White Balance

[zymon]

Hi,

I altered the white balance on 2 sets of identical Bracketed (3 exposures) shots to different settings. Had no effect on the final SNS HDR output. Does this mean white balance is not so important importing to SNS HDR? And not realy much point altering the base RAW image anymore?

Zymon

[tonygamble]

I didn't think that RAW files could have varied white balance. Is not the setting simply going into the EXIF for use later should you so want it.

Tony

[zymon]

I had an interior where the lights where too green on ceiling so I tried to rectify this in RAW (in autobridge RAW program)before working in SNSHDR. I had 2 seperate folders each with a different white balance setting.

So you say that SNS will not read any change I make to the RAW.

[tonygamble]

SNS-HDR used dcraw.exe to convert your RAWs.

If you want to make it change the white balance you need to read up on the use of a command line to initiate dcraw. Google will find some ideas for you. As I see it dcraw.exe is not capable of reading any white balance you set in the camera as, with RAW, that is only extra info in the EXIF of the file and dcraw cannot deal with it - as far as I know anyway.

If you want to alter the white balance in some RAW files you would be far better off if you found a RAW converter with a GUI. If you can't afford Lightroom buy something cheaper.

Then you can feed SNS-HDR with corrected tiffs or jpgs.

Tony

[zymon]

Thanks,

Actualy im not so interested in changing white balance cos SNS seems to do a better job than Photomatix in making natural interior lighting.

I was planning to invest in this exposy thing that u fit to the front of your lens to allow you to set correct white balance when on site though!

Cheers

Zymon

[queguenae]

In SNS HDR pied change the white balance after the pictures were merged.
Would not it be better to adjust the white balance before mixing but the program itself SNS-HDR?

[tonygamble]

"I was planning to invest in this exposy thing that u fit to the front of your lens to allow you to set correct white balance when on site though!"

If you change the setting in your camera and shoot RAW as I have attempted to explain above it will only change info in EXIF and not in the actual image file. So you are wasting your money.

What you could do is buy a grey card and photograph it in the room. That will give you a reference that you can use when you process your RAWs for SNS. Fiddling with the settings in the camera is a waste of time. Your RAW files ignore them. Altering white balance is for people who shoot direct to jpg.

"Would not it be better to adjust the white balance before mixing but the program itself SNS-HDR?" Yes, this is what I am saying.

Do come back, ANYBODY, if what I am saying is wrong. I seem to be running a one man tutorial here....

Tony

[mgg]

As Tony is feeling a bit exposed on this...

I bought one of those plastic lens cover come white balance gizmo years back but soon stopped using it.
I've also bought grey cards and used only once or twice.

In general AWB in my camera works well for me. About the only time I use one of the other presets is when taking shots to make a spherical panorama, In this case AWB can make colour balance across the multiple images and bit problematical.

On the processing side, I've found that my preferred RAW converter, Silkypix, set on Auto WB does a slightly better job than the camera AWB now and again.

On the rare occasion that I still have an issue I correct it as best I can in Picture Window Pro.

BTW I'n NOT suggesting that the tools I'm using are better than other tools as I've insufficient experience with alternative software to make that judgement.

Finally, the importance of White Balance to me, doing what I do, maybe be far less than it is for others.

Mike.

[zymon]

hey sorry, maybe i dont readlly understand RAW. Need to read up a bit more even though I have merryly using it for years!

zymon

[zymon]

Ok after reading a bit I have this to say.

Im working in interiors with daylight, halogen and flourescent lights - from what i have read its a very tuff situ. So I need to be able to alter the light balance. Why should SNS HDR not pay any attention to any custom or selected white balance setting done on site?

From What I have read, most ppl suggest using a gray card to custom the WB in RAW. Is this an issue with SNS?

Here your commnets on the ExpoDisc - thansk for the heads up.

BTW I was not planning to convert RAW to tiff before processing in SNS. Because other programs like photomatix let you work straight with RAW which is the whole point of HDR I thought (using RAW).

Interested for your feeback