Hey folks I’m in Kenya photographing big cats so I may not be able to respond to questions right away. But put them in here…I’ll have time at the airport!
Hey Simon! I hope you're having a wonderful time in Kenya. Wishing good health and time from India. This is my first text to any photography mentor on social media Just one line for you - you're stunning in your teachings and you're unique! ❤
Dear Simon, any chance you'd be open for a video / topic suggestion? Personally, your view on the following subject would be cool: "how to feel motivated to go out" especially as a hobby photographer... How do you keep your equipment so that it's "always ready to go", exploring the same place and finding diff. perspectives & compositions... something on that direction. Thanks for all the knowledge shared so far, enjoy the big cat trip! :P
Your example with the great shearwater actually blew my mind. I've ruined the mood of too many photos with auto white balance! Your channel is one of the very few I genuinely believe is making us all better photographers with each video. Thank you so much.
You really are the Bob Ross of photographic theory. Every time I watch one of your videos there isn't a single concept that you are not capable to explain in simple terms and with cristal clear examples. Plus, the passion you put in these videos is palpable. I admire you, keep it up 👍
Simon truly is the best photography teacher on RUclips! the perfect balance between explaining things in simple terms, going through things thoroughly but not over the top, and by the end of the end of video you take so much away from it! My kind of teacher! You’re a legend, Simon!
I agree! Simon covers a lot in every video and and does it quickly, clearly stated and straight to the point. I actually do almost all Simon does for adjusting color balance but I still learned another trick in this video. Over saturating color temporarily so its easier to find white balance. Brilliant! I just never thought of it, but as soon as he started talking about it I knew what he was going to say. Wish I had thought of it sooner. LOL I always learn new tricks from his videos. Just look at all his pictures and videos. All are as close as possible to perfect!
I just want to say as a long time hobbyist, your information and presentation are second to none. This is the stuff RUclips was meant for. You’ve changed the game tremendously for me and for that I thank you sir.
@@simon_dentremont Anytime! I watched your presentation on using auto ISO so that you always at least hit your mark exposure wise. I was so excited to get down to the local lake and experiment with this. It was like magic when I got home and started running the RAW files through Topaz. Incredible how long misinformation has been holding me back. I’m currently binging all of your videos. Thanks again!
Not sure if anyone commented, but one trick to "purify" the colors (works especially with indoor photos), is to use HSL-sliders to remove either blue or yellow - depending which tone needs to be "removed". This, done properly ( = not fully -100 values), will clear the image, quite nicely keeping the richness of other tones.
I love your videos because you don't hide anything, you go directly to the point and all the tips are so handy for us. I really appreciate your time and the way to explain everything 😉.
5:41 I use that technique as my go for white balance, sometimes it can be hard to adjust, but without a pure white as a reference, the best "natural" way to achieve a natural white. I deeply agree with you! great video!
Everytime I need to learn something, I stumble across your videos and my questions are answered and I've learnt something new on top of that! Love your videos Simon :))
Hi Simon, I've learned something new that i didn't know yesterday. Like keeping the monitor at 90%, that's why when i go to develop my photos they are sometimes dark. Also the eyeball method to over exaggerate the colours, great tip. Very useful video this was to me. Thank you. 😊
@ 5:53 This is an awesome idea... you totally earned a gold star for the day! (I use the same technique for dialing in my Vignetting to look natural, just over crank it, find the balance then back it off till natural! I get it! YAY!)
Love your word "I know you can do it!" every time at the ending of the video~ This is a very inspiring sentence to strengthen the self-confidence of those who have no confidence.
Also the trick where you raise vibrance and saturation to 100 and then adjust white balance is the best tip I've ever gotten for post processing. My eye is a little bit young an inexperienced when it comes to comparing good photos with great photos.
Holeee smokes Simon! I just came back from a wedding where all the guests were dressed in white AND I was shooting family photos in a backlit situation. I'm sitting here in front of my computer struggling with the white balance and watched this video. I tried the Vibrance/Saturation to 100% method and I can't believe the results! I owe you a beer next time I'm out east! Thanks!
Another good video! I confess that after 11-12 years of photography, I finally feel free from all the preconceptions, biases and a certain way of looking at photography. I feel freedom now while handling taking the photos these days. Thank you again! And guess what I am not afraid of taking the photos of the birds from various angles other than having sun behind my back!
