The first step in the perfect later stage Lightroom correcting white balance

The easiest way to set white balance accurately is to use the white Balance Selector tool to correct the neutral color area in the photo. The so-called neutral color area refers to the region that does not contain the color, in which the number of R, G, b three channels in the area is exactly equal. Although there is a "white" in the name of the white balance, it is not necessary to find the white area when you are looking for a neutral color, and you can also use a gray or even black area.

Professional photographers usually use gray cards for white balance correction. Although ordinary people will not carry a gray card, but many times we can still find realistic references in the picture, such as bridal white wedding, white walls, white cutlery, gray clothes and so on. Although these references may not be perfect, this will give you a good start, and on this basis you can fine-tune your white balance settings further.

Locate the area in the screen that can be used as a neutral color, and then click the leftmost icon in the white balance area to start the white balance selector, or use the W key to start the tool. To point the selector to the neutral area in the screen, click the mouse, and lightroom the white balance of the photo with the current area as the reference, a very simple step. At the same time, the Color moderation slider will automatically be set to the appropriate value.

In this picture, the white plate can be used as a white balance reference. Start the white balance selector, click on the edge where the plate is illuminated by the light, and the Lightroom will automatically set the white balance to correct the color difference. Do not select high light overflow areas (such as candlelight below the plate). Although the high light overflow area appears to be white, these areas are not actual white, and due to the lack of some color channel information, selecting these areas will not be able to obtain accurate white balance settings.

Let's take a closer look at some of the tips for using the white balance selector. First, when you use the white balance selector, open the Navigator in the left panel. When you move the white balance selector in the screen, the navigator displays the corresponding image preview, which will help you choose a suitable reference to set the white balance.

When the white balance selector is selected to be obsolete in the screen, the left navigator automatically displays a preview of the screen after the white balance setting.

Second, after you start the white balance selector, the following options appear in the toolbar.

Auto Shutdown: Select Auto Close, set white balance to automatically exit white balance selector. If you do not select automatic shutdown, you can frequently change your white balance value until satisfied, and then click the W key again to turn off the white balance selector.

Show enlarged view: Select to display the enlarged view, when the white balance selector is moved to enlarge the display of selected pixels. The zoom slider can be moved only after the display of the enlarged view is checked.

Scaling: A very important option. Although you clicked on the screen, the white balance selector chose not a single pixel, but a few adjacent pixels. Lightroom calculates the R, G, and b values of adjacent pixels to obtain a mean value. The zoom command determines how many adjacent pixels to use to set the white balance. By default, the white balance selector selects the area where the mouse points to the surrounding 5x5. If you drag the zoom slider to the far right, the white balance selector uses the 17x17 area. If the area you choose is a large, monochrome area, then no matter how large the selection is, it may not have a significant effect, but if you choose a region that is rich in content, then different zoom settings can significantly affect the final result. I suggest you check the display to enlarge the view so that you can visually see the color of your chosen area. If the colors displayed in the enlarged view are significantly different, you should either replace the area or set the Zoom option to a smaller size.

The zoom setting determines the size of the sampling area. Sampling in the same place, using 5x5 and 17x17 settings will obviously result in different results. Note the difference between the R, G, B color channel values below the left and right two figures.

Finally, you need to be aware that while the white object is a good white balance reference, large white areas of light that are created by the high light overflow-such as large white skies, bright spots of reflected light on the plate, the light itself, and so on-cannot be used as white balance references. These areas typically lose information about a color channel, or even all three color channels, and using these high light areas will not be able to get accurate white balance values.