Pixiq

Think yin and yang! When deciding how and when to white balance, consider the two color components of light that are coupled together inseparably, though not necessarily in equal parts. The color of light we see, and which is recorded by pixels, is made up of the color of the light falling on your subject and the light bouncing back from the subject. What we call incidence and reflectance. The two fit together, depending on each other, augmenting and complimenting. 

Why do we want to white balance in the first place? Regardless of what you’ve heard on convention platforms, in formal classrooms and on forums, careful white balance setting whether RAW or JPEG, is the one major secret to better quality capture. Inaccurate white balance is even more deadly than the easily understood vagaries of over and under exposure, because in Photoshop severe corrections can do wonders, but side effects of the cure are insidious and destructive to image quality and noise. Everybody has experienced extreme cases of  overly yellow candlelight scenes. And who wants to waste time in front of the computer if your can easily get it right in the first place? 

Every lab spokesperson I’ve talked to repeats this like a mantra, “White balance, white balance, white balance!” Labs report an estimated 75% of all wedding and event photography, from neophytes and experienced photographers alike, is still captured with auto white balance. When you use auto, every single image you take will be a different WB from the last. No two portraits shot in succession, nor wedding events, will every look exactly alike in capture. Every one will have to be tweaked into line, a postproduction job your lab must manage.  Often it’s a guess. When you tweak for one color, some other color will jump out of line. 

Ok, so we know that auto anything is generally not the best option. But what about camera presets? Yes, they’re pretty good. More than pretty good. But surprise, surprise, I often find that the supposedly bulletproof “sunny” setting isn’t close enough for my needs or taste. Tungsten settings rarely net a sufficient correction for lightbulbs, certainly not for candles. When you’re talking a professional portrait nothing but the very best and most natural color balance will do. Same for a bridal gown which may be subtle variations like “candlelight”, “blush”, “ivory”, “crystal”, “peach”...

There are three types of WB devices: filters or discs that fit over the lens, collapsible fabric targets and color cards. Here are some of the best ones and where to find them:

Discs

• Colorright  
• CBL  
• ClearWhite  
• Expodisc  

Fabric targets

• Ed Pierce Digital Calibration Target  
•  Bogen Lastolite  

 Cards

• WhiBal   
• Digital Gray Card  
•  MacBeth ColorChecker  

Filters and discs get the best results when you make your custom WB exposure from the location of your subject and pointing the camera back toward the eventual place you’ll stand to make your picture. Sometimes you can’t get to the subject location, for instance if it’s a distance away, so then you just stand somewhere the light looks similar. With discs, you can also point them toward the light source, which technique is useful in the studio with flash. Targets and color cards are placed at the subject position, or in any area of similar lighting, and photographed from the final camera angle. The cue here is that the best white balance is always obtained from the subject position, not the position for taking the picture.

So how to best harness the yin and yang? 

• Whatever device you choose, use it at the subject position in the exact lighting conditions. 
• Be careful to maintain the same camera- subject line of sight that you’ll use to make the picture.
• Determine exposure as closely as possible before white balancing, because poor exposure will skew the color.
• Don’t shade the white balance device or allow other objects (like a friendly assistant in a red shirt) to get in the way of the white balance test. You do want to capture cross over colors like green trees that will be in your final  composition, but never extraneous objects.
• Set the camera for custom white balance using the WB image.
• Test the result, preferably with the actual person or subject in place. How does the LCD look? If there is an overall color cast, go back and try again. Yes, I chimp, because I know and allow for the vagaries of my LCD. While the LCD is not meant to show perfect color or sharpness, experience will tell you if, like mine, it is a little yellow biased. 
• Check the histogram. Are there blockages in highlights or shadows? Does the histogram seem deficient in light or dark areas? (Remember that the reflectance of a black garment will strongly skew the histogram, making it look wrong, while a person’s face may be correctly exposed and colored.)
• Test again after adjusting and before you get started with your shoot.

I’ve used each and every one of these units and compared them to each other. My favorite? Ed Pierce’s Digital Calibration Target. Why? Each target has three stripes: black, gray and white. The middle tone gray strip helps you get the right exposure. The black and white strips show you on your histogram where the highlights and shadows fall. The histogram then will suggest how you may wish to further tweak exposure for the widest range of details without blocking up either light or dark end of the scale. Better still: Ed’s targets come in various sizes from 6” (great for travel), 14”, 24” up to 34” (studio size). The target bundle has the added bonus of gold and silver reflector covers to do multiple duties. This unit has also proved to be the most useful for us on video shoots.

With just the right, balanced fit between WB device and technique, your resulting image will be greater than the sum of the parts.