darktable ep 035 - White balance

[@_chickenhead]

Thank you so much for all of this content. I've been binging these episodes recently and they are really helpful.

[@audio2u]

Glad to hear it! I've been away on holiday... just got home today. Knackered. New video will be at least another week away.

[@wulfreusch4525]

Thank you for the video! You illustrated it very well.

[@audio2u]

Cheers!

[@assiye9917]

Did I get right? I have a shooting cabinet in my house that I made with LED lights and a bright white furniture material (from lacquered material). Do I have to take the test cards you mentioned in this environment and adjust the white balance accordingly? Or will a separate environment be required for the test shoot? thanks for everything.

[@audio2u]

Yes, you use the grey card in the room in which you want to shoot, under the lighting you will use for that shoot. That way, your camera can see how the room and the lighting are reacting to the grey card.

[@assiye9917]

@@audio2u You are so helpful, thank you very much. I sell second-hand luxury brand original products and shoot for them. Hermes, chanel users should examine the texture, stitching and color of the products I shoot very well. That's why photo quality is very important. Also, is there a need to have a test on the white card when using the gart for white balance? because the colors of the products I xext change. some are a dress on a mannequin, some are a handbag. I don't understand why you are talking about gray card.

[@audio2u]

You mentioned that I had spoken of test cards. Without going back to watch the episode myself, I assume I was talking about using a grey card to measure the white balance of a scene. Or have I misunderstood your question?

[@assiye9917]

@@audio2u Let me state first. As far as I know, since all the other colors are adjusted according to the white color, shouldn't the white color card be referenced anyway? So I thought it should be a test shot with a white card. that's why i'm confused when you mention the gray card

[@audio2u]

Ahhh, gotcha! You can use a white card, a grey card or a black card, and any of them will help to get a correct white balance. As long the white is actually WHITE, the grey is actually GREY and the black is actually BLACK (ie with no minor colour bias), then it's all good. I prefer the grey card because on scopes or histogram, your three colour channels will show a value which will sit somewhere near the middle of the luminosity range, thereby making it easier to see if there's a bias one way or another. With a white card, all three channels will display values near to maximum luminosity, thus making it harder to see if there is a slight discrepancy between channels.

[@alangaughran]

Just got to this episode 35. This is a remarkable series Mr Williams. Your straight and somewhat modest - but nevertheless very professional - style makes for an engaging experience throughout. I'm certain that this series will make a real difference to the user statistics of Darktable and possibly even result in the oddities of the software being ironed out sooner than would otherwise be the case. Drop a line if you're ever in London (the real one) and allow me to buy a pint.

[@audio2u]

Thanks Alan! Much appreciated.

[@defendermodsandtravels]

It was very informative how to apply the same white balance to multiple photos. What you omit to say (although it's there by inference) is that this is the way to use a test card reading. Also, when using negadoctor, the manual suggests that one should take a test shot of the light source to get the white balance, which will of course need to be transferred to the images you are trying to invert.

[@audio2u]

I don't even remember what I covered in this video, but a lot of it would have been superseded by the Colour Calibration module (and the video I produced about that module).

[@JimInWp]

Good morning Bruce. Your videos are great! I have a question about white balance. Recently I took a lot of photos of a family gathering outdoors and all the pictures had a bluish cast which is easily corrected with the WB module. The camera was set on auto white balance. I guess I should’ve said it to daylight as it was a bright sunny day. Is there a way of adjusting the white balance on all the photos simultaneously. Or when I am importing them can I add it to the white balance module to the basic pixel pipe that is applied on import? On further exploration based on your video I think I found a way to do it. I have close to 200 photos in this afternoon‘s shoot. I shoot JPEG and RAW. What I did was collapse the JPEG and RAW combo so only the RAW pictures were showing then adjusted the white balance for one of the pictures. Then I went back to the lighttable module and copied the history stack but just the white balance module. I then went to select all, and I pasted the white balance module in to the pictures showing. I then unstacked the photos and saw that the white balance changed was applied only to the DNG files. I edited one of the JPEG‘s for the correct white balance went back to lighttable and copied the white balance and then 'select untouched' photos and pasted the white balance to the JPEG’S. A multistep process but it got the job done. Thanks again for the great videos.

[@audio2u]

Thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad you got your issue sorted out!

[@tba1879]

Hi, Bruce--I'm trying to figure out the steps in using a gray card for WB (a shot of the card taken in the same light as the photo) in Darktable. I would need to apply the correct value to a number of photos, one by one as I edit each. Thanks!