Pure gold. I thought I knew everything there is to know about white balance but I learned three new techniques from this video alone. 😅 Dunning-Kruger effect for sure. About the monitor brightness, I think the amount of light in the room matters a lot as well. Avoid both stark sun and complete darkness!
Thank you for this video, for the first time I am actually seeing improvement in my photos from my editing. I had to come back to this video to leave comment. I am red-green color blind so I shied away from touching the sliders too much and usually reverted back to just raw + crop + high pass filter without adjusting color at all. I hated editing but going back through a few photos, especially with snow, this is making a SIGNIFICANT improvement. I really need to learn editing.
This is exactly the video that I'm looking for after all those days of hurting my eyes while adjusting the perfect white balance for every of my picture. Thank you Simon!
To say that some object is of a particular color, is to say that the object absorbs and reflects particular wavelengths of whatever color light is visited upon it at that moment. The point being that white balance can be tied to either the natural light (e.g., the yellow of sunset) which alters the perceived colors of your subject, or to a broad spectrum K value (temperature) to cancel the natural light color. Doing so selectively with masking is one of the powerful artistic lighting options in LightRoom.
Personally I use the expodisk that sets the white balance of the scene I’m shooting as the overall atmosphere is what caught my eye and want to preserve that white balance. Simply put the expodisk in front of lens on Nikon use pre to set custom white balance and done. Something for you to check out that’s worth your time Simon.
I have an idea for a method of white balancing which is sort of like this, but in reverse. It's a bit weird - more of a science experiment, perhaps. If our intention is to capture the scene as we perceive it, as accurately as possible, we could in fact measure our own vision's current adaptation. (I'm sure most realise that our vision adapts to the environment & lighting - we don't see colours in an absolute manner) We could use a calibration light source (the EVF would be ideal), that allowed it's temperature to be adjusted. We could simply adjust it until it appeared as neutral white as possible. We then read off the temperature, and set that for the custom white balance in the camera. (I know this doesn't affect the raw image data - it's just metadata). It would have to be as quick process, because we don't want to adapt to the calibration light. Actually the ideal way to do it would be to to fit the light to the end of the lens, so that we account for any colour cast introduced by the lens.
Of course, I realise that accuracy isn't usually a priority - we're aiming for beauty. Also, 99% of the time, we WILL have adapted, so the Expodisc will work perfectly fine. (as will other methods). My idea MAY have an application in some situations though. One example might be in any situation where the scene & lighting is rather unique/unusual, and we're not sure how our eyes have adapted.
The video contains all the right info. The last part however is so important and came a bit short. Where I for so long and I believe many other fail is to realise that the scene can not be white ballanced as a whole due to mixed lighting. This can be due to lights with different colors, but as well e.g. a floor that bounces light in its tone. Key is here to separate those elements with masks and white ballance each individually. PS: Adobe, if you are reading this.. we need vibrance in Lightroom mobile for masks too!
AWB usually does the job for me. I was taught how to use a grey card but I don't really need to. Your videos always take me back to the learning material we studied for the photography course.
Over last couple of month subject selection and the linear slider have become my most favourite tools! It’s amazing what you can achieve with it! Thx for your awesome videos!
I learned something new. I did not know to move the vibrance and saturation all the way up then change the temperature. I tried it and it worked. Thank you.
I recently found that using the eye dropper technique putting its tip on any existing grays has been helpful. Since this is a new find, I have yet to discover the limitations of doing this. It does though seem that when the grays come out better so does the other colors. I will continue to pursue this with manual tweaking or using colors closer to white.
I found your channel two weeks ago and have been learning from you since. In the last few weeks I have seen major improvement in my wildlife shots. I really appreciate your video style and that you don't waste time being silly or trying to get people to buy stuff in order to get real help like other channels do. Do you think you could make a video about the process of designing and applying a watermark to photos and maybe some tips for how to avoid having photos stolen online?
On film, we are more interested in getting the neutral 18% gray nailed, The main difference in digital is that the color system is additive, while it is subtractive with film. We add color ro block wavelengths from white light, while you add colored light to build up the picture. I have heard the digital age kids trying analog photography talking about white balance, but this term is imported from digital photography.
Great video! These tips work great in other software, too, 95% of this is the same as what I'm doing in darktable! One thing I find funny is that I often shoot insect macros at sunset, and the auto-white balance sets it to be pretty cold... when I adjust the white balance up to put some sunset warmth in, it looks more like it did to my eye in the field! There is probably some psychology here relating to the angle of the light, where my camera doesn't check the angle of the light when setting the auto white balance. Often I'm adjusting for artistic reasons, but even when I want it to look natural, I still have to adjust most of the time!
