In a message dated 3/9/2005 7:13:23 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I just noticed that the white balance was set @ 4450 for every shot I took - about ninety. That tells me that perhaps Bruce had set the WB at that level for some reason and, of course, not knowing squat about WB, the tones of the pics are all over the place. So, how important is the proper WB setting? I know it can be adjusted in the RAW converters, but does the image suffer in any way because of it? What's the best way to set WB on the istD? Use the auto feature or try to set it by estimating the color temp of the light.
Shel ========= I am going to answer your last question first. 1. I am not sure. I WAS setting my own WTB. Then Bruce told me he used Auto. So the other day I used auto. Maybe on the D auto is 4450. On the Canon I have daylight, shade, etc., etc. Never looked a the numbers, actually. 2. How important is it? When using RAW, not at all. This is what I was trying to tell you in the car the other day when I handed you the binder of my "contact sheets" (not really contact sheets, not on photo paper, more indexes). Remember I pointed to the shots from GFM that were all blue? That's because most of the animals were in shade, I had forgotten to reset it to a shade setting, shot with it at daylight and they came out blue. BUT IT WAS THE THUMBNAIL JPEGS EMBEDDED IN THE RAW FILES THAT WERE BLUE, NOT THE RAW FILES THEMSELVES. This is a bit confusing and I am not the best one to explain it, I won't use the right words, and I just sort of understand it myself. But JS said it didn't matter a whit, and as far as I am figuring out, most of the camera settings don't matter for RAW (except exposure -- combo of aperture and shutter speed, because if highlights are blown they remain blown) at all. It only affects the embedded jpeg. The raw file is basically ALL THE INFORMATION. That is why the WTB can be changed later. See? It really is a new medium, it really isn't as much like film as some think. Think computer files, not photos. I think it is rather amazing and I need to understand it better. I may read Bruce Fraser's Real World Camera Raw to get a handle on it. OTOH, I just got John Shaw's Photoshop Field Guide (a PDF file), and I may print it all out and go through that first. But basically RAW gives one information/capabilities FAR AWAY beyond film or slides. It records how colors would be if it was sunlight, if it was in shade, etc., etc. Probably on the whole it is a good idea to set the right WTB, so the embedded thumbnails look right. But I am not sure if it should be auto WTB. It is possible it depends on the manufacturer. So I am really not the BEST one to ask, but that is the best answer I can give right now. You might ask Bruce how he had the camera set regarding the basic settings: sharpness, saturation, etc. (there are about four menu settings and I don't remember them all right now and don't want to look them up all right now). But I do know Bruce probably had his WTB set on auto. Ask him. (Although 4450 doesn't sound like sunlight, does it?) HTH, Marnie I got lots to learn too. Try the grayscale thing.
