raw tools

I recently learned to use the white balance dropper tool in the adobe raw converter. When applied to an image which is poorly lit, or or say a wide angle school shot with only natural light, its instant amazing color. Any experiences with this? Any comments on this as adjustment vs manipulation? <_<

That's a good way to do it if you choose your spot carefully. Sometime there may be no good spot to set the white balance on a shot. I don't think anyone considers WB adjustments "manipulation".

If you took the shot with too much blue and green and not enough red, WB may make it look ok, but youi'll find that the image will be noisy. That's why Alex invented his magic filter. For underwater natural light shots, it's necessary to filter out some blue and green to have enough light in the red channel to give WB a chance to produce a good final outcome.

The parameters you use in the RAW converer are never considered cheating...manipulation or anything like that. It's not even adjustment really as the default parameters are no more correct or natural or origional. You are just instructing the computer how to interpret the data, you are not actually changing anything.

You do need to be carefull when adjusting the wb with the dropper because extreme wb settings can introduce noise.

The other problem over over white balancing is that you end up with purple water or very pale water! As well as reducing noise and reduced hues, the filter also helps keen blue water blue!

Alex

ok alex you sold me one!

That wasn't my intention!

IMO white balancing available light without a filter works OK to a Maximum of about 3m or 9ft. Below that depth images are either too blue or too over white balanced.

If you are only going to do available light in the top couple of metres then you don't need a filter.

Alex