Another (new new to me) tip ... your videos are not only entertaining, but I seem to learn something new with every one I watch. Thanks much for sharing your knowledge and talent, it truly is inspirational. Cheers ....
Nice selection to get white balance right. However I might add, that personally I tend to use a grey card as often as possible, even in the field, when shooting landscapes or events. Sometimes even several times to account for changing daylight / light scenarios. It makes live much easier to have a proper starting point when editing more than one photo from the same session. And you don't necessarily need to color calibrate your computer. My personal choice is a colorchecker from xrite, as it quickly allows me to warm up or cool down a photo with decent accuracy.
I'm with you on most of what you wrote, but if you're taking the time to shoot a grey card in the field, why not make sure your monitor is displaying accurate color as well? It may not be necessary, but if your monitor has a color cast, it will influence the decisions you make.
I've struggled with this eye-dropper vs slider issue. I've looked back on more than a few edits later and wondered why my photo is orange or blue. I got a lot of mileage out of that dropper but when I have to "eyball" it, I've gone astray. That saturation trick of yours is spot on and I can't wait to try it! Thanks, as always, for your wonderful videos. I get a lot out of them.
Simon. Thanks much for all you've shared with us -- your subscribers. The learning has been expansive and the respect you show everyone -- regardless of talent and experience -- is much appreciated. I hope you don't mind if I give a shout out to Gerrit Vyn. Many of us know him as the much awarded photo / videographer for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and familiar publication. But, he has also made a few youtube videos that complement yours very well. While yours uncover tips, essentials and surprises for us, his show us his application of many of those principles -- again, with a patient and respectful demeanor. Beyond that, the places he visits and birds he photographs are spectacular. He doesn't get many views, but his work and yours are consistently deserving of praise.
I probably spend more time messing about with white balance in post than anything else. A year after the first edit I even re-edited a whole load of holiday photos after deciding the white balance wasn’t how it should be… or did I learn something new… or was it taste 🤔 I already do most of what you talked about here but the manual approach by maxing saturation etc. and balancing blue/orange is a new one for me. I’ll give that a go next time. Another great tutorial 👍
Most people don't think twice about the difference between cool white and soft white light bulbs, how would they notice the subtle differences in white balance? Anyway, great video in helping choose which one looks better.
Great advice. I see more and more people leaning too warm and too green with their photography, where shadows lose their cool tone. It might be a look people are going for, but I utterly find that they end up looking a bit muddy or hazy because of the overcooking.
It's always a pleasure to watch your videos, Simon! Always something new to learn, even if you think you're experienced in Lightroom...please never stop 👏
I am still at the stage of getting good photos and not getting in to extensive editing yet. I will come back to this video later but have to say thanks for the photography tips as my wildlife shots are getting much better. As always you inspire us to get better.
Great video. Love the tip of cranking up the Saturation and Vibrance sliders and balancing the oranges and blues. That’s brilliant (white)! Nearing 400k subscribers I see. More congratulations due soon! Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much for this video. On a recent trip to Alaska, I was using auto white balance and pretty much all my photos came out with that ever present blue Alaska light. Now I will be able to revisit them in lightroom and do some adjustments. 👏
I really really like how you are thinking and approaching this specific subject, Simon! 👍 RAW, as you mentioned, gives you the freedom to alter afterwards in the best possible way, but sometimes when you have a brain that is more raw than RAW you (read "me") end up with final edits that looks perfect/good/acceptable at that point in time, but a revisit months or years later makes you cringe and squirm. Good part: You shot in RAW, you can re-edit and fix. Bad part: You end up with a hard-drive filled with gazillions of copies with the only difference being the white balance and how the photo is tinted - all to match your mood at the time of editing. What I bring with me from this video is that I have the right tools and thinking around how to fix it (at each given time), and you added a few tools on how to process it at these given times of mood changes or for what context it is supposed to be used in. If push comes to shove and someone objects, I could use the pro comment: Hey, but this is how I chose it to look like!
I saw a very convincing argument on another channel for always shooting at 5500K set manually. If it's an orange sunset, the result will be orange as it should be. If it's a blue sky or night, it will be blue as it should be. Also when filming the white balance won't automatically change over time, which is a good thing. The only thing I don't understand is when shooting raw at 5500K, when imported into lightroom the white balance will still be set differently...
