Mat, her hair is blown out there, but it doesn’t bother me. I would’ve preferred it to be just rim lighting, but I can live with it like it is there. I’m more concerned about good light on her face. Also, your clients are very very unlikely to ever notice this … just Photographers do, In that sense, this image, for me, is successful despite what might be seen as technically a problem.

Neil vN

Rick, it is difficult to make an accurate assessment of exposure by looking at the back of the camera in bright light. So for me it is most often just a quick check that I’m on the right track with my exposure.

The histogram has to be used with more careful consideration, in my opinion. In a photo like the backlit image, the histogram would be meaningless because of the blown highlights in the background.

I do check the blinking highlights on the relevant part of my subject. If I get anything but the highlights around my subject, ie, the rim-lighting, blowing out with the blinking highlights, then I know I need to double check my exposure.

It’s usually a combination of exposure metering techniques.

Neil vN

Neil, I know this may be an article in itself, but how do YOU judge the exposure at a glance? Are you checking the histograms, and if so, what are you looking for in particular?

Regards,
Rick

That said, I find that AWB generally gets me in the ballpark (I shoot Canon, and the only time AWB gets fooled is by tungsten…though to be honest, I don’t shoot that much under strictly tungsten illumination), so that the adjustments to WB in post are generally just made “to taste”, as you describe above, rather than correcting a massive WB problem. In the same vein, if you have many shots taken in the same light, you can generally just set a single WB setting and then copy that over to many files without issue.

Different strokes for different folks. I suppose the real take home message here is “Shoot RAW”, so you can at least have this discussion at all.

Mike, it is easier for me to judge accurate exposure on the back of my camera if the WB is approximately correct. If it is wildly off, it becomes more difficult to see at a quick glance if exposure is good.

Also, for a faster workflow when working with a high volume of photos (eg, weddings), then it is easier if I don’t have to touch the WB at all.

Neil vN

On my cameras, WB is set to “Auto”, and it never moves. I simply don’t see the point of setting it to anything else, when I’m going to edit the RAWs anyway.

It comes in a portable wallet size, which I’ve been keeping in my camera holster or pants pocket.

As long as the lighting is consistent during your shoot and the WhiBal device exhibits no glare, you get a decent representation of middle-gray. You can do the calibration photo anytime, even after the session is done. This might be more difficult for sunrise or sunset shooting since the lighting will change over a shorter period of time.