White Balancing A Canon T3i

J

Jamaine

Active member
How do you guys go about getting the best White balance setting for your camera, sometimes when I white balance my T3i, there is a little yellow or magenta in it. I was told that you should go directly in the path or under the source where your actors or staging is gonna be to White Balance the camera there.

I've also noticed that good lighting and fast glass is very important in this lighting process.
 
I usually just use a preset white balance that's already on the camera. Other than that we"ll take a photo of a white sheet of paper and do a custom white balance. It works for us.
 
I really can't imagine going back to the convoluted custom WB method after using Magic Lantern. In ML it is simple, especially with the shortcuts. Simply dial in the WB you want (in Kelvin), and tweak until things look good.

But yes, white (or 18% grey) card positioned somewhere your key light (or whichever light you are balancing for) will fall on it. Personally these days I just use that as a starting point and adjust to make the scene warmer/cooler as required.
 
I agree with swopiv:

This is a good question. I use Magic Lantern (ML) to white balance my shots, however, I still need an image to compare to. Even though I like to adjust it in manual mode, I can mess up my preset user-defined picture styles with it because they seemed to be bypassed and lose that flat imaging-style. If you do not properly set your white balance, you will either have a hard time fixing it in post, or really, not at all. This makes it difficult if you're depending on Tungsten lighting.

In all, I think it really depends on the lighting you're using. If I am trying to achieve warmer colors, I use Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202066...1&N=25ecodZ5yc1vZ1n0&R=202066791#.UWpVX7WzeSo) lighting, and then white balance it so something a little more on the earth-tone side. Though, those lights can overexpose your shots, and even fake you out thinking that the tone is too much on the warm side, when shooting, try to remember that everything will have to be re-adjusted in post-production.
 
I use to auto it with magic lantern. But then I notice magic lantern was a little bit on the magenta side so I add 2 green, and just adjust the Kelvins to my liking.
 
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