How do I Sync white balance for before and after images?

[nIkedoni1a]

I am a dermatologist and we take before and after photos of patients. The after pictures often have a different hue due to white balance. I haven't had much success playing with the sliders in the basic panel and haven't figured out if I can view both images side by side like you can in the "compare" view so I can watch the adjustments happen to one image while simultaneously looking at the other.
some treatment rooms are windowless with fluorescent lights which is what the cameras are set to and other rooms are a combination of fluorescent and window light. I should also mention that we use the same model camera for all the photos but not necessarily the same camera but they are set to the same settings.
I would think there would be an easy way to get them looking like they were taken in the same light

 

[clee01l]

I think you need a reference photo. Shoot an 18% gray card before (and after ?) each Photo. You can measure WB on the gray card and this will give you a WB reference which can be applied to the patient photos. If you are shooting JPEGs then the WB is going to get baked into the 8 bit JPEG and WB adjustment in LR may not recover what you need. If you shoot RAW, the camera WB is not applied and then LR can be used to set the WB.

 

[Rob_Cullen]

My thoughts agree with Cletus-
Shoot in 'raw' (leave camera set to 'Daylight'WB- it does not affect RAW images.)
For each photo session, Shoot one image with a "White Balance grey card" in part of a photo.
Set WB in Lightroom by a 'dropper' click on the 'WB card' in one image.
Sync/copy the WB settings to all the images in a shoot.
Avoid (like the plague) situations where you have mixed lighting! Results are un-predictable! Even the WB card will not correct different WB areas in the same image.

Also- Some fluorescent lighting is stronger in some wavelengths than others and difficult to correct. You may achieve more consistent results with a flash/strobe light (eg. a ring-light) that will give a light spectrum closer to natural 'daylight'. Some of the latest LED camera/video lights may do similar.

 

[nIkedoni1a]

Thank you,
They grey card solution became obvious to me as I wrote the question but I was not aware that it would not work with jpgs so thank you for that. The ring light is another excellent suggestion, however, I have the rooms all stocked with point and shoots which means a camera upgrade which is something to consider.
Is anyone aware of a plug in or stand alone software that would enable me to compare the mismatch photos I already have collected so I can do the best I can to minimize the differences.
Thank you

 

[Rob_Cullen]

Some more comments-
Grey cards and WB correction in LR will work with JPG files, but just not as accurately or effectively as it does with RAW.
I don't believe any software will automatically correct images with WB mis-match. WB is so much a visual 'thing' unless you have some item of reference in an image (ie. grey card). And LR is as good as any for correcting 'visually'. A batch of images could be changed by a WB preset but "changed to what??" The WB scale in LR for a JPG file is -100 to +100 if that has any meaning!

Re: the point&shoots- Even different cameras could give varied WB results, especially if they are set to AutoWB!

If you stick with your current cameras- set them all to 'Daylight' WB, buy some Manfrotto LED lights, use a WB card for the WB reference setting in LR. That would be a start to better color management in your situation.