Can you remove the camera white balance setting in Aperture

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Level 1

17 points

Can you remove the camera white balance setting in Aperture

I have a Canon 7D and use Aperture for processing and storing my images.

With the Canon I shoot both video and still and frequently adjust the white balance in the camera. I make a frequent mistake in leaving the wrong white balance setting on - eg when taking video indoors in the evening I set the white balance to indoors (the Canon seems poor at white balance decision making on video) and then I forget I'm not using auto white balance and switch to taking a photo with flash. The result is a horrible blue photo - which if I don't spot the problem at the time seems very hard to correct afterwards.

I use the Aperture white balance adjustments frequently but unless there is a patch or white or grey I an use the dropper on, I find this particular situation seems to be right off the scale of what I can fix in Aperture. I end up with sliders at the extremes of the scales and no intuitive sense of what numbers to type in manually to try and get realistic colour - so I often end up discarding these photos even if the shot itself is something I'd like to use.

So my question is given I'm importing RAW, is there a way to show the phoo without the (wrong) white balance setting I applied in the camera, to let me choose white balance from scratch?

Or if not, do you have any advice about how to adjust from this very bluey unrealistic colour of image?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion, Aperture 3.4.3

Posted on Feb 10, 2013 5:14 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Kirby Krieger

Level 6

12,592 points

Feb 10, 2013 6:32 AM in response to hedgert

hedgert wrote:

do you have any advice about how to adjust from this very bluey unrealistic colour of image?

Several of the Adjustment Sliders do not cover the entire usable range of adjustment. To get the entire range, use the Value Slider: click-and-hold in the parameter field, and drag. As the User Manual points out (I'm referencing this not to make you feel inexpert, but to help you answer your question):

Value sliders: Double-click the value and type a number in the value field, click the left or right arrow, or drag inside the value field to set a value. Often, you can type a much larger number in the value field than can be achieved by dragging the standard sliders. When using value sliders, you can use a modifier key to make value adjustments in small or large increments. (Emphasis added.)

See if with the full range of the WB settings available you can "normalize" your pictures. Iirc, the auto-WB control is also useful in this situation. (Afaik, auto-WB is as good a proxy for "no WB" as you can get. I don't think you can display an image for a RAW file without a WB.)

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Answer 2

hedgert Author

Level 1

17 points

Feb 10, 2013 10:44 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

Kirkby - thanks for the quick reply.

Didn't know you could drag inside a value field - that's helpful.

But being able to get different numbers on the slider isn't the root of my problem.

In a specific example I have two photos - one taken with white balance set to flash and the photo was with flash, where after a bit of tweaking to get the colour I want the temp slider is at 5000K (and tint 0). The second photo has my shooting error with interior lighting white balance but taken with flash. The two shots were taken from almost the same point of the same view (but different people in frame). The shot with the white balance error comes off camera horribly blue coloured. I can fiddle with the two sliders - I take temperature to 20000K and tint to 40 to do the best with it I can, and with those settings one of the two faces is approaching flesh colour but the wall behind the subjects (which is a light blue in reality) is now appearing light yellow in places. I just can't get a good looking colour effect no matter ow extreme the slider settings.

I may have phrased my question badly - as I totally agree you can't show a raw without a colour setting - so maybe I'm better asking to be able to use a different colour setting on the raw data rather than having to start with adjustments on top of my white balance mistake.

Given the two shots were in the same place against the same background and the same lighting (both with flash) it seems to me I ought to be able to get a similar colour effect on both and I just can't. To illustrate here are the two photos (the one on the left was shot with flash wb and in Aperture I'm viewing it with 5000K and 0 tint, the one on the right was shot with indoor wb and in Aperture I'm viewing it with 20000K and 40 tint and it looks terrible!)

https://www.box.com/shared/qle3t6ovyhrd1egez3vc

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