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> This was a moment for my Canon to prove that, despite its bulk, it can't always be replaced by a smartphone. Such a naive statement. Once those phones' white

> This was a moment for my Canon to prove that, despite its bulk, it can't always be replaced by a smartphone. Such a naive statement. Once those phones' white balance is corrected, they should be able to capture the orange tinge. Even in a DSLR, if the white balance is set to auto, it would not capture the orange tinge. Cloudy might be a good starting point.

dividedbyzero 6y ago
How would I do this on iOS, if I had just my phone and no CaptureOne on a laptop or the like? Are there apps that let me use a gray card to set the white balance of raw photos?
- 30minAdayHN 6y ago
  When you click Edit on a photo, you will have bunch of edit options. Warmth and Tint sliders represent white balance. You can increase the warmth until it matches what your eye perceives. Essentially you are telling your camera post capture what the temperature of the source is.
- lawtalkinghuman 6y ago
  You can also use a camera app with more settings like ProCam which lets you set the white balance manually.
- tedunangst 6y ago
  Hold a small piece of white paper up in the corner of the frame. Or get a corner of street sign, etc. (may need to make sure it's illuminated though.)
- blahblah4332 6y ago
  Just set the image's white balance to daylight (3500K). The colors that you see will not be corrected. You can tweak from there.
- perardi 6y ago
  Or, as briefly mentioned in the article, use Halide, which outputs RAW files, which you can then edit in your app of choice. (Nice thing about iOS: it outputs Adobe DNG files, which is a standardized format, and broadly readable by a bunch of applications.)
- xsmasher 6y ago
  In the iOS camera you can point at something white, like white paper lit with white light, and long-press to get an auto focus and auto exposure lock. Then you can take a picture of the orange sky / landscape and it will use the locked white balance setting. A white countertop lit with fluorescent light would work.
photoGrant 6y ago
Your statement is also naive. White balance set in camera does not affect the raw capture. Only how it’s represented.
- cma 6y ago
  But also some cellphones can capture in RAW mode and some cameras can't.
  - sudosysgen 6y ago
    Sure, and when they do capture in RAW format the quality is horribly bad and quite soft because no tricks are applied there, and the softness of the lens as well as the low dynamic range of the small pixels really hurt.
- 30minAdayHN 6y ago
  Fair observation. I was talking about what photographer sees on the DSLR display immediately after capturing similar to how a mobile photographer sees.
- blahblah4332 6y ago
  While I agree that RAW capture will provide an improvement in the amount of data gathered from the sensor, and available for adjustments later on, if a user sets a custom white balance while taking a RAW picture, that setting will generally be accepted as a default rendering of the scene in most RAW processing software. This is entirely besides the point because the issue stated here involves color interpretation based on a selected white point. Left to their own devices digital cameras will compensate for scene color on purpose, because 99% of the time people don't want color casts in their photos. The author is trying to blame the camera for people's ignorance of photography, which is just silliness. Don't agree? Set your phone's white balance to daylight for a week and see how often you agree that the captured picture is what you actually wanted
gwbas1c 6y ago
Smartphones have tiny lenses. As great as they are, a tiny lens has more distortion than the bigger lens of a dedicated camera. (FWIW: My "dumb" camera is collecting dust. I rarely take it out, and never bring it on vacation.)
- m00x 6y ago
  They also have a much lower dynamic range, less colour depth and let in less light. If you want the best of both worlds you can get a mirrorless which is less bulky, but still have a big sensor.
  - sudosysgen 6y ago
    And also lower sharpness, even big camera lenses (for phones) are limited to around 8MP of resolution due to diffraction, which is why cellphone cameras tend not to have much of a benefit beyond 8-12MP. Whereas a very sharp lens for a DSLR might have a maximum sharpness of 90+MP.
    - gwbas1c 6y ago
      It's why I take snapshots of people with my camera, and buy posters of scenery.
thescriptkiddie 6y ago
A DSLR has, among many other settings, the ability to set white balance manually. Phones, or at least my phone, do not. Some of these settings may be able to be introduced via an update to the camera app, but many (eg manual focus, aperture, ISO) are limitations of the camera hardware.

dividedbyzero 6y ago

How would I do this on iOS, if I had just my phone and no CaptureOne on a laptop or the like? Are there apps that let me use a gray card to set the white balance of raw photos?

