Should I be warming grey card calibrated shots?

Question

In a recent blog post at this site, Tim Grey recommended the following:

You could then use the white balance tool in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw (or similar tools in other software) to make the gray card appear perfectly neutral, and then simply adjust the Temperature slider to shift between blue and yellow. For the “