Fix White Balance with One Easy Trick

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Fix White Balance with One Easy Trick | ibakeheshoots.com

I’m usually good with color, but I totally messed up the white balance on our last shoot.  Most of the time I set my camera to Daylight White Balance and call it a day, but on this session, I was using a couple of vintage (fancy for old) softboxes that had a serious yellow tint.  I could see the boxes had a color issue, but just like every other lazy photographer in the world, I said “I’ll fix it in Photoshop.”

What’s White Balance

This is a complicated subject, but I’ll try to explain it in simple terms.  Camera sensors are made up of Red, Green, and Blue pixels.  When an image is captured, the camera mixes theses colors together to create a neutral scene.  If the camera mixes these wrong, then you end up with an image that looks like a funky Polaroid from the 70’s.

If you’re thinking, why doesn’t the camera just get it right?  Here’s the problem: the world isn’t color neutral.  Afternoon light is warm; morning light is cool; candlelight is red; florescent light is green etc.  Our eyes automatically compensate for these color casts, but cameras don’t have it so easy. This is where white balance comes into play.  To compensate for these various color casts, cameras create different balances of red, green, and blue to create a neutral white.

Most of the time the camera gets it right, but it frequently needs some help.  This is why cameras and photo editing software have manual white balance controls.

Why Correct Color is Important

Actually, for food photography it isn’t that important.  Most of the time, morning food is cool and evening food is warm.  If you need to manipulate the color to make something look right, go for it.  Some may argue this point, but I have yet to see a Hot Pocket that looks as delicious as the package.

Despite this fact, you should still work in a color managed environment.  Color may not be critical, but it’s part of any professional practice. Tomes have been written on this subject, but the best way to manage color is with a Spydercube and an X-Rite Colorchecker Passport.

The Trick

Lightroom makes white balance so easy it’s stupid.  Here’s how you do it: (see image below)

1) Click on the Develop Module

2) Select the white balance dropper in the Basic Panel

3) Move the dropper over a patch of light grey

4) Watch the RGB values in the hovering pixel panel

5) When the RGB values are nearly identical, click on the patch and have a beer

6) Seriously, that’s it.  You’re done so have a cold one

For the picture above, I knew I was working on a neutral surface so I could color balance later.  If I wasn’t, I would have used a QP card for a neutral reference point.

Fix White Balance with One Easy Trick | ibakeheshoots.com

Parting Words

It’s easy to get obsessed about color, so don’t.  Stick with a few inexpensive QP cards along with a color calibrated monitor and you should be alright.  The most important thing is that the food looks good.  If it doesn’t, nobody is going to care about the color.

 

 

 

Grilled Cheese Egg in the Hole

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Grilled Cheese Egg in the Hole: a simple but impressive breakfast sandwich by I bake he shoots | ibakeheshoots.com

I don’t like eggs.

Yes, I’m crazy about breakfast, but not if it includes something scrambled. I guess I’ll eat them if:

  1. The doctor says “Do it!”
  2. They’re hard boiled.
  3. There’s a bowl of Sriracha nearby(seriously, gotta mask that eggy taste).

Don’t get me wrong, eggs are amazing and extremely versatile. Wanna make a custard? Yolks are your best friend. Meringue for my pie? Hand me those egg whites. Need a lift for your cake? You get the picture.

And let us not forget cookies. I make a lot cookies. Sometimes they’re of the sugar cookie variety. On occasion, they’re of the brown butter pumpkin shortbread variety. Needless to write, I always have a lot eggs hanging around. Yesterday, I used a couple to make a Grilled Cheese Egg in the Hole. What?

Grilled Cheese Egg in the Hole: a simple but impressive breakfast sandwich by I bake he shoots | ibakeheshoots.com

If you are an egg fan and a grilled cheese fan, you need to make this sandwich. Trust. They’re very impressive, equally simplistic, and go from kitchen to table in less than 10 minutes. Plus, if you’re like me, you’ll be the lucky one eating all the leftover holes of grilled cheese. Now, that’s what I’m talking about!

 

Grilled Cheese Egg in the Hole Recipe

Grilled Cheese Egg in the Hole
 
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Makes 1 sandwich
Author:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 2 slices of sourdough or your favorite bread
  • 2 slices white cheddar cheese. about 2 ounces
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 pad of butter, plus more for the pan(optional)
  • olive oil or spray
  • salt and pepper
  • 2½ round cookie cutter
Instructions
  1. Put pan on medium heat.
  2. Add oil or spray
  3. Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread.
  4. Lay cheese on one buttered side.
  5. Place other slice on top to make a sandwich.
  6. Use cookie cutter to make a hole in the middle.
  7. Add a little butter to the pan, if using. make sure the oil/butter is distributed evenly.
  8. Place sandwich in pan and press with a spatula.
  9. Crack 2 eggs in center of sandwich. Salt and pepper eggs.
  10. Cover pan.
  11. Cook for 2 min.
  12. Remove cover and carefully flip sandwich.
  13. Cook for another 2 min for over easy eggs.
  14. Serve with fresh fruit or hash browns.