My White Balance workflow in Lightroom
I have been asked how I handle White Balance in Lightroom, so i thought I would post a detailed explanation to help others. As I mentioned in my previous post (http://digitalmason.posterous.com/whitebalance), I work to take a test image of my neutral grey card at each location, and when the light changes dramatically (heavy overcast, or several hours later in a shoot).
While my Canon 40D has a 'custom White Balance' setting, I rarely use it. This setting allows you to take a shot of your neutral target, and then use that target, in the camera, to configure the White Balance setting for shots taken. This is certainly convenient, but this must be done each time you shoot a new White Balance target, and please, don't do as I have done and forget that the camera is on custom White Balance, using a wrong White Balance on a different shoot the next day!
For this reason, and due to the fact that I find my workflow much more flexible and productive, I simply leave the camera on AWB, and shoot away. For the record, I shoot RAW only.
The WorkFlow:
As I mentioned before, I shoot an occasional target as I progress through my shoot. I typically throw my target on the ground, ensuring it is in similar light to my subjects. When I get home, I load all the images into Lightroom, and then find my target shoots. It looks something like this, with my target shoot in the top right corner. All shots after this target were taken in a similar location as that target, so they all share similar light conditions to the target.
Next, I go into the Develop Module with the image of the neutral target. Within the Develop Module, I open the 'Basic' tools box on the right, and select the "White Balance Selector tool" or eyedropper. You can also hit the 'W' key as a shortcut. Drag the dropper to your neutral target and click. You have now adjusted the White Balance of this image, setting neutral equivalent to your target:
After setting the White Balance, you next need to copy these White Balance settings to all the other images taken in similar location at a similar time. So, first we copy the settings: right click on the image in the center window, choose "Settings", then "Copy Settings". This will bring up a box with all the settings you can copy, but in this case, be sure that only 'White Balance' is checked:
Finally, you are ready to apply these setting to all your images. Return to the Library Module, then get into Grid view (G). Select all the images. For me, that is all the pictures that follow the neutral target shot, up to the next neutral target shot (see, its foolproof). Once selected, right click on the main grid view and choose "Develop Settings" (no idea why it is different than the Develop Module). Choose "Paste settings" and away it will go, applying your White Balance settings to all your selected images.
And you are done, enjoy your perfect White Balance!
I hope this was of help, and that you can begin making your editing workflow much more efficient.
Thanks for reading
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