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RAW and effect of White Balance...

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joshua

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Oct 8, 2007
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Hi, I am having a debate with a photo friend... does the white balance setting in camera have any _permanent_ effect on the raw file when shooting? Aka, if I have it set to 9''' in camera and then adjust it in Lightroom to something more applicable, is there any more noise or degradation versus getting the white balance "correct" or nearly correct in the camera straight off.

My belief is that the in-camera white balance setting has no permanent effect, but he thinks otherwise.

Who's right?

-- Joshua
 
You're right. My condolences to your friend! ;)

The in-camera white balance will affect the histogram you see on the back on the camera, as that's based on the jpeg preview, and if you were using that to set your exposure, it could throw YOU slightly. But that's as close as you'll get to affecting the raw file.
 
Absolutely no problem to apply white balance after the fact on a raw file. I shoot raw 1''% of the time and I never move the WB setting from auto. Setting the appropriate ISO for the lighting conditions then concentrate on getting exposure and composure correct. The rest is what your processing software is for.
 
Or, to put it another way -- the white balance setting in a raw file is just metadata. It doesn't affect the pixel data in any way; it is a piece of information used by the raw converter to determine how to interpret the pixel data.
 
While you can adjust WB in RAW after the fact, In my opinion it is best to set the in-camera White Balance as close as possible to the prevailing lighting conditions to reduce the amount of adjustments needed in post processing. AWB introduces way too much variability; especially when bracketing shots for HDR or shooting panoramas. And since WB is also affected by the Metering mode in use, Matrix or Evaluative metering tends to cause the WB to vary even more.

Denis de Gannes;13'35 said:
Absolutely no problem to apply white balance after the fact on a raw file. I shoot raw 1''% of the time and I never move the WB setting from auto. Setting the appropriate ISO for the lighting conditions then concentrate on getting exposure and composure correct. The rest is what your processing software is for.
 
James, I agree with you where time and conditions permit or warrant getting every thing spot on, then that will be beneficial. I do not shoot in normal studio conditions or have sessions to create panoramas with three or more pictures which have to be merged afterwards. Then surely it would be beneficial if not a requirement to have everything spot on , WB, ISO, Exposure etc in sync.
 
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