Hello,
I have noticed that the white balance eye dropper seems to sample a very very small area, which seems to cause issues on high ISO images. If you put the eye dropper over your grey card in the photo and click and hold and slowly move around the grey card (just a few pixels in any direction) you can see the white balance shifting slightly on low ISO images and shift more extreme on high ISO ones. I am currently unable to rely on the tool at about ISO 3200 and up. Would it be possible to have the tool average a sample of a slightly larger area to combat this? perhaps have it adjustable by the user. I have used another photo editor in the past that would allow clicking and dragging to draw a box over the area to be sampled, this would be a cool addition as well.
You can adjust the sampling size by holding down the Ctrl key whilst rolling your mouse’s scroll-wheel. For better control over the area you’re sampling, first zoom in (roll your mouse’s scroll-wheel - without holding any other key … or, use the 1:1 button).
Would it be possible to have the tool average a sample of a slightly larger area to combat this? perhaps have it adjustable by the user.
Unless I misunderstand your request, this feature already exists, at least it does in PL for Windows. When I click on the eye dropper tool, either in the white balance palette or on the toolbar at the top of the window, then, when I move the mouse over the image, I get the option to change the size of the tool:
Stuck,
that is exactly what I need, I must be overlooking it on my mac version, however if Joanna says it is there, it must be there, ill have to keep looking when I get home.
This is actually one of the weak areas of PL.
The GUI/UX are a bit all over the place and you are forced to go from one corner to another and off to a third on the other side of the screen to accomplish a task.
A small adjustment of the GUI would increase the ease and speed even further. It would give an amazing return on invested time during image development.
It is fine that the size of the white balance eye dropper can be adjusted to get a better average from even grey surfaces. The upper limit for the radius is 50 pix.
I use a collapsing circular white balance target and the maximum eye dropper is only a spot on the circle. The influence of noise the readings is remarkable at high ISO photos and the measured values vary between successive readings along the target.
Is it a big issue to remarkably increase the maximum size in future updates?
This should be a feature request. You should be able to click to select a small spot or click at the center and drag a circle with any radius to sample the white balance. The white balance should be chosen from whatever area you select with some median or “robust statistic” that describes the average color in that region (and translated to white.). The is should be a relatively easy solution to implement that doesn’t interfere with the current behavior.
Can someone turn this into a feature request we can vote for?