Grey snow is the my biggest pet peeve when I see snapshots from my friends. I have taken them, fixed them, sent them back to my friends, and they just don't appreciate it. LOL
Having picked up my first (second hand) DSLR today after years of wanting to try photography, I feel like I'm gonna have a blast watching you, you got yourself a new subscriber!
Outstanding as usual! Post-processing is an amazing part of photographing. The next part that will require more knowledge and a deeper understanding of is printing the photos.
I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and I gotta say I absolutely love your content, you are providing so much knowledge to people, it's a huge help for every photographer ! Keep up the good work Simon ! (Hello from Montreal)
So glad you make this content!! I shoot some different genres, along with landscape/birds, but your tips apply to all types of photography. Keep it up!!!!
Always great to see you pop up. Love your approach, you keep it simple. While I appreciate the techy & over geeky language, at times it's nice to get it in plain speak.
This is excellent, think Ive missed how fundamental white balance is in processing, I've tended to slide things around until i thought things looked ok.. Saving this video to go over (& over) it. The Gull edit at the end was brilliant also.. Thanks
If I may add, the issue with changing colors is that our vision has something of an auto white balance correction happening all the time. This is why Simon says to start with a color calibrator for your monitor, because you need to know that the screen is giving you a neutral image. If it is starting out fairly cool/blue, which many do, then your adjustments may go farther than you intend. Try to look away from the screen every so often to reset your vision. You may find that you've passed your target because your vision adjusted for the adjustments you've already made.
Hey folks I’m in Kenya photographing big cats so I may not be able to respond to questions right away. But put them in here…I’ll have time at the airport!
Please visit the giraffe centre and Nairobi safari walk Nairobi and welcome to Kenya 🇰🇪
Hey Simon! I hope you're having a wonderful time in Kenya. Wishing good health and time from India.
This is my first text to any photography mentor on social media
Just one line for you - you're stunning in your teachings and you're unique! ❤
Nice, hope you see a cheetah running at full speed!
Can't wait to see the photos 😍
Dear Simon, any chance you'd be open for a video / topic suggestion? Personally, your view on the following subject would be cool: "how to feel motivated to go out" especially as a hobby photographer... How do you keep your equipment so that it's "always ready to go", exploring the same place and finding diff. perspectives & compositions... something on that direction.
Thanks for all the knowledge shared so far, enjoy the big cat trip! :P
Your example with the great shearwater actually blew my mind. I've ruined the mood of too many photos with auto white balance! Your channel is one of the very few I genuinely believe is making us all better photographers with each video. Thank you so much.
I usually shoot in Auto White Balance, too. But since I'm using RAW files I can always correct it if I'm not happy with the result.
Glad it was helpful!
Right on!❤
@@gordonbrinkmannI think that is the way to go anyway
You really are the Bob Ross of photographic theory. Every time I watch one of your videos there isn't a single concept that you are not capable to explain in simple terms and with cristal clear examples. Plus, the passion you put in these videos is palpable. I admire you, keep it up 👍
I agree. And he doesnt use dumb theories like dumb composition techniques that dont make sense, or "color theory" that uses random color palettes lol
Too kind!
YOU are making a major difference in photographers lives all around the world. Sublime content on every level.
The trick with maxing out vibrance and saturation was bonkers 😮
Simon truly is the best photography teacher on RUclips! the perfect balance between explaining things in simple terms, going through things thoroughly but not over the top, and by the end of the end of video you take so much away from it! My kind of teacher! You’re a legend, Simon!
Wow, thanks!
Totally agree with you Ooshton, Simon is a legend.
I agree! Simon covers a lot in every video and and does it quickly, clearly stated and straight to the point. I actually do almost all Simon does for adjusting color balance but I still learned another trick in this video. Over saturating color temporarily so its easier to find white balance. Brilliant! I just never thought of it, but as soon as he started talking about it I knew what he was going to say. Wish I had thought of it sooner. LOL I always learn new tricks from his videos. Just look at all his pictures and videos. All are as close as possible to perfect!
I swear this channel is a treasure, Thanks Simon, your way of delivering the information is just PERFECT
Wow, thank you!
I just want to say as a long time hobbyist, your information and presentation are second to none. This is the stuff RUclips was meant for. You’ve changed the game tremendously for me and for that I thank you sir.
Wow, thanks!