[@audio2u]

If it's a series of images shoot under the same lighting conditions, then you only have to do it once. Then, you can copy the white balance settings (from the white balance module, the colour calibration module, or both) and paste into as many images as you need to.

[@assiye9917]

@@audio2u Did I get right? I have a shooting cabinet in my house that I made with LED lights and a bright white furniture material (from lacquered material). Do I have to take the test cards you mentioned in this environment and adjust the white balance accordingly? Or will a separate environment be required for the test shoot? thanks for everything.

[@patricecarriere]

Thanks for this! I am new to RAW and Darktable, and the toughest thing I find is figuring out how to adjust the colours so that they don't look strange. Your videos are a great help! :-)

[@audio2u]

Glad I could be of assistance! Cheers.

[@joaovtaveira]

15:14 that can also be done pressing Ctrl+Shift+C, holding Ctrl while select all needed images and Ctrl+Shift+V.

[@rhalfik]

I remember adjusting white balance in Photoshop by bending curves for each channel separately.

[@audio2u]

Yep, that's one way of doing it! 😃

[@folmonty]

Back after bit of hiatus, working in dt but forgot some things over time. Can't believe how busy you've been. Wonderful content as always. dt is a wonderful bit of software. More it's used, better the results. Thanks Bruce!

[@audio2u]

Thanks Monty! 😃

[@nonsolovita]

really informative video as always thx Bruce and greetings from italy and well done on the choose Da Vinci Resolve Rocks i use it too.

[@audio2u]

Yeah, it seems like a great platform. Just got a lot to learn.... again! 😀

[@tba1879]

Another question, Bruce! Is there a way to get rid of sheen from a photo of a painting?

[@audio2u]

Hmmm, nothing immediately springs to mind. You could try the Colour Reconstruction module though, but that will only be useful if the sheen is on just one colour in the painting. You might be better off in gimp or affinity photo for that kind of task.

[@JimInWp]

Hi Bruce. Great video as usual. When I import JPG and DNG to my iMac everything is normal for the jpg's. The history stack for jpg’s shows 5 entries. 0-original 1- input color profile 2-output color profile 3- display encoding 4- orientation But when I do the same thing on my MacBook Pro, a sixth module is applied. White balance with a user preset is tackled on and all the jpg's are a bright pinkish-orange. I can add a new WB with the proper lighting setting and the photo is normal. I cannot get rid of the WB in the pixelpipe applied by DT. 2 questions. Why are the 2 computers different? how can I edit the pixelpipe on my Macbook Pro?

[@audio2u]

That's a curly one! I have no idea why the Mac would do that. You could try sending an email to the darktable-user list. Some of the developers are on there, and they might have an idea.

[@JimInWp]

@@audio2u Hi Bruce. I tried removing DT and reinstalling it to no avail. BUT I realized the new install rad the same catalog (DB ) as the old one. I unhid the hidden files and found the DT configuration folder and deleted it. Not such a big deal since i use my desktop for most of my editing. Reinstalled DT and the problem is corrected. I guess there was some sort of corruption in the DB or config files. All back to normal.

[@audio2u]

Ah! Good to know. Cheers.

[@d.l.barlow8724]

hey there Bruce, your content is a godsend! just wondering if you know how I can get a second instance of white balance for masking or if there is another module that handles temperature as well?

[@audio2u]

Thanks! Not sure if you can duplicate the white balance module or not. If you can't, I would go with the color correction module. There's a video I did on white balance where I showed how to handle a single image with different white balances, although that might have been a Patreon-only video. Not sure.

[@joaovtaveira]

By the way what happened with your podcast site? I'm no longer able to access it.

[@audio2u]

I know. I'm trying to get it reinstated. Basically, there's an extortion "security" company called SiteLock, who has deemed ALL of my sites "infected", and so my hosting company has blocked all my domains. Trust me, I'm working on it.

[@joaovtaveira]

@@audio2u I've just seen that on your Facebook page. I hope you solve it soon.

[@bubulubugoth]

Very good, the spot feature is amazing. I never used any other editor than gimp and darktable, so I'm untainted from PS ... I also can do spanish translation... but I think the csr file a type of subtitle file, must be timed for it to work...

[@audio2u]

Right. Well, if you want to flick me an email, I'll send you the text file. I can do some practising to see how it all works... Or IF it works! 😃

[@joaovtaveira]

How can I ask you to send me the subtitle files.

[@audio2u]

Msg me on FB is probably easiest.

[@joaovtaveira]

@@audio2u ok, I'll send you some messages soon. I would like to help you with the transition into Portuguese from Portugal. I'm not sure I'm capable though, but I hope I am.

