# Auto Balancing RAW photos



## al9901 (Jul 26, 2015)

Hi,

I am doing some photo mapping indoors where I take many photos from different angles of the same room. Depending on the position and angle of the camera, the colours of walls and items in the room are different colours in different photos. I could manually play with each RAW file to make sure that they all match, but this would take weeks as I have nearly 1000 photos. 

I was wondering if there was any software that would balance the exposures, contrasts etc in RAW photos so that the images all have the same colours? Perhaps by looking at all the photos and then choosing an average for all the parameters?


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## 480sparky (Jul 26, 2015)

Try shooting with the camera in full manual mode.... that way each one has the exact same exposure and white balance.  Then you will have zero time needed for fiddling in post.


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## manaheim (Jul 26, 2015)

^ a fair suggestion, keeping in mind the second you move or a cloud rolls by, the light conditions will change.

That said, looking for something to auto-balance your RAW images, to me means you are missing the point almost entirely.  Working with RAWs gives you the ability to hand-craft your exposures. Yes, this takes more time and yes it's a bit of a pain, but you either need this ... or you don't.  If you really don't, then don't do it. If you do, then bite the bullet and take the time.

If you're looking for something to speed up the process, lightroom can help quite a bit. IMO, you're going to still lose some of the quality by speeding things up a bit, but it might give you enough of what you need without taking quite as much time.

It's all about requirements.


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## 480sparky (Jul 26, 2015)

manaheim said:


> .........keeping in mind the second you move........ the light conditions will change...........



'Splain, please.


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## weepete (Jul 26, 2015)

Shoot with a grey card. I suppose you could batch process them all in lightroom to have the same colour temp and tint


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## Braineack (Jul 26, 2015)

what software are you currently using?


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## manaheim (Jul 26, 2015)

480sparky said:


> manaheim said:
> 
> 
> > .........keeping in mind the second you move........ the light conditions will change...........
> ...



If you're in one corner of a room, facing one direction, and move to another corner, facing another, the light will be different. Light conditions vary as much- or more- than light conditions outside.


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## 480sparky (Jul 26, 2015)

manaheim said:


> 480sparky said:
> 
> 
> > manaheim said:
> ...



Maybe in your universe, but not mine.  In mine, moving around doesn't change the lighting.  Only by turning lights on or off, or a change in the clouds outside, or if I'm so ungodly slow the planet I'm on manages to rotate enough on it's axis that the big bright star in the sky moves enough to alter the lighting.

But in my universe, walking from one corner to another doesn't change the lighting.


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## Braineack (Jul 26, 2015)

manaheim said:


> If you're in one corner of a room, facing one direction, and move to another corner, facing another, the light will be different. Light conditions vary as much- or more- than light conditions outside.



:cricket chirping:


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## Designer (Jul 26, 2015)

al9901 said:


> .. the colours of walls and items in the room are different colours in different photos.


Is your camera set to "auto white balance"?


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## KmH (Jul 26, 2015)

Yep. Moving around the room the light quality and direction changes.
As the light direction and quality change, the color of walls the camera records also changes.
Heck! We can even see that effect with out eyes.

The solution is to use and move supplemental lighting to keep the light direction and quality more consistent as you move about a room making photos. Using a handheld incident/reflected/strobe light meter would also help.

Lightroom can sync and  edit a group of photos _all made in the same lighting_.

Batch balance 1000 photos made in different lighting conditions? Nope.


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## 480sparky (Jul 26, 2015)

Yes, moving around the room changes the _relative direction _of the light.

But how does that change exposure and white balance?


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## al9901 (Jul 26, 2015)

Designer said:


> al9901 said:
> 
> 
> > .. the colours of walls and items in the room are different colours in different photos.
> ...



I will check that, although my initial thought is no as I only have a basic SLR.

Do you know if the GoPro Hero 4 has the AWB feature?


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## AlanKlein (Jul 26, 2015)

Why do you need 1,000 pictures of the same room?  Don't you get to pick and choose?


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## Designer (Jul 26, 2015)

al9901 said:


> Designer said:
> 
> 
> > Is your camera set to "auto white balance"?
> ...


Unless you specifically set the WB to some particular light source or "custom", then it is probably set to "auto".  When the light changes, the WB will change automatically.  It is no wonder the colors are all over the place.

As to GoPro, I don't know, but I would guess "auto" is the default, with perhaps some other setting as an option.


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## Braineack (Jul 26, 2015)

raw doesn't even record "white balance"...


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## KmH (Jul 26, 2015)

480sparky said:


> Yes, moving around the room changes the _relative direction _of the light.
> 
> But how does that change exposure and white balance?


I didn't say anything about white balance, because as mentioned - Raw files don't have white balance.
There is more/less light closer/farther relative to where the light source (windows?) is. So exposure needs to change to 'balance' all the exposures.
The color temperature of the color of the walls changes as the light and it's direction changes.


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## 480sparky (Jul 26, 2015)

And again I ask:

How does MOVING WITHIN THE ROOM change exposure?


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## manaheim (Aug 11, 2015)

^ it just does. This is not an argument that needs to be made. If you're prefer to believe otherwise, knock yourself out.


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## 480sparky (Aug 11, 2015)

manaheim said:


> ^ it just does. This is not an argument that needs to be made. If you're prefer to believe otherwise, knock yourself out.



That's a total cop-out answer.

Yes, I can see how aiming the camera in one direction, down a dark hallway, can have a different exposure than if you turned 90° and aimed toward a sunlit window will fool the camera's meter.  It's because _the camera and it's meter_ don't know what they're being aimed at..... all the know is there's more photons coming through the lens.

But that does not change the exposure of any one individual item sitting inside a room.  A chair, for instance.  If I stand on one side of it, there's only so many photons entering the camera coming from the left arm.  If I walk over to the other side of the chair, the same number of photons are going to be headed in _that_ direction  (Specular surfaces notwithstanding).

And the same can be said of anything else inside the room.

Or is this too complex to understand?


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