@@simon_dentremont Anytime! I watched your presentation on using auto ISO so that you always at least hit your mark exposure wise. I was so excited to get down to the local lake and experiment with this. It was like magic when I got home and started running the RAW files through Topaz. Incredible how long misinformation has been holding me back. I’m currently binging all of your videos. Thanks again!
🙌 the god of explaining how to better your photography/editing photos. Also love that he doesn't try to sell you presets too. Cheers Simon
REAL pro level tips and currently my fav channel for quick tips/technique reminders. No bs, no sketchy paywalls or annoying influencer humor. Thanks!
You are one of the best photography educators on the planet !!!!!!!
Game changer. I've been struggling with my white balance and temperature lately especially with winter photos, and this was amazingly helpful. Thanks!
Not sure if anyone commented, but one trick to "purify" the colors (works especially with indoor photos), is to use HSL-sliders to remove either blue or yellow - depending which tone needs to be "removed". This, done properly ( = not fully -100 values), will clear the image, quite nicely keeping the richness of other tones.
I love your videos because you don't hide anything, you go directly to the point and all the tips are so handy for us. I really appreciate your time and the way to explain everything 😉.
I'm so glad!
I am so pleased that you emphasize in several ways that making subtle modifications in post processing for artistic effect is not "cheating".
The vibrancy and saturation "hack" makes such sense when you think about it, great idea.
5:41 I use that technique as my go for white balance, sometimes it can be hard to adjust, but without a pure white as a reference, the best "natural" way to achieve a natural white. I deeply agree with you! great video!
Thanks for sharing!
Everytime I need to learn something, I stumble across your videos and my questions are answered and I've learnt something new on top of that! Love your videos Simon :))
Hi Simon, I've learned something new that i didn't know yesterday. Like keeping the monitor at 90%, that's why when i go to develop my photos they are sometimes dark. Also the eyeball method to over exaggerate the colours, great tip. Very useful video this was to me. Thank you. 😊
@ 5:53 This is an awesome idea... you totally earned a gold star for the day! (I use the same technique for dialing in my Vignetting to look natural, just over crank it, find the balance then back it off till natural! I get it! YAY!)
MANY THANKS FOR THIS INFO! Even us veteran photographers need to get back to basics with WHITE BALANCE! Again, thanks...
Oh wow, at 5:47 I actually figured out this myself not long ago when fixing white balance in a video clip because it kept looking wrong.
Love your word "I know you can do it!" every time at the ending of the video~ This is a very inspiring sentence to strengthen the self-confidence of those who have no confidence.
You can do it!
I learned something here and I wasn't expecting that. Thank you. Great clarity and to the point as always. You are so talented.
Also the trick where you raise vibrance and saturation to 100 and then adjust white balance is the best tip I've ever gotten for post processing. My eye is a little bit young an inexperienced when it comes to comparing good photos with great photos.
Thanks for sharing!
Holeee smokes Simon! I just came back from a wedding where all the guests were dressed in white AND I was shooting family photos in a backlit situation. I'm sitting here in front of my computer struggling with the white balance and watched this video. I tried the Vibrance/Saturation to 100% method and I can't believe the results! I owe you a beer next time I'm out east! Thanks!
haha great!
Another good video! I confess that after 11-12 years of photography, I finally feel free from all the preconceptions, biases and a certain way of looking at photography. I feel freedom now while handling taking the photos these days. Thank you again! And guess what I am not afraid of taking the photos of the birds from various angles other than having sun behind my back!
Good stuff!
This dude's channel is actually GOATed
You are 100% correct. I never knew the importance in getting white balance correct. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Pure gold. I thought I knew everything there is to know about white balance but I learned three new techniques from this video alone. 😅 Dunning-Kruger effect for sure. About the monitor brightness, I think the amount of light in the room matters a lot as well. Avoid both stark sun and complete darkness!
Thank you for this video, for the first time I am actually seeing improvement in my photos from my editing. I had to come back to this video to leave comment. I am red-green color blind so I shied away from touching the sliders too much and usually reverted back to just raw + crop + high pass filter without adjusting color at all. I hated editing but going back through a few photos, especially with snow, this is making a SIGNIFICANT improvement. I really need to learn editing.
This is exactly the video that I'm looking for after all those days of hurting my eyes while adjusting the perfect white balance for every of my picture. Thank you Simon!
