Color Temperature Setting

[Curtis Cunningham]

I'm doing portraits in a church setting and wonder if I need to change the color temperature preset (5200K) on my 5D? If so, what should I change it to?

Thanks,
Curtis

[michaelnotar]

i ONLY shoot raw and i always keep my WB on kelvin mode and set it to 5500, that makes it 'look' pretty normal and i correct from there. usually correcting one photo and applying the color balance to all the other photos. some software doesnt have such features.

are you shooting raw or jpg and what lighting are you using?

[Dennis_Vied]

The advantage of using a preset is that you start with a known quantity. So once you apply one correction that works, it should work for all the other images shot at the same color temperature. If you use Auto WB, each image could have a slightly different and unique white balance, so that each image would have to be corrected individually. If each image was shot at the same temp, say 5500, and you find that 5700 is a better match, it's very easy using a program such as LightRoom to copy that correction to all the other images in one operation.

If you want to be dead on, you can use a color meter. However, it isn't that hard to use a preset that is in the ballpark, and correct it later in post processing. It's also very much easier to do if you shoot RAW.

Having said that, I should also say that the latest DSLRs seem to have AutoWB down pretty well, and I tend to use it a lot.

As far as what color temperature to set, here's a page from Wikipedia which lists some common light sources and their color temperature:

Color temperature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[DougAxford]

I settled on 5300 as our standard for everything normally taken with flash. I've tired AWB on & off and it will get you close in weird situations but for controlled portraits, it's way too variable for me.

[Curtis Cunningham]

Originally Posted by michaelnotar

are you shooting raw or jpg and what lighting are you using?

I will be shooting RAW with 400 w/s studio lights. While the house lights will be turned off, there may be a little natural light coming in from the windows on the sides of the sanctuary (but those windows are far enough away from the stage that I don't think any spill from them will affect my setup). There are some windows behind the backdrop I'll use but I don't notice any effects from that in previous shoots.

[AndrewRodney]

IF you shoot Raw, doesn't matter a lick. As for it being a good "starting point", maybe, maybe not (depends on the Raw converter, if it even has access to the EXIF data and of course, its translation to a preset rendering will be different than the JPEG you'd get from the camera itself). So in the end, doesn't matter.

Lastly, defining color using Kelvin is a pretty piss-poor process in terms of color accuracy, many different colors correlate to the same kelvin values.

See:http://www.ppmag.com/reviews/200512_rodneycm.pdf

[KevinStecyk]

Originally Posted by AndrewRodney

IF you shoot Raw, doesn't matter a lick. As for it being a good "starting point", maybe, maybe not (depends on the Raw converter, if it even has access to the EXIF data and of course, its translation to a preset rendering will be different than the JPEG you'd get from the camera itself). So in the end, doesn't matter.

Andrew, I always enjoy your posts because I learn a lot. What should a person do when shooting with studio lights?

I am shooting with natural light or with 580 EXs. My off camera strobes are much smaller than those that Curtis is using. Now I usually use a target (Photovision) to set my white balance before a series of shots. Should those using studio equipment do the same?

Incidentally, I followed your contribution to a previous thread and yesterday I purchased two Luminous Landscape series. I have yet to download and watch, but will be doing so shortly.

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