Mysore Palace (PS white balanced image added)

[Bharat Varma]

Which camera has a dedicated sensor for this?

Thad

AFAIK, if you are working with PS, you can find out true grey, white and black point of the photo. You can neutralise them using curve and blending mode to color. That gives fairly accurate WB.

All camera struggle finding WB in mix lighting. This camera has dedicated sensor that actually measure temp of the light and set WB. Most of the time it is accurate.

[ISO]

I'm working with GIMP. My problem is that sometimes there just isn't a right colour temperature for a photo: different lights on different people.

bit off topic.

I have no experience but I'm hearing murmur on various forums regarding skin colour of Sony cameras in general. What is your opinion on that?

Canon camera give orangish skin tone though not accurate but preferred by wedding photographers.

[ISO]

Which camera has a dedicated sensor for this?

Thad

AFAIK, if you are working with PS, you can find out true grey, white and black point of the photo. You can neutralise them using curve and blending mode to color. That gives fairly accurate WB.

All camera struggle finding WB in mix lighting. This camera has dedicated sensor that actually measure temp of the light and set WB. Most of the time it is accurate.

Canon 1D classic.

[Hankosaurus]

Use grey cards in the actual shoot?

This is what we did when I worked in a studio in my youth.  We would put a Kodak grey card and color chart in the frame, or in a test frame, just to zero in on the color when making prints.  Colors were never precisely what the eye saw, no matter how we adjusted it.  I suspect that color sensors in this time are like this to some degree.     :)

[Thad E Ginathom]

Use grey cards in the actual shoot?

No. I have tried that, and it is useful if the lighting is strange but even. It does not work so well in the one place (covid times) where I am shooting now.

The circumstances are that these are live concerts in every way except presence of public. This sabha Is doing "virtual*" only, and they are being recorded/videoed for youtube.



*It's the in-vogue term. Just like every film, tv show, studio music recording, etc etc would be "virtual!"

[Bharat Varma]

Try and expo disc kind of system for getting a baseline WB. After that, if the light is changing color frequently, you're probably on your own.
One thought would be to also shoot simultaneously with a decent cell phone and hope that the device gets it right, so that you can later compare and edit.

[thereisnobeginning]

I may be wrong, but my idea of white balance is that it is a method to compensate for illumination that can be categorized by a specific temperature, which is possible in principle for thermal sources. If there are multiple light sources with different characteristics, as in an auditorium, then this technique does become very difficult to use.
Is it possible to use masks or layers to apply separate WB to different parts of an image? Just curious.

[ISO]

Colors were never precisely what the eye saw, no matter how we adjusted it.  I suspect that color sensors in this time are like this to some degree.     :)

Precisely.

https://pdnonline.com/gear/cameras/the-best-cameras-for-color-reproduction-ranked/

Problem further gets complicated if the output device like printer or monitor is not calibrated.

Eye is such a wonderful device, percieved colour hue do not change much with brightness or illumination but for camera, perceived color hue is very much depend upon brightness or exposure. For example without changing saturation, if you decrease brightness of sky, it will appear more blue.

@Bharat: IMO grey card works best for uniform illumination and not for mix lighting that is common with live shows.

[ISO]

Is it possible to use masks or layers to apply separate WB to different parts of an image? Just curious.

Yes very much possible.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I may be wrong, but my idea of white balance is that it is a method to compensate for illumination that can be categorized by a specific temperature, which is possible in principle for thermal sources. If there are multiple light sources with different characteristics, as in an auditorium, then this technique does become very difficult to use.
Is it possible to use masks or layers to apply separate WB to different parts of an image? Just curious.

That's it.

I would add, though, that sometimes one doesn't want to compensate. Obvious examples would be candle or fire light. It is warm, and it should look warm. Similarly, the overall lighting on this stage is warm, so I'm not really aiming for turning it into sunlight!