30minAdayHN 6y ago
When you click Edit on a photo, you will have bunch of edit options. Warmth and Tint sliders represent white balance. You can increase the warmth until it matches what your eye perceives. Essentially you are telling your camera post capture what the temperature of the source is.
lawtalkinghuman 6y ago
You can also use a camera app with more settings like ProCam which lets you set the white balance manually.
tedunangst 6y ago
Hold a small piece of white paper up in the corner of the frame. Or get a corner of street sign, etc. (may need to make sure it's illuminated though.)
blahblah4332 6y ago
Just set the image's white balance to daylight (3500K). The colors that you see will not be corrected. You can tweak from there.
perardi 6y ago
Or, as briefly mentioned in the article, use Halide, which outputs RAW files, which you can then edit in your app of choice. (Nice thing about iOS: it outputs Adobe DNG files, which is a standardized format, and broadly readable by a bunch of applications.)
xsmasher 6y ago
In the iOS camera you can point at something white, like white paper lit with white light, and long-press to get an auto focus and auto exposure lock. Then you can take a picture of the orange sky / landscape and it will use the locked white balance setting. A white countertop lit with fluorescent light would work.

photoGrant 6y ago

Your statement is also naive. White balance set in camera does not affect the raw capture. Only how it’s represented.

cma 6y ago
But also some cellphones can capture in RAW mode and some cameras can't.
- sudosysgen 6y ago
  Sure, and when they do capture in RAW format the quality is horribly bad and quite soft because no tricks are applied there, and the softness of the lens as well as the low dynamic range of the small pixels really hurt.
30minAdayHN 6y ago
Fair observation. I was talking about what photographer sees on the DSLR display immediately after capturing similar to how a mobile photographer sees.
blahblah4332 6y ago
While I agree that RAW capture will provide an improvement in the amount of data gathered from the sensor, and available for adjustments later on, if a user sets a custom white balance while taking a RAW picture, that setting will generally be accepted as a default rendering of the scene in most RAW processing software. This is entirely besides the point because the issue stated here involves color interpretation based on a selected white point. Left to their own devices digital cameras will compensate for scene color on purpose, because 99% of the time people don't want color casts in their photos. The author is trying to blame the camera for people's ignorance of photography, which is just silliness. Don't agree? Set your phone's white balance to daylight for a week and see how often you agree that the captured picture is what you actually wanted

gwbas1c 6y ago

Smartphones have tiny lenses. As great as they are, a tiny lens has more distortion than the bigger lens of a dedicated camera. (FWIW: My "dumb" camera is collecting dust. I rarely take it out, and never bring it on vacation.)

m00x 6y ago
They also have a much lower dynamic range, less colour depth and let in less light. If you want the best of both worlds you can get a mirrorless which is less bulky, but still have a big sensor.
- sudosysgen 6y ago
  And also lower sharpness, even big camera lenses (for phones) are limited to around 8MP of resolution due to diffraction, which is why cellphone cameras tend not to have much of a benefit beyond 8-12MP. Whereas a very sharp lens for a DSLR might have a maximum sharpness of 90+MP.
  - gwbas1c 6y ago
    It's why I take snapshots of people with my camera, and buy posters of scenery.

thescriptkiddie 6y ago

A DSLR has, among many other settings, the ability to set white balance manually. Phones, or at least my phone, do not. Some of these settings may be able to be introduced via an update to the camera app, but many (eg manual focus, aperture, ISO) are limitations of the camera hardware.