[@audio2u]

I actually already have someone who has expressed an interest in doing the Portuguese translation! So, you might be off the hook! :)

[@joaovtaveira]

@@audio2u 😭

[@bubulubugoth]

Thaaaanks! :)

[@audio2u]

No worries!

[@luciam3]

Hi Bruce, you are the best teacher ever! I want to ask you about the White Balance Preset. I see you have flash, daylight, camera, camera neutral, spot, cloudy, shade, etc. I am usign Darktable 3.0.0 and few days ago i was using Darktable 2.6.1 and i always have only 3 preset options: camera, camera neutral and spot. Is there any way i can activate the other presets? maybe in the Darktable settings??

[@audio2u]

Thanks for the kind words. When all you see is the three settings you mentioned, it is because you are editing a jpeg. When you shoot raw, then you will have access to all the other white balance options.

[@luciam3]

@@audio2u thanks for your answer! I never shoot jpg, i am working olny with raws. I use a sony a99ii. Is it possible that my dt is having any problem with my raws?

[@audio2u]

Are you sure you haven't been shooting raw+jpeg, and accidentally looking at the jpeg files? Because every raw format should give you all of the white balance options. Double check, and if you are genuinely looking at a raw file, then yeah, something is amiss. I also shoot Sony, and my ARW files always give me all the white balance settings.

[@luciam3]

@@audio2u double checked, i am working only with raw files. I tried with raws from nikon and canon and my sonyA65 and i can see all the white balance settings. But that doesn't work with my raws from sony a99ii. I am going to try using all the wb settings on camera and see what happens with the raws on dt. Thank you for your answers!!

[@audio2u]

How bizarre! Not sure why that would be happening.

[@leona_devon]

Thanks Bruce, I love the spot tool, always use it, can't remember where I heard it, but they said that to select a 'grey' spot in the image get the while balance from, that's been my technique. I guess the flicking of the video is down the new editor, seems to be cutting out al lot, I tried to find you on patreon, with no luck, do you put a link anywhere? Thanks again for a great vid

[@audio2u]

Hi Leona, the link was displayed in the video, but I'll drop it in the video descriptions from here on out as well. It's patreon.com/understandingdarktable Cheers!

[@emrg777]

Thanks for another video Bruce....I hear your going to try to use Davinci.....Have you ever tried OBS...seems like a lot of youtubers work with that platform?? obsproject.com/

[@audio2u]

I use OBS for my screen capture, but have never used it as a video editing platform. I'm getting there with resolve, and will stick with that for now. :)

[@emrg777]

@@audio2u Hey I love the Instructables..teleprompter by the way....cool idea

[@audio2u]

Well, I figured it would achieve 2 things. 1. Help me maintain eye contact with the viewer, and 2. Like I said, HOPEFULLY, shorten the editing time, because there'll be less outtakes. In theory. :)

[@emrg777]

@@audio2u I thought it was pretty impressive...don't get too scripted...your great on the fly and that part of your charm....

[@cosmo0080]

i did notice that you where talking slower when u said that u where reading i knew why by the way slower is better for your viewers we can process the data better i think thanku

[@audio2u]

Yeah, still trying to get the right speed on the teleprompter! If I set it too fast, I have to keep reaching up to scroll it back a bit. In tv world, you have an operator who varies the speed for you. I don't have that luxury! 😀

[@cosmo0080]

i think the slower speed was good i like to go over in my mind what is said to help with memory it also helps us follow with our system system

[@CTRL_SMarcos]

Thanks for the video. I'm not fluent in English, so I don't think it would be very helpful for translations, but one thing I'm sure of is that Google's translator is not very reliable. I think it would be much better to use DeepL www.deepl.com/translator He is much more careful with the nuances of the language.

[@wido123123]

Hi! Would you like some help on latin american spanish translations? I can spare some minutes to help you out, since you have spare a lot of time helping everybody here

[@audio2u]

Thanks Guido! Let me get this next episode out the door (been editing it for a WEEK... quite a steep learning curve on Davinci Resolve) and I'll let you know then. :)

[@wido123123]

@@audio2u Have you tried kdenlive? I've used it here and there (certanly I'm not good at it), and I've seen someone from the Weta Studios (those that did LOTR) using it, so it may work for you.

[@audio2u]

Yeah, I looked at it briefly, but wasn't impressed by it. I'm a couple of weeks into Resolve now, and I reckon I can get it doing what I want pretty quickly.... fingers crossed! :)