To say that some object is of a particular color, is to say that the object absorbs and reflects particular wavelengths of whatever color light is visited upon it at that moment. The point being that white balance can be tied to either the natural light (e.g., the yellow of sunset) which alters the perceived colors of your subject, or to a broad spectrum K value (temperature) to cancel the natural light color. Doing so selectively with masking is one of the powerful artistic lighting options in LightRoom.
Personally I use the expodisk that sets the white balance of the scene I’m shooting as the overall atmosphere is what caught my eye and want to preserve that white balance.
Simply put the expodisk in front of lens on Nikon use pre to set custom white balance and done. Something for you to check out that’s worth your time Simon.
I have an idea for a method of white balancing which is sort of like this, but in reverse. It's a bit weird - more of a science experiment, perhaps.
If our intention is to capture the scene as we perceive it, as accurately as possible, we could in fact measure our own vision's current adaptation. (I'm sure most realise that our vision adapts to the environment & lighting - we don't see colours in an absolute manner)
We could use a calibration light source (the EVF would be ideal), that allowed it's temperature to be adjusted. We could simply adjust it until it appeared as neutral white as possible. We then read off the temperature, and set that for the custom white balance in the camera. (I know this doesn't affect the raw image data - it's just metadata). It would have to be as quick process, because we don't want to adapt to the calibration light.
Actually the ideal way to do it would be to to fit the light to the end of the lens, so that we account for any colour cast introduced by the lens.
Of course, I realise that accuracy isn't usually a priority - we're aiming for beauty. Also, 99% of the time, we WILL have adapted, so the Expodisc will work perfectly fine. (as will other methods). My idea MAY have an application in some situations though. One example might be in any situation where the scene & lighting is rather unique/unusual, and we're not sure how our eyes have adapted.
Simon, you a great photographer. You are also the best teacher of improving one's skills, regardless of topic. Thanks you!
Glad you think so!
I thought I knew enough about White Balance, but did I ever learn a lot in this video. Thanks so much for this lesson.
You are the only person I can confidently 'like' before I watch 1 minute. You are so helpful in my development. Blessings to you and your family❤❤😊😊
Wow, thank you!
Simon is the art teacher everyone deserves in life.
The video contains all the right info. The last part however is so important and came a bit short. Where I for so long and I believe many other fail is to realise that the scene can not be white ballanced as a whole due to mixed lighting. This can be due to lights with different colors, but as well e.g. a floor that bounces light in its tone. Key is here to separate those elements with masks and white ballance each individually.
PS: Adobe, if you are reading this.. we need vibrance in Lightroom mobile for masks too!
This was so helpful! Thanks for making these accessible tutorials for other photographers - we appreciate you!
You're so welcome!
AWB usually does the job for me. I was taught how to use a grey card but I don't really need to. Your videos always take me back to the learning material we studied for the photography course.
You are my hero for the day!!! The trick on WB using the temp slider for sunrise/sunset photos is what I really needed! Once again, great video.
Glad it helped!
Over last couple of month subject selection and the linear slider have become my most favourite tools! It’s amazing what you can achieve with it! Thx for your awesome videos!
Great to hear!
I learned something new. I did not know to move the vibrance and saturation all the way up then change the temperature. I tried it and it worked. Thank you.
I recently found that using the eye dropper technique putting its tip on any existing grays has been helpful. Since this is a new find, I have yet to discover the limitations of doing this. It does though seem that when the grays come out better so does the other colors. I will continue to pursue this with manual tweaking or using colors closer to white.
Thanks Simon. Even experienced photographers struggle with us especially if you are shooting in challenging situations.
I found your channel two weeks ago and have been learning from you since. In the last few weeks I have seen major improvement in my wildlife shots. I really appreciate your video style and that you don't waste time being silly or trying to get people to buy stuff in order to get real help like other channels do. Do you think you could make a video about the process of designing and applying a watermark to photos and maybe some tips for how to avoid having photos stolen online?
Noted!
On film, we are more interested in getting the neutral 18% gray nailed, The main difference in digital is that the color system is additive, while it is subtractive with film. We add color ro block wavelengths from white light, while you add colored light to build up the picture. I have heard the digital age kids trying analog photography talking about white balance, but this term is imported from digital photography.
Great video! These tips work great in other software, too, 95% of this is the same as what I'm doing in darktable! One thing I find funny is that I often shoot insect macros at sunset, and the auto-white balance sets it to be pretty cold... when I adjust the white balance up to put some sunset warmth in, it looks more like it did to my eye in the field! There is probably some psychology here relating to the angle of the light, where my camera doesn't check the angle of the light when setting the auto white balance. Often I'm adjusting for artistic reasons, but even when I want it to look natural, I still have to adjust most of the time!
