I am a Canon shooter. Just for the heck of it decided to try Nikon gear. Mostly for the 24-70 and 14-24. I just got a Nikon D3 and D700 and noticed that pictures that come out of the Nikon are on the yellow side. So I'm thinking what about "best AWB ever" and other slogans that came with it.
Do you guys dial in any bias for the White Balance? I've heard someone was saying that B5 solved the problem for them. I've tried that doesn't seem to work well.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
Personally, I don't like Nikon awb. I'm the one who suggested B5 and for me that makes it slightly better.
It's better to shoot raw and fix the wb in post anyway. OR use a whibal or expodisc.
BTW: are you shooting landscapes or people? I'm Asian and I find Nikon's yellow rendering of my people pretty bad. Ironic since Nikon is made by Asians haha.
poisonpill wrote:
Personally, I don't like Nikon awb. I'm the one who suggested B5 and for me that makes it slightly better.
It's better to shoot raw and fix the wb in post anyway. OR use a whibal or expodisc.
BTW: are you shooting landscapes or people? I'm Asian and I find Nikon's yellow rendering of my people pretty bad. Ironic since Nikon is made by Asians haha.
I shoot weddings, and yellow skin is not my favorite! . I do shoot RAW and find that all my Canon PP skills don't apply to Nikon. I will have to figure out a new way make pictures POP.
That is the skin tone I like: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2403/2988713592_fa8c385e34_o.jpg
I will have to find my way around this problem.
Just come from Canon myself and I am having to re-learn my post processes. I have found the Adobe camera profiles in LR give good and natural results, but need some adjustments to get them to POP like Canons do off the bat. Its frustrating to go back to basics and there does not seem to be a one profile that gives a consistent result.
Avoid ACR 4.6. Colour rendition is okay and vibrancy is good, but it destroys detail and blows highlights.
Other than that - I'm over the moon. Great camera, quick, easy to learn and iTTL kicks ETTL in to touch. Shot an event at the weekend for a quick test and every flash exposure was dead on. SB900 is a real gentle giant. Great flash.
Does anyone think getting a camera profile created would help in this process?
Probably this is not going to be of great help but none of my Nikon cameras give me yellow skin tones (D1X, D2H and D70s.)
It could be a problem with WB and I agree with others that Auto WB is not the best choice. I know that the new cameras have lots of control for colors and those photographers I know that are using the D300 and D700 set colors to neutral. I have used both cameras but I have not used them enough to issue a solid opinion.
I hope you are shooting RAW and if you are shooting under studio light I would go with a pre-set WB. Remember to set colors to neutral.
William Rodriguez
Miami, Florida.
Thanks Shasta! That's my 5d with the 70-200L.
Gregory, I have tried all the camera profiles in the lightroom. Trying to get the skin tone top notch! I've heard a lot about Nikon's skin tones being superior to Canon's. I am sure it's still is. I'll post some images to expalain what I am talking about. I am sure former Canon shooters know what I am saying though.
Lightroom camera profiles did a great job with Canon files, I can't get the same result with Nikon files. I was with Nikon only for few days though, I am sure there is a way and I will find it. Just thought maybe someone has already been through that trail.
Please keep the suggestions coming to a newly noob photographer.
Thanks a lot for your contribution!
...Victor...I have a 24-70 Nikkor, and have experienced the same thing...with my older 28-70, my skin tones are spot on. I am thinking the 24-70 gives a little more "yellow" to the images....I use the D2X1 mode color mode, and with the 28-70 skin tones are where they need to be....I don't quite know how to get the 24-70 into the same area...I've tried WB tweaking with all color modes...the closest was the "neutral" picture control with the 24-70 (for good skin tone).
camerapapi wrote:
Probably this is not going to be of great help but none of my Nikon cameras give me yellow skin tones (D1X, D2H and D70s.)
It could be a problem with WB and I agree with others that Auto WB is not the best choice. I know that the new cameras have lots of control for colors and those photographers I know that are using the D300 and D700 set colors to neutral. I have used both cameras but I have not used them enough to issue a solid opinion.
I hope you are shooting RAW and if you are shooting under studio light I would go with a pre-set WB. Remember to set colors to neutral.
William Rodriguez
Miami, Florida. ...Show more →
Thanks William,
I do shoot exclusively in RAW, set to neutral. I shoot weddings where everything changes fast and setting WB manually would be one more thing to worry about.
Victor S wrote:
Thanks William,
I do shoot exclusively in RAW, set to neutral. I shoot weddings where everything changes fast and setting WB manually would be one more thing to worry about.
Victor,
What are you setting to neutral? LR doesn't use the picture control settings, unless you apply the Adobe beta settings from LR. I created a base setting preset that I apply at ingestion, which adds some vibrancy, clarity, and post sharpening. It gives me a starting off point.
I do set the Adobe camera profiles to "neutral" in LR. I am aware that LR disregards the camera settings. That doesn't quite solve the problem though. I guess I'll just have to play with it harder.
Victor, you'll want to create a custom "Neutral" picture profile for yourself. I've played around with these a lot and I'm extremely happy with the colour-accuracy and tonal quality of my current settings (which I find notably more pleasing than any of the D2X profiles, which I almost never use):
Also, above ISO 1000 the issue that causes the greatest grief on the D700 (and all the Nikon DSLRs for that matter) is the colour cast that it gives skin-tones. As the ISO on the camera rises, the colour of people's skin turns a sickly yellow colour - which makes the photos look 'wrong'. The trick here is to adjust the Hue setting in your D700 to the left as you increase the ISO.
I modify the "Hue" setting, moving it left of centre as the ISO increases (i.e. ISO 1000-1250: Hue -1; ISO 1600-2500: Hue -2; ISO 3200-25600: Hue -3) this goes a long way towards keeping skin tones looking natural.
I don't want this to sound the wrong way, but I keep seeing these threads on a lot of forums and It's always x canon users. I think it might be something simple that you are used to doing processing canon files that doesn't agree with the d700's capture of the image
Just a thought since I noticed this trend, an friend of mine switched from canon to a d300 and now a d700 and his skin tones look yellow and sometimes pinkish to me sometimes as well and I have even asked him about it. He also uses light room and aperture now to process.
Sometimes it's the silly things, have you tried loading nx2 and reprocessing the raw to see what it looks like
I just started with my D700 & am experiencing all the problems expressed here .I love the cam, but the white balance issues out of the cam are a real negative. My 5D does not have these problems with AWB expecially. Very informative thread.
. I do shoot RAW and find that all my Canon PP skills don't apply to Nikon. I will have to figure out a new way make pictures POP.