White Balance on Canon EOS Digital

[alexthephotoguy]

I shoot with a canon 30d and do most of my postprocessing in Lightroom 2.0.  I've lately been doing portraits and weddings with available light (and some flash photography).

I have found that what takes me the most time in post-prod is white balance and getting skin tones to look right, while also getting colors to pop.  For example, doing a child portrait outside on a partly cloudy day.  I usually set the camera WB to auto because I may be in the shade, sun, or clouds at any given point on the same shoot.  I want my colors to look vivid without the skin tones too blue, orange, or green.

Does anyone recommend the use of a white balance card?  Should I get one that's a neutral reference for post production (a reference point in lightroom) or one that I set my custom white balance in-camera to? 

What about the white balance products that are used as a lens cap where you take a test shot through it and set the camera's white balance?

Any advice would be great. Thanks!

[Bob Atkins]

I guess that setting a custom white balance might save some time in post processing, but I usually shoot RAW and do my white balance in DPP. If you have something white (or neutral gray) in the frame then you can just click on that as your white balance reference. Otherwise you can adjust color temperature until you get the best match.

You can then record that particular white balance setting as a "custom WB" and apply it to any image with a single click and/or apply that particular white balance to a batch of images that were shot in the same light.

It's worth noting that if you shoot in mixed light (combination of daylight and tungsten for example), there will be no white balance setting that fully corrects the whole image.

You can set white balance based on the color temperature of the light falling on the subject using a diffuser that fits over the lens like a filter, but that too takes time.

I can't comment on Lightroom because I don't use it.

[KeithB]

Here is  the second of two good articles focusing on the WhiBal white balance card:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/12/white-balance-1.html

Sometimes, you just have to go by eye.  It may be impossible to make a global change to WB that will preserve skin tones and still make other colors "pop."