Canon AWB in studio

[Ron]

YIKES - I was just saying I get almost perfeect color in the studio using AWB on the D30. The samples looked good. But they were a mix of colors or on white backgrounds.

I shot a subject today (the previous head and shoulders shot) and it's color looked great. I then moved the subject to another background (it's a golden wood background)
and the AWB was totally thrown off and the color of the image was extremely blue.
(I used "daylight WB during RAW conversion to fix it") but this is a case where AWB certainly was confused by the background. It read all the yellow and tried to pull it out of the image by adding blue. I think I may start using DAYLIGHT WB for consistancy - then can change when needed during Raw conversion.

[Lorin]

Hello Ron, I found in the studio the flash white balance works the best. I think there is a possibility that the modeling lights could throw off the sensor? I've done side by side tests and it seems that flash is closer when you are using strickly flash. I was shooting artwork when I did the tests because color accuracy was critical for the job. Lorin, PS I'm surprised to be seeing you on line, how's the senior portraits going?

[Ron]

Seasons going good (I'm surprised to be online too) but I try to check in after the studio is closed or before it opens. The season started a little slower this year, but we suspect it will run a bit longer than last year. I should have about 125 shot by the end of July. (that's down about 30 from last year). But all of the summer appointments are booked and kids calling are starting to fill September, so we think we'll make up for the 30 at the end of the season.

I tried flash WB and I liked DAYLIGHT (the sun icon) better than flash. The way I compare them is I shoot in RAW. Then when converting with zoombrowser, I use convert with defined parameters and I can then look at the image in all the different WB settings and compare them. AWB generally works great, but like I said - mine was totally thrown off with the yellow/gold background. So I compared the raw files using all WB settings. Daylight looked a little less yellow than flash. So I now shoot them in daylight, and can change WB during the conversion from RAW if I'd like something different.
I suppose the modeling lights could be throwing off WB - it's easy enough to do a comparison shot with modeling on and off.
I'll do more tests like this in the fall when things slow down again.

[Jarno Lyytinen]

I just shot ceramic artwork and the client wanted them to be in a dimly lit room with a small candle attached to lower part of the stelae. I used manual focus (being twilight room), AWB and noise reduction custom function (exposure times ran between 2 and 6 seconds).
AWB did wonderful job.

Customer later made prints up to 75x50 cm, And called me saying how she loved the results and how the subject matter is so sharp she felt it was the original work.

[Dixon_Zalit]

Good discussion. I have been worried about this. While AWB often produces better portrait tones, it cannot be consistent over a variety of situations. The solution is probably a custom WB setting which would give the same color rendition every time. Now what is the best way to get that setting? Perhaps we should all try and see what is best.

The nature of my business demands that I use JPG files out of the d30, If that makes a difference.

[JCN]

What I have found is that for in the studio I either use custom with a white card calibration or flash. The odd thing, however, is that I've found either flash or cloudy works best for my outdoor sessions with my taste leaning slightly towards the warm, but not too much. I'm curious what some of the others have found out there too!

[traynor]

I had been shooting in the studio with AWB in JPG mode. I was fairly pleased with the results. However, I recently shot a session with my wife and chose to shoot RAW. When I converted the images I found that the AWB was way off when comparing the images to the colors of her outfit. I found that the daylight white balance was perfect. I now shoot my sessions in Large/Fine JPG with the white balance set to daylight and I have been much more pleased with the results.

DT