White Balance...what do you do?   I will tell in a few lines what I do to get a decent white balance on photos.  What do you do?  I know this will depend on the camera you have and the capabilities there to do manual white balance or to choose a programmed setting like sun, shade, cloudy, etc.  Do you use a gray or white card for preset white balance?

To my surprise the other evening, the best medium gray came from a bunch of green leaves and not a nicely already gray colored tree trunk.  Humm. to read the tonality of a color view is not easy.  Frankly, I don't preset white balance very often for outdoor shots and use a program settng like sun, cloudy, etc.  Trying to preset in the field can be time consuming and awkard, changing quickly with the light.  I do use a spot reading to set exposure but that is another area altogether.

When not sure at all and depending a bit on software to adjust, with the D70  I go for the programmed settings and not auto.   With the recently acquired D200 I use auto and it works fine.

If wanting to really get on tune, I use a gray card or white card. Do you prefer gray or white for white balance?  Naturally, when manual I use gray for exposure but not always for white balance.  In oddly lit interior shots, the white seems to give the best white balance for my kind of shooting habits.

For raw, I use auto as the only option since it works the best for me, is fast and close enough for correction as needed later.  I shoot a lot of raw.

Any thoughts you have will be appreciated, no matter what your level of photographic experience.

Thanks,     TomDart.