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TedCruzAteMySon
Known Participant
May 23, 2023
Question

"Before" Has the Incorrect White Balance

  • May 23, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 5345 views

Hello,

 

I updated to Ver. 12.3 and noticed that the white balance in Before was wrong when I compared the Before and After of unedited RAW photos(even though they should be the same).

 

I used in-body custom white balance at a venue with LED lights (~4000K), and the RAW photos looked right in the older version. But, after updating to LrC, the Before looked way too warm. Strangely, the unedited RAW photos still had the correct white balance in After. Maybe the software incorrectly switched to "Auto" white balance, instead of "As Ahot"?

 

Additional information:

1. Camera: Sony A7IV

2. Computer: M1 Mac

 

Thank you!

    3 replies

    krislinus
    krislinus
    Participating Frequently
    July 11, 2024

    Wow, this is still an issue with Lightroom Classic 13.4 in July 2024.

    I'm pretty sure it haven't been an issue for me earlier, but I am working on a project where I'm having trouble nailing the whote balance. Then I noticed the Before photo was much warmer.

     

    I tried disabling the GPU on my M1 Max 16 inch, but it made no difference.

    F
    Francesco6C19
    Participant
    July 18, 2024

    Same problem here. Macbook M1 running Sonoma 14.5, LrC v. 13.4. Photos have been in catalog over several LrC versions. "Before" version (\ toggle) shows utterly wrong WB, even when "After" version has been reset (Cmd-Shift-R). "After" version or clicking on "Import" photo in Develop history look ok. Deleting and re-importing photo fixes problem, so it is hard to reproduce. Looks like it tends to occur for indoor photos: correct WB is close to Tungsten, while "Before" version seems to pick up "Daylight" or something similar.

    F
    Francesco6C19
    Participant
    July 18, 2024

    Forgot to add: 1. these are RAW photos (Fuji RAF). 2. when clicking on the "Import" version in Develop history, the picture looks fine (as I said) but the thumbnail in the Navigator window shows the same wrong WB as the "Before" photo.

    CDLHamma
    CDLHamma
    Participant
    December 7, 2023

    I am seeing this as well on M1 and when I disable the GPU the problem goes away. the white balance I am seeing on "before" is nothing even close to what I have set in camera or set after the fact. I haven't been able to nail down the exact cause of this, though it tends to manifest itself more when I am doing bulk edits from library view, then go into develop view.

    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    May 23, 2023

    The WB reported by your camera has zero bearing on your raw data. Raw is raw and only exposure and ISO affect the data. You can set it to anything; the only effect is upon the JPEG preview created by your camera, embedded with the raw and again, this has zero effect on your raw data. The 'correct' WB is what you set in Lightroom Classic or Adobe Camera Raw or any other raw converter, and they all differ from the actual (correctly measured) WB: 

     

     

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    T
    TedCruzAteMySonAuthor
    Known Participant
    May 23, 2023

    Thank you for your reply!

     

    I believe you may have misunderstood what I meant. Setting custom white balance in-camera has been working fine for me, and I have no complaint.

     

    The problem is that, when I hit the \ key, instead of showing me the unedited raw file (Before) like the older versions did, Ver 12.3 wildly changed the white balance to something else... significantly warmer.

     

    I remember Adobe messed up the white balance for Sony RAW files with their new update a couple of years ago. I had to re-installed the older version until they fixed that bug. I hope they can get this one resolved soon because I really want to try the new denoise feature. 

      TheDigitalDog
      TheDigitalDog
      Inspiring
      May 23, 2023
      quote

      Thank you for your reply!

       

      I believe you may have misunderstood what I meant. Setting custom white balance in-camera has been working fine for me, and I have no complaint.


      By @TedCruzAteMySon

      And that has zero effect on the raw. It only affects the JPEG, which is never used in Adobe converters (they have to build their own previews based on the raw and their unique processing). 

      quote

      The problem is that, when I hit the \ key, instead of showing me the unedited raw file (Before) like the older versions did, Ver 12.3 wildly changed the white balance to something else... significantly warmer.


      By @TedCruzAteMySon

      There is no unedited raw in this product. There is always some edit based on several factors. It could be the selected camera profile or some other preset used upon import. 

      Upload one of the problematic raws (ideally a DNG with all your edits embedded) to something like Dropbox so others can examine what's happening. 

       

      Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
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