Should I re-adjust white balance on RAW photos after moving from iPhoto to Aperture?
Asked 9/10/2011
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2 answers
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I’ve been shooting RAW on my DSLR for about a year and used to keep and edit my photos in iPhoto. I recently moved to Aperture. I read that when some people switch to a new RAW editor, they go back and re-do white balance on their images. Is that something I should do after moving from iPhoto to Aperture? If so, should it be done in bulk or only image by image?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
5
It depends on how you shot the files originally. Did you shoot with auto white balance in camera, a custom setting, or a preset? If you always shot with a certain preset or custom setting because you planned on modifying the white balance later, then you may benefit from a mass auto adjustment. If you used auto white balance, I doubt the mass auto adjustment would gain little if any improvement. If anything I would imagine it could cause more problems that you would have to fix when it reads it incorrectly.
The real benefit to white balance adjustment in post production would be the added knowledge you have of the situation and how you want it to turn out, so if you just are doing a mass auto setting, you really aren't using any of the advantages. It is beneficial that you shot in RAW originally, but I would leave the files alone unless you want to dig in and fix the images setting by setting(because that is how most white balance is set).
Originally by user4892. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4892
15y ago
0
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Probably not. With RAW files, white balance isn’t permanently baked into the image data; the camera’s white balance is usually stored as metadata and used as a starting point by the RAW editor. Aperture will typically honor that setting by default.
A mass white-balance recalculation usually isn’t helpful unless you originally shot with a fixed preset or custom setting specifically intending to correct later. If you used auto white balance in camera, bulk auto-correction may offer little improvement and can even make some images worse.
White balance is often subjective and scene-dependent. Mixed lighting, warm-colored subjects, or creative intent can all make a “correct” automatic result look wrong. The real advantage of RAW is that you can fine-tune white balance later with your own judgment.
So, don’t feel you need to re-white-balance everything just because you changed software. Leave most images as they are, and adjust white balance only on photos that actually look off or where you want a different look.
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