White balance question

[michaelb]

I am curious as to how others deal with white balance inaccuracies.

Here is a shot I took this weekend. The first shot was taken with the "outdoor" WB setting....The colors are much too warm and completely inaccurate.

The next shot is basically identical, taken with "Auto" WB.....Much too cool.

(I'm starting to sound like Goldilox, damn it! :D )

In the last shot the hue was edited in PP, to what I consider to be the "accurate" WB, as it actually was.

Any suggestions for more accurate outdoor WB?....grey card, ExpoDisc, etc.

I do sometimes shoot in RAW, but even then the WB needs to be edited. I like to get it right when I take the shot, if its possible.

[SpecialK]

A grey or white card is much cheaper than an expodisk, though a bit clumsier.

A white coffee filter or two (carried in a ziplock bag in your case), may be the cheapest option.

[pagnamenta]

I think the easiest way is to shoot in RAW and adjust later. I do this when I'm shooting indoors all the time. I don't want to play around with WB so I just set it to auto and fire away. I'll fix the WB later.

[Rooz]

when you say "outdoor" do you mean sunlight ? shade ? cloudy ? there should be more than one outdoor setting ?

the auto WB one is awful. personally i like #1 the best of all of them.

[zmikers]

I definitely think number 1 is way too warm. Just look at the path. A gray/white card is not hard to use or you can even improvise. Coffee filters like suggested above is a pretty good idea. I've been known to use my white sock or a t-shirt. Take a quick snap of it, hit the custom WB and Bob's your uncle! I agree, there's just something so satisfying about getting it right straight out of the camera.