EOS 7D White Balance in RAW File

Matt H

Newbie

Posts: 8

« on: March 20, 2016, 02:06:57 AM »

I was always under the impression that when shooting RAW it didn't really make much difference what WB setting you had on your camera because that was only for color rendering on your camera display and it did not get recorded to the RAW file, or if it did get recorded to the RAW file it was ignored by programs like Qimage, Adobe, etc. Regardless I have always made an effort to have the correct WB setting selected (cloudy, florescent, sunny, etc), but today we were outside and it was cloudy so I set the WB accordingly, then when we went inside it was florescent lights and I forgot to change the camera until my last few shots. Looking at the pictures in Qimage tonight I noticed that all of my indoor shots, except for the last few with the correct WB selected look very very yellow.

So I did a little experimenting tonight by taking several photos in my basement under Incandescent lighting and discovered that my longtime assumption is incorrect. The WB setting in my camera DOES get stored in the RAW file and has a dramatic effect on the photos appearance in Qimage....

So my question for you guys is:
1) Is this normal and has it always been this way?
2) How do you deal with WB in your normal workflow? What if you have the wrong WB selected in the camera?
3) Would it be possible for Mike add a setting to RAW image processing to Ignore the WB values from the RAW File? Or would this be a bad idea?
-Matt


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Fred A

Forum Superhero

Posts: 5644

Re: EOS 7D White Balance in RAW File

« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2016, 06:42:52 AM »

Quote

So my question for you guys is:
1) Is this normal and has it always been this way?
2) How do you deal with WB in your normal workflow? What if you have the wrong WB selected in the camera?
3) Would it be possible for Mike add a setting to RAW image processing to Ignore the WB values from the RAW File? Or would this be a bad idea?
-Matt

Matt,
There's a 4 year old video which will help a lot.
Ignore the location of a few of the buttons to click on as they have been updated, but all of the principles remain the same.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fXni0450et4

Your diagnosis of what colors you are seeing due to what light source are right on the money.

I attached a couple of screen snaps to illustrate the newer, easier way to get into refine. (Although you probably have that already, and the RGB valuse that have been added since the video was made)
The principles are still there.

If you click HELP in the QU screen, you will see an item called Video Learning Center. Videos might be a tad old, but still good to get started.
Also more up to date; see the Qimage Ultimate Forum Category called, http://ddisoftware.com/tech/qimage-ultimate-challenges/

Click on that, and have some fun on a rainy afternoon.

Hope this helps.
More questions? Feel free to ask anytime.

Fred


« Last Edit: March 20, 2016, 09:30:36 AM by Terry-M »	Logged

Terry-M

The Honourable Metric Mann
Forum Superhero

Posts: 3247

Re: EOS 7D White Balance in RAW File

« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2016, 09:12:15 AM »

Just to add re. ...

Quote

RAW programs do take account of the camera setting so it is always preferred (I think) to set the camera to the nearest for the light source being used. However it's not the end of the world if you don't do that, and, as Fred has said, can easily be corrected in Raw Refine, especially if there's a white or grey item in the scene. In fact, I regularly use a grey card take and shot of that as the light source changes, sunlight, shadow, clouds, artifical light etc. I have to remember to take a shot of the grey card again if I change the camera setting, say, when I go into a building.
Terry


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admin

Administrator
Forum Superhero

Posts: 4124

Re: EOS 7D White Balance in RAW File

« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2016, 02:02:11 PM »

I think Fred and Terry have already covered everything, but I'll add my 2 cents. Smiley

WB is always recorded in all raws by all cameras. WB is part of the header (EXIF) so the raws will be decoded using the camera's WB setting by default. In a case like yours, I would probably pick one shot from the indoor batch that had a good white/gray object, click on that for WB, and then apply that WB to all the indoor shots in batch to correct them all at once: select more than one and use the "Copy specific settings" button in refine. To address the "ignore" option, there is an automatic (AWB) checkbox in refine. You could use that to have DCRAW pick its own white balance if you like.

Regards,
Mike


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Matt H

Newbie

Posts: 8

Re: EOS 7D White Balance in RAW File

« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2016, 01:17:26 AM »

Thanks for the quick replies.

Reading through all of this and taking a peek a the videos I think my normal Workflow is OK, but I do appreciate the suggestions of using one of my good photos to "batch" apply the WB to the other indoor photos.

I guess the only issue that my understanding of WB in RAW files was totally off.

-Matt


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