Episode Categories

White Balance – Episode #11 Friday

Color, Photoshop, Video Mar 25

It is always best to get your white balance right in camera, however you are not doomed to spend life in a blue colorcast if you don’t. You can change this on your computer using Lightroom or Photoshop as well if you shoot in RAW. Learn about white balance more in depth in this episode and the tools we use to correct it.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=171301357 Jennifer Holland

    very Very VERY useful! I have photos of my daughter that were taken when she was an infant, LONG before I knew anything about the technical aspects of photography. (I had a 5MP Pentax, which seemed to be awesome at the time. hahaha!!!) I can now go back and fix all the white balance issues in those photos and be proud to put them in an album. =)

  • RJavier

    Both of you are the BEST!!! I wish that I had this type of info when I started photography a few years ago!

  • http://www.simply-boudoir.com Stacey Lynn

    You two are amazing. You have already covered so many great things in this first week and I look forward to the new videos every day! :) Thank you for all you do for the photography community!

    -From a fellow North Carolinian!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=691565354 Anan Adnan

    normally i use color balance to get the right white balance !! i dont know if i’m right with this way but i like it any way thanks for the two ways (raw & jpeg) you guys are awesome cant wait till Monday :(

  • Anonymous

    That is a good technique as well!

  • http://www.rafaelbasurto.com Rafael Basurto

    What do you think about using eyedroppers under levels panel??
    I don’t know if it is not as accurate as the opposite color technique you showed today, but i find it good.

  • http://twitter.com/picholine picholine

    Guys you’re great ! Thanks for speaking clearly for the French guy that I am :)

  • Olivia

    you guys have been teaching me so much :D thanks!!

  • Anonymous

    Good point Rafael, we will mention it!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=691565354 Anan Adnan

    :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcus-Genosky/46103184 Marcus Genosky

    I hope sometime soon you can do some tutorials on skin correction. Like creating a natural looking, even skin tone for models and portraits. You guys are great and I have not missed one tutorial since you guys have started on this great project! Keep em coming!

  • Si665

    I have used the white paper method, but something confuses me, I see white balance cards sold that have something called 18% Grey Card on half of the same card, What is the grey side used for ?

  • Anonymous

    awesome! we will fit what we can into a 5 min episode :D

  • Si665

    Got to say I use some very cheap software called Portrait Professional and it gives excellent results for skin tone and face sculpting. It costs about £30 in the UK. I know you can do it in Photoshop but this software is soo much quicker and easier to use. Anyway don’t take my word for it, download the free trial and have a play.

    http://www.portraitprofessional.com

  • Anonymous

    The Gray Card is for white balance as well, sometimes it can give a more accurate reading than a white object.

  • JMM

    What is the black…. bar/box/extension/thing… on the bottom of your camera body? I have a Canon 5D Mark II as well, and I noticed how your camera looks more, for lack of a better term, “square” – what is that and how does it help?

  • Fdgfg

    Go on, you are helping a lot of people with that!

  • CrazyEve

    I would love to hear about merging different images into one, fitting different lighting situations in one etc.
    But thats probably rather something for your monthly newsletter or so.
    Phlearn is awesome, even though the name is somehow ugly to speak. ;)

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabriellemasse Gabrielle

    Do you mean the battery grip? It gives you more batteries and lets you hold the camera much more comfortably when you’re taking vertical photos. :)

  • Anonymous

    Hey JMM, we cover that in Episode #9
    http://phlearn.com/2011/03/23/the-great-debate-episode-9/

  • Lloyd258

    Hey guys, im a student from london studying in kent. Ive been following your work aaron for a good few months and saw your site and have been loving life ever since. Ive passed your site onto class mates and lecturers at my uni in the hope they get some tips. Such a fun and cool way to learn your way arround photoshop and the camera, for both beginers and intermediats. Keep it up, really looking forward to your upcomming vids!!! Keep it cool guys!

  • AraKo

    can you do a tutorial on cleaning the sensors and lenses? thanks!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcus-Genosky/46103184 Marcus Genosky

    Cool I will try that! I don’t want to get to crazy or my subject ends up looking plastic! haha Just something subtle!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcus-Genosky/46103184 Marcus Genosky

    Thanks Avery. I am sure you guys could be here for hours on this subject :) . Just some hits and tips would really help. For instance, some of your tutorial I know how to do already, but YOUR methods of achieving the same result can be different and thus really helpful! So any tips on this subject would be amazing! Thanks again!

  • http://profiles.google.com/jasonnunez23 Jason Nunez

    Never seen this method before. It’s awesome!

  • http://profiles.google.com/latina.vega Latina Vega

    If you’re ever in the Tampa, Fla area please announce I have been following you for a while now and I’d LOVE to sit in on a class!

  • http://www.facebook.com/daveprincedesign Dave Prince

    That jpeg white balance trick is amazing and parametric! How’d you figure that out?

  • streubie

    One of the best reasons to own Lightroom and shoot in RAW- sooooo easy to tweak color balance

  • Gixster92

    OMG, love the WB for jpeg trick, granted I just switched to RAW but great to know this tip.

  • Harold

    If you are a Photoshop user, then you have access to Bridge. If you navigate to your images in Bridge, and have shot in jpeg mode, you can select the image you want to edit and hit Command or Control + R and open the jpeg in Adobe Camera Raw. Just a little trick there. not as good as editing a RAW file, but you have access to most of the same sliders.

  • TheExpat

    I am using Aperture 3. How would you adjust WB in Aperture? IF you are using a mac, why did you decide to use Lightroom 3 instead of Aperture 3? Thanks again for sharing all your knowledge with us.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6KATL4BH743A6LDZ6NMVTUJFA Andrea Christina

    Oh cool, I did not know you can change the white balance so easily with lightroom! Just tried it, love it! :)

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