunset, I likely want my images to be a bit warm. Shooting with north light where I am going to get those 10000L - 20000K values happens quite rarely.

Here is an example of a Golden Hour (right about the end of Golden Hour) shot with the camera pointing north. The sun is setting on my left. Classic mixed light issue with the snow looking blue from the north light / reflecting the colour of the sky and the areas lit by the setting sun looking rather orange.

[DanK]

I think it’s useful nonetheless. It’s worth keeping in mind that adjustments at the numerically low end should typically be smaller. I shoot a lot indoors with ambient light, so that’s relevant to me.


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