R-D1 manual white balance?

[tmessenger]

that's an interesting point... I guess that's true if you judge the exposure from the jpg histogram, and it's way out. I never thought of that.

In practice, I do tend to use the preset WB to get an approximate setting, so my RAW's aren't that far out in general - but yes, I can see how it could happen...

I've noticed a problem if the WB is too warm and the raw exposure is on the money then highlights blowout when corrected. Fortunately raw has some headroom and can be brought back, another good reason to shoot raw with this camera.

tm

 

[LCT]

I've noticed a problem if the WB is too warm and the raw exposure is on the money then highlights blowout when corrected...

Suffice it to play with the white and black points of the raw converter. Hardly a brainer IMHO. I'm not an expert at all, i just use Elements 2.0 and a couple of plug-ins including iCorrect & the Epson raw converter. Doesn't take more than 5 minutes to develop a good pic for my pro or personal needs without being in a hurry. FWIW.

 

[RFNewbie]

I have to say, as an old film shooter, that I regard jpg mode in a pro-quality digital camera like shooting a polaroid - if you were happy to develop a neg and produce a print (or pay someone else to do it), why not process a RAW and produce a tiff or jpg?

Sure there's a place for shooting jpgs - I know press photogs who do that to save time, but really, if you want quality, you just have to put in the effort!

ps I also shoot with a Canon 5D and never use custom WB - IMHO every picture needs tweaking for exposure and WB.

I had the Canon 5D for 2 months and had similar exposure and WB related issues similar to the 20D, both of which I have sold. I use to take exclusively RAW in order to tweak color and exposure but now with the increase accuracy of the 1Dmk2, I don't seem to find myself taking RAW pics much anymore, which is good because I have 350gb of pics . Yes, you don't get the ability to fine tune them so you can export huge Tiffs but I have not found a need to do this in everyday photography. When I due important events (weddings, paid sessions, vacations overseas), then I will still take RAWs but for the most part I just don't. Unless I see a truely dramatic scene, I find that the JPGs are more than adequate for my use.....if I want to make a print (seldom), the JPG is good enough for 8x12. I have printed Tiffs vs. JPG at this size and the differences are subtle. But I don't even find myself printing much unless it's for a special event. I just enjoy going out and taking pictures.....practicing new techniques, learning how to capture expressions that are real, learning how to part of the scene.... just capturing the "real scene". This is the main reason that I bought this R-D1 and I must say, I love it.

The other advantage (maybe not for perfecting the shot) is that I can be a photographer again instead of being a digital editor. I ask myself....do I want to spent time studying and composing each picture or do I want to spend a lot of time editing. hmm......for me it's an easy decision.

Here is a Fluorscent WB shot and one tweaked for color. This was taking this weekend at drink cafe handheld using the R-D1 and a CV 28mm f/3.5 (1/15sec, f/3.5 or f/4) in High JPG mode. I just want to show how inaccurate the R-D1s WB is off (I tried the various predefined WB modes when we first sat down to have drinks and this was the closes because it was lit with Fluorscent). The only modification to the original is a resize. The mod version has only been tweaked for color and resized. No sharpening, no exposure compensation, no highlight change, nothing else except a change to the size and color temp/tint. The lack of a custom WB forces me to do more post processing mostly to fix the color, which means less time for photography. This only took a sec to focus and compose but I wasted almost 3 minutes to change the color temp and resize.....a factor of 180. Yes 3 minutes doesn't sound like much but multiply that by how many pics I took. So even if I took only 20 pics, which I did not, it would still take an hour to fix them. Ahhhh!!!! What a waste of time.....that I could have spent taking other pics.

I think a person who wants to create should never really stops learning an experimenting. Once you have stop creating something new, your creativity stops growing and all your pics start to have a fixed style. Which for me is no fun. For me photography is an ever evolving art with ever evolving styles. So stop playing on the computer and go take pics.