Luminar Neo: Take Control of White Balance

[@alexmartin4650]

Hi Jim Glad I dropped in here particularly as I regularly start off with the eye dropper then tweak the sliders from there. I never knew the significance of the numbers but now I know what to do if I am editing a photo that does not have a mid- grey spot to touch. Thanks again now I’m off to view the next video

[@JimNix]

Thanks Alex and glad you got something out of this one. I appreciate you watching!

[@tonybozza9862]

Thank you Jim. I finally understand how the eye dropper works. Great presentation.

[@JimNix]

thanks Tony, glad this helped!

[@MarioSturino]

Thank you. Great explanation.

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching!

[@JoeB_BSc]

Hi Jim, fascinating commentary. It's interesting to see the move in colours tending towards soft sunset in colour-picker of darker shades of grey. Thanks and Regards, Joe

[@JimNix]

thank you!

[@fjperras]

I remember you talking about this topic in one of Luminar Coffee Break ;). My takeaway is white balance is more than just balancing colors, it serves a creative effect as well and tying this with the color wheel, IMHO, is brilliant; it really helps understanding the concept. My contribution is I always shoot RAW with sunlight white balance in-camera. I haven't figured out yet if in-camera white balance affects metering for RAW or if it is the software interpreting the in-camera white balance information. But what I found out is when using auto white balance for panorama, it results in very weird transitions in sky while stitching the frames (because each shot ends up with different white balance reading). If in-camera white balance is "fixed"", then I find stitching looks much smoother between frames and you no longer feel where frames were stitched. Beside, as you said, with RAW, you have all freedom to adjust in post. But also as you said, it depends on your types of shooting, everyone has different needs. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@JimNix]

thanks much for watching Frederic (twice now, I guess, since it was pretty similar to the coffee break) and hope it helps - I never shoot pano so you may be onto something there, good idea to take a look at that for sure - I appreciate it!

[@vernonsza]

One of the ways I like to work is by finding that neutral grey spot with the WB dropper to get a "perfect" white balance and then using the temperature slider to move things towards the way the scene was - cooler for blue hour, warmer for golden hour, etc.

[@JimNix]

yeah for sure, the dropper is a good way to find the "real" WB and use that as a starting point for customization - thanks!

[@hepgeoff]

Thanks, Jim! I tend to use the temperature sliders to adjust color instead of the dropper. But I appreciate you showing how to use the dropper to find a neutral spot in the photo. I'll try using that as an alternative.

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching Geoff!

[@Lykzabet]

Thanks for the video and helpful as always Jim 🤝

[@JimNix]

thank you for watching!

[@JohnWilliams-fc3xi]

thank-you, I have always had a hard time with WB, pointing out the numbers at the base when using the dropper inconjunct ion with the color wheel was very helpful

[@JimNix]

glad that helped John, thanks for watching!

[@kenalexander8714]

Interesting and helpful WB video Jim. It seems the picker is to be used to get as near as posible to a true WB. The sliders are used to get the feel of the image required once maybe the true WB is found. One can warm up or cool down an image to taste.

[@JimNix]

yep for sure Ken, thanks for watching!

[@drstevenbgoldstein]

Finally, you helped me understand white balance and you made it make sense. Thanks

[@JimNix]

thanks and glad this helped!

[@johnnyng2438]

Thanks again Jim. Great video. Very informative and as always there something to learn from your videos!

[@JimNix]

Thanks for watching!

[@tompotter7856]

Excellent! - Thx

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching!

[@paulinanelega]

Great demonstration and explanation - thank you so much, Jim!

[@JimNix]

Thanks so much Paulina.

[@segram3]

Thank you Jim !👍

[@JimNix]

Thanks for watching!

[@Greg_Ashley]

Great topic today; very educational. I see in the description under the video that your favorite camera is Sony A7RIII (mine too). Some landscape photographers like the Fujifilm GFX 100S which has over double the pixels, along with a hefty price tag. For most landscape work, is the Fujifilm GFX overkill?

[@JimNix]

Hi Greg and thanks. I do use the A7Riii as my main camera, and love it. It's incredible. I hear great things about the Fuji but I have never tried it. For sure you could print really large with it, but not sure what else I would want/need from something like that. I have printed photos 4 feet wide with an older Nikon 12MP camera, so the 42MP on my Sony ought to be plenty to go big if I need to. And the enlargement software products out there today make it even easier/better. So I guess if you are a full time landscape photographer making your living selling massive prints, it could be worth it. But I am not sure if it's necessary for most folks. My two cents. thanks.

[@gloucesterkiwi]

Interesting & informative topic , Jim. I admit to typically ignoring WB, Whites&Blacks and Curves simply because either I don't see any difference or too much difference! I suspect it's mainly because I don't truly understand the editing tool. With your help, I'll get there :-)

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching Alex and I do hope the videos help!

[@mdturnerinoz]

Hope you can update this video. WB is not this way anymore in NEO update 4.

[@danschreckengost6153]

Thanks Jim

[@JimNix]

thank you Dan!

[@rosentsweig]

Jim, My raw pictures are downloaded to imac photos. Then I use the Neo or AI extension to work on them. When I go to Color and try to adjust the white balance, only the As Shot option shows up on the pull down menu. It doesn't show the other options, do you know why?

[@JimNix]

It's because you are not using the raw file any more. You likely sent over a TIFF or a JPG. The other options are on raw files. thanks

[@deepphotography8906]

Good job

[@JimNix]

thank you

[@artsmith1719]

How hard is it to climb up that hill to take that shot -- thinking about doing it myself....

[@JimNix]

Hi Art and it is not too bad. Wear decent shoes (walking/running shoes are fine) and there are a couple of spots where you have to take a big sep and grab onto a rock or something, but it's not particularly difficult. Only takes a few minutes. thanks