White Balance Blues (newbie-ish question)

[scubaaaronh]

I have used raw before and an editor to correct color but you are right in the write speed it takes a lot longer to write to the card. As far as space that not an issue i can put a 4 gig cf card in one slot and a one gig xd in the other and have five gig onboard. What is the best editor to use for correcting color.

 

[Tortuga Roja]

The ACR converter that comes with Photoshop CSx or Elements is all I use and I think it does a fine job.

 

[RonFrank]

I have used raw before and an editor to correct color but you are right in the write speed it takes a lot longer to write to the card. As far as space that not an issue i can put a 4 gig cf card in one slot and a one gig xd in the other and have five gig onboard. What is the best editor to use for correcting color.

I use photoshop CS which is a very common choice.

There are other good editors out there, but most do not support RAW.

Another popular RAW option is to use the manufactures tools. In the case of Nikon that is Nikon Capture or Nikon View. Some argue that the Manufacture tools are better in that they are designed by the people who built the camera, and understand how to get the most out of it...

I personally just use Adobe CS, and am happy with it.

 

[dlwalke]

I'm still confused about how to do the post-hoc white balancing. I can take the shots in RAW, but then how specifically do I do the white balance. I looked up "ACR converter" and also "converter" in the index and help search for Adobe Elements and nothing came up.

The ACR converter that comes with Photoshop CSx or Elements is all I use and I think it does a fine job.

 

[dlwalke]

I'm not sure if this has been answered yet. If you are using a flash, and the WB is set to auto, doesn't camera set white balance to whatever is appropriate for flash? And since you are probably more interested in foreground than background, wouldn't this setting be pretty much the one you want?

 

[alcina]

I'm not sure Elements supports RAW? Does it have the ACR screen? If so, there are three eye dropper tools on the top left - use the one of the left and then click around your image to get the "right" look. You can also use the temperature and tint sliders.

If you are shooting RAW it doesn't matter what the camera sets for WB - RAW doesn't throw anything away so you can change it out of the camera.

 

[Tortuga Roja]

I'm not sure Elements supports RAW?

Yes, RAW is supported in Elements (ver 4 anyway and I think 3).

The WB setting on your camera will only affect the review image on your camera and the default camera value in the converter. Then, like Kristen said, it doesn't matter for post production cuz you can change it the way she described.

If you have the latest Elements, when you load your RAW file into it the Adobe Converter Raw (ACR) screen should load automatically with a rendition of your image ready for conversion. If it doesn't, either Elements is an older version or you have a camera newer than your latest ACR update. If the latter is the case, you will need to go to the Adobe site and download the update. There will be a list of supported cameras there.

 

[Peter Guy]

Alcina -- I just opened my Elements 3.0 and went to Open File and "Camera RAW" is one of the "formats" supported. Under "Camera RAW" are several different extensions which, I'm assuming, are the various proprietary formats that Adobe has decided to support.

When I went to edit a CRW file, there weren't the "eye droppers" but instead several different sliders and presets to change the image (including color temp).

 

[alcina]

Peter -

I haven't used Elements (obviously) but check out Mike's answer above and check for updates. I guess I would have thought the little eye droppers were in Elements ACR, too - maybe Mike will chime in...but the temp and tint sliders do exactly the same thing, so as long as you have those you are good to go for white balance

I'm off to go diving now!

 

[Tortuga Roja]

Alcina -- I just opened my Elements 3.0 and went to Open File and "Camera RAW" is one of the "formats" supported. Under "Camera RAW" are several different extensions which, I'm assuming, are the various proprietary formats that Adobe has decided to support.

When I went to edit a CRW file, there weren't the "eye droppers" but instead several different sliders and presets to change the image (including color temp).

I'm not Alcina but I might be able to help...

I could be wrong, but I think if you look in the upper left you'll find the eyedropper mixed in with a hand and a crop tool and some other stuff. At any rate, you use the temp and tint sliders for your WB. The eyedroppers are just to get you close if you are way off, then you would use the sliders to fine tune anyway.

I would also suggest that if this is the 1st time you have used the converter, it will have all of the "auto" boxes by the other sliders checked. Yuck. Uncheck them and save that "new camera defaults." Do this when you 1st open a file and before you move anything. I'm sure you will find this a better default. If not, you can always reset the default defaults easily enuf.