DSLR white balance setting

[ThomasBR]

Hi, I wonder which white balance setting are the best on my EOS 500D. Do I just go for auto, use one of the present ones or enter one manually? I think I read somewhere that the tungsten setting is good for DSOs (cant remember where I read it). Any insights will be helpful.

Kind regards

Thomas

[saturn5]

Tungstens good to counteract light pollution,I usually leave mine on auto,shot in raw so you can adjust the white balance in PS.

[Tron]

I turn off all that stuff and do it post processing.

I set mine to custom 0 0 0 0 lol

[Dann]

Like Stewart I leave mine alone and sort out any colour changes during processing, although to be honest I don’t know much about white balance so I’ll be interested in any responses you get.

[rfdesigner]

Another vote for shooting in RAW then decide afterwards in post processing.

RAW is important for a number of other aspects too such as accurate darks frames.

Derek

[Tron]

Isn't white balance only useful when you have it calibrated to known colour cards/values? That is why the space probes have a colour chart on the front so they can adjust the balance post processing, even though NASA still insist Mars is red and the moon is gray lol (those colour charts give the game away

Camera software (firmware) is usually only tested to work for daytime and evening shots, not full dark astro shots, I wouldn't rely on anything automatic (in software) at night time.

[saturn5]

Like Stewart I leave mine alone and sort out any colour changes during processing, although to be honest I don’t know much about white balance so I’ll be interested in any responses you get.

I know nothing about it,thats why i leave it alone;)

I do all my aurora and nightscapes on auto WB. Never had any trouble with it or get any weird colour results so i would rely on it at night time Tron.Certainly works ok for me.

[jgs001]

I shoot in RAW and ignore it for Astro images. For single shots of the moon etc, it's so easy to adjust in RAW processing. For deep sky, I use Deep Sky Stacker to construct a custom white balance for me.

I only set a custom white balance in camera if I'm shooting under odd lighting conditions (not astro), or if I know the lighting (tungsten etc), and sometimes not even then. The only other time I set it is if I'm shooting cloudy sunsets, and I'll often set the WB to cloudy or shade to warm up the image.

[Tron]

I have yet to see an "automatic" camera setting that works at night (astronomy), probably because it is outside their "normal" testing scenarios and expected usage.

[RikM]

I shoot RAW for prime focus so white balance is irrelevant. I fix it in post processing. I have the camera set to RAW+jpg-L and the white balance set to 'daylight' because the preview shows best on the APT screen through a red acetate. I normally use a LPR filter.

For widefield through a camera lens I am going to try setting it to tungsten to see if it helps even out my orangey skyline.