Another (new new to me) tip ... your videos are not only entertaining, but I seem to learn something new with every one I watch.
Thanks much for sharing your knowledge and talent, it truly is inspirational. Cheers ....
Cool, thanks!
Thanks for these tips. I've been struggilng with white blance and brightness since I took photography 3 years ago.
Happy to help!
Again an invaluable video from an invaluable wildlife photographer.
Awesome one Simon. :)
You're the best photographer guru I've ever crossed in RUclips!!
too kind!
Nice selection to get white balance right. However I might add, that personally I tend to use a grey card as often as possible, even in the field, when shooting landscapes or events. Sometimes even several times to account for changing daylight / light scenarios. It makes live much easier to have a proper starting point when editing more than one photo from the same session. And you don't necessarily need to color calibrate your computer. My personal choice is a colorchecker from xrite, as it quickly allows me to warm up or cool down a photo with decent accuracy.
I'm with you on most of what you wrote, but if you're taking the time to shoot a grey card in the field, why not make sure your monitor is displaying accurate color as well? It may not be necessary, but if your monitor has a color cast, it will influence the decisions you make.
I've struggled with this eye-dropper vs slider issue. I've looked back on more than a few edits later and wondered why my photo is orange or blue. I got a lot of mileage out of that dropper but when I have to "eyball" it, I've gone astray. That saturation trick of yours is spot on and I can't wait to try it! Thanks, as always, for your wonderful videos. I get a lot out of them.
The eyeball method... made me smile. should work with any software product :)
I learned another new trick from you about whites and using the ALT key. What a difference.. Thank you.
Simon. Thanks much for all you've shared with us -- your subscribers. The learning has been expansive and the respect you show everyone -- regardless of talent and experience -- is much appreciated. I hope you don't mind if I give a shout out to Gerrit Vyn. Many of us know him as the much awarded photo / videographer for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and familiar publication. But, he has also made a few youtube videos that complement yours very well. While yours uncover tips, essentials and surprises for us, his show us his application of many of those principles -- again, with a patient and respectful demeanor. Beyond that, the places he visits and birds he photographs are spectacular. He doesn't get many views, but his work and yours are consistently deserving of praise.
I will say, you are the best wildlife photographer ever. much love from 🇬🇪
Wow, thank you!
Simon always spitting straight facts
I probably spend more time messing about with white balance in post than anything else. A year after the first edit I even re-edited a whole load of holiday photos after deciding the white balance wasn’t how it should be… or did I learn something new… or was it taste 🤔
I already do most of what you talked about here but the manual approach by maxing saturation etc. and balancing blue/orange is a new one for me. I’ll give that a go next time.
Another great tutorial 👍
Just yesterday I played with my camera to try this out. What synchronicity!
Most people don't think twice about the difference between cool white and soft white light bulbs, how would they notice the subtle differences in white balance? Anyway, great video in helping choose which one looks better.
Great advice. I see more and more people leaning too warm and too green with their photography, where shadows lose their cool tone. It might be a look people are going for, but I utterly find that they end up looking a bit muddy or hazy because of the overcooking.
Finally understood what White Balance is all about! Many thanks!
I am just getting into photography, great lesson on whites, now to binge watch on Saturday!
It's always a pleasure to watch your videos, Simon! Always something new to learn, even if you think you're experienced in Lightroom...please never stop 👏
What helps me is the idea that white balance gives you the most distinct colors. That’s what I look for in the saturation trick.
Simon, I did not know that was what the dropper was for, incredible, thank you very much! 😊
Happy to help!
I am still at the stage of getting good photos and not getting in to extensive editing yet. I will come back to this video later but have to say thanks for the photography tips as my wildlife shots are getting much better. As always you inspire us to get better.
You can do it!
Another great educational video - thank you! I’ll be trying this today - I learned 3 things I did not know! 👏👏👏
That was an outstanding video. Your last tip...world class, and an example of exactly what has been plaguing my photos.
Eyeballtechnique...genius!
Great video. Love the tip of cranking up the Saturation and Vibrance sliders and balancing the oranges and blues. That’s brilliant (white)! Nearing 400k subscribers I see. More congratulations due soon! Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much Dr!
Simon, excellente vidéo. The right White Balance is an art in itself. Your creative tricks are very useful !!! Such videos are helpful for all of us 😊
De rien!
Thanks, learned a new trick with the saturation! Thought I knew a lot but this proves you can always learn something new.
Happy to help!
you are such a wealth of good information. you get a GOLD STAR!!
Wow, thank you!
Excellent tutorial on this fundamental, but often misunderstood topic - thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Great video Simon! Glad to see your channel is growing. Your genuine style is making a difference, you're relatable!!
I appreciate that!
Terrific video: very clearly explained with a good logical breakdown of each element.
Thank you so much for this video. On a recent trip to Alaska, I was using auto white balance and pretty much all my photos came out with that ever present blue Alaska light. Now I will be able to revisit them in lightroom and do some adjustments. 👏
you are one of the outstanding "teachers" here in the yt-jungle, even tho i'm not doing so much wildlife
I really really like how you are thinking and approaching this specific subject, Simon! 👍
RAW, as you mentioned, gives you the freedom to alter afterwards in the best possible way, but sometimes when you have a brain that is more raw than RAW you (read "me") end up with final edits that looks perfect/good/acceptable at that point in time, but a revisit months or years later makes you cringe and squirm. Good part: You shot in RAW, you can re-edit and fix. Bad part: You end up with a hard-drive filled with gazillions of copies with the only difference being the white balance and how the photo is tinted - all to match your mood at the time of editing.
What I bring with me from this video is that I have the right tools and thinking around how to fix it (at each given time), and you added a few tools on how to process it at these given times of mood changes or for what context it is supposed to be used in. If push comes to shove and someone objects, I could use the pro comment: Hey, but this is how I chose it to look like!
You are the best, Simon!!
Thank you, this is great advice. One of my bad photos became a little bit better.
I also like the "walk away from it for a while" tactic for white balance 😅.
So true!
I saw a very convincing argument on another channel for always shooting at 5500K set manually. If it's an orange sunset, the result will be orange as it should be. If it's a blue sky or night, it will be blue as it should be. Also when filming the white balance won't automatically change over time, which is a good thing.
The only thing I don't understand is when shooting raw at 5500K, when imported into lightroom the white balance will still be set differently...
Grey snow is the my biggest pet peeve when I see snapshots from my friends. I have taken them, fixed them, sent them back to my friends, and they just don't appreciate it. LOL
Having picked up my first (second hand) DSLR today after years of wanting to try photography, I feel like I'm gonna have a blast watching you, you got yourself a new subscriber!
Outstanding as usual! Post-processing is an amazing part of photographing. The next part that will require more knowledge and a deeper understanding of is printing the photos.
I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and I gotta say I absolutely love your content, you are providing so much knowledge to people, it's a huge help for every photographer ! Keep up the good work Simon ! (Hello from Montreal)
Welcome aboard!
So glad you make this content!! I shoot some different genres, along with landscape/birds, but your tips apply to all types of photography. Keep it up!!!!
Always great to see you pop up. Love your approach, you keep it simple. While I appreciate the techy & over geeky language, at times it's nice to get it in plain speak.
I appreciate that!
great teaching! first time after years to have heard about the process in a concise and practicable manner
You have really helped me grow as a photographer. Thank you for making these kinds of videos.
Simon, you're an absolute God-send. Thanks so much for all the hard work you put into these fantastically helpful and straight-forward videos :)
This is excellent, think Ive missed how fundamental white balance is in processing, I've tended to slide things around until i thought things looked ok..
Saving this video to go over (& over) it.
The Gull edit at the end was brilliant also..
Thanks
If I may add, the issue with changing colors is that our vision has something of an auto white balance correction happening all the time. This is why Simon says to start with a color calibrator for your monitor, because you need to know that the screen is giving you a neutral image. If it is starting out fairly cool/blue, which many do, then your adjustments may go farther than you intend.
Try to look away from the screen every so often to reset your vision. You may find that you've passed your target because your vision adjusted for the adjustments you've already made.
Nice video Simon. I’m going to use the eye ball method of balancing blues and oranges after maxing out saturation and vibrance. Very helpful.
Hi Simon!
Excellent explaining video - always learning! Your WB tip with enhancing the saturation is spot on!
Kind Regards, Jan, DK
Thanks for this, white balance is what keeps me from editing my pictures because I just never know what to set it to, so thanks a lot for the tip.