White Balance & WB Shift — the colour-cast control

White Balance (WB) sets the overall colour temperature/tint of the image, and the WB Shift grid nudges it precisely. In recipes, WB + shift is the single most important control for the colour cast of the grade (warm/cool, green/magenta).

WB base options (manual p.126)

Fixed vs Auto in recipes

• A fixed WB (Daylight, a Kelvin value, or a Fluorescent preset) gives a consistent, repeatable cast shot-to-shot. Essential when the grade depends on a specific colour balance (most Kodak recipes use Daylight or a Kelvin value).
• Auto WB adapts per scene, so the cast floats with the light. Chosen when versatility matters more than repeatability (e.g. Reggie's Portra, Reala Ace).
• Fluorescent presets are used creatively, not literally, e.g. CineStill 800T uses Fluorescent 3 to push a cool tungsten-night cast, not because the scene is fluorescent-lit.

WB Shift (manual p.127)

After choosing a WB option, pressing MENU/OK opens the WB SHIFT grid with two axes:

• R (Red) axis: positive = warmer/redder, negative = cooler/cyan.
• B (Blue) axis: positive = bluer/cooler, negative = warmer/yellow.

Recipes write this as e.g. "Daylight, — & —" → warm it up on the red axis (—) and remove blue / add yellow (—). The two axes together place the cast anywhere in the red–cyan / blue–yellow plane.

Reading a shift

• +R and −B together → strong warm/golden cast (classic Kodak-negative warmth). Example: Kodak Gold 200 uses Daylight — / —.
• −R and +B → cool, cyan-blue cast (e.g. an overcast/"Pacific" look).
• Small values (±1–2) fine-tune; larger values (±5 to ±9) are a deliberate strong tint.

The grid is limited to ±9 on each axis.

⚠WB on monochrome bases: contested, and worth testing (flagged 2026-07-25)

This file previously stated that on monochrome bases a WB shift "still applies a toning direction but has little effect on the grey tones themselves," and that large shifts in B&W recipes were mostly carry-over. The evidence in this bank's own reference recipes points the other way, and the claim should be treated as unresolved until someone tests it.

Four B&W recipes here, from three independent authors, carry large and deliberately different WB shifts on monochrome bases:

Four different large shifts in four different directions is not what people do to a control that does nothing, and one of them was derived from spectral data rather than by eye. The mechanism would be straightforward if true: WB scales the R/G/B channel gains before the monochrome conversion mixes them, which is functionally a channel mixer and would change grey values directly.

This bank has no test frame either way, so nothing here is asserted. The experiment is cheap: shoot one scene containing saturated red, green and blue objects plus a grey scale, on Monochrome, at WB shifts of 0/0, —/—and —/—. If the grey values of the coloured objects move, the shift is a tonal control and every B&W recipe's WB is load-bearing. If only the tint moves, the original claim stands.

Until then: the B&W originals in this bank keep —/0 (see Delta 400), which is the conservative position. It neither relies on the effect nor denies it. Reference recipes keep their authors' values as published.

Why WB matters more than "Color" for a grade

Saturation (Color) changes how intense colours are; WB shift changes what colour everything leans toward. A grade's identity, "warm faded Kodak", "cool moody blue", "amber vintage". Is set primarily by the WB base + shift, then reinforced by the film-sim base and the Chrome effects. See color-and-chrome.md.

Last updated: 2026-07-25