Do you fuss with white balance in the camera?

Anything but auto?  As I see it, why bother when Photoshop and Lightroom give you much more control? I bought one of those white balance filters and think it works great, but I have noticed considering the time it takes me to mess around and set up, and few quick adjustments in Photoshop CC or in Lightroom, it does the same.  

Now I haven't printed anything out and looked side by side, but can say my quick analysis shows little to no difference.  Just time it takes to set up.  

Do you agree? 

I have a WhiBal card and use it if I remember to. I know that it will get me in the right place for skin tones under any condition, and then I can work from there, even as light conditions change.

If I don't remember to, I usually leave it set to Auto, yes, although I have worked with a photographer that prefers it to just be set to daylight. At least that way, you can detect shot-to-shot changes if you want to retain the difference.

If I'm in the mood I set the WB. If not I shoot auto, and either way its easily fixable in ACR.  If doing a sunrise/sunset landscape with lots of contrast I will set the WB because it can affect the exposure, maybe just enough to make or break the shot.  Photoshop rocks but you can rely on it too much at times......

I use to just leave it in Auto all the time.  Now that I have a color checker card I am trying to train myself to set this manually.  But that doesn't mean I fuss with it often,  Sunlight 90% of the time, Flash the other 10%.

Kelly Cook

Weddings I shoot on auto. The less I have to worry and fiddle, the more I can concentrate on the creative side.
When I copy artwork, I use a colour test sheet to see which setting is closest as to do little movement in post.
When I scout, outside on daylight, interiors on auto.
When I shoot for myself I shoot on daylight as I am outside most of the time and I do not want my sunsets to turn blue in auto.

90% of the time, I just leave it in auto.  When I do step out of that setting it's usually something specific, like cloud setting.  

Pretty much the same for me as well, when I remember and feel like it.  

I use auto most of the time...

Nope, all auto for me

 same with me, when the shot calls for it.  Or I just feel like get into the shot more. 

When I first bought my Expo Disc white balance filter, I used it all the time.  I stuck with this for about 3 months, and now to be completely honest, I don't see the purpose, I'll just correct in post. 

Now that I do not live near 8000 feet, mine is set to sunny. I do set mine though when I feel it needs it with my Expodisc. I personally like to cut as many steps as possible out of any post work I may do. 

BTW have any of you tried the egg crate white balance trick?

There's a darned good reason to set it manually for events. Here's why:

I've found editing for events requires 3 main adjustments. WB, Exposure and cropping. For WB and exposure, the challenge is getting all the images to look like they come from the same location (same lighting and colour), so the last thing you want is 1000 different WB settings and exposure to be all over the place. So I always shoot manual both for exposure and WB.

If you move to another room which has a different WB requirement (or if they change the lighting for some reason), you only have to adjust the first image in the sequence, you can then batch process the rest (for that room/lighting requirement) OR you can manually adjust WB for that room (during the event), but usually I just pick a good WB for the whole venue if I can help it. If they introduce different colour lighting, it's usually for an effect, which brings me to the next reason to use manual WB:

Sometimes light is supposed to be that colour... if you pick a good neutral WB for a location (say 3200K) and they suddenly add some red lighting (because it's a show and the character playing the devil has come onto stage) then you don't want it too look perfect, you want it to look red (or blue, or green or whatever). I've found it particularly useful for concerts/plays where they will use this sort of coloured lighting.

So my point is, if you are taking a lot of photos in one location and you want them to look similar, then using Manual WB is a good idea to save PP time.

When I edit photos I can skip over a lot of them I know look fine. In fact, WB is the first thing I adjust and if it isn't right I have to batch process the whole series, if I get it right in camera I don't really need to do this and I don't have to keep second guessing the camera.

While I am not an event photographer, I agree with all of that.  For any kind of photography WB adjustments are easier in post than in the camera.  And setting the WB manually makes the post WB adjustments easier than working from AutoWB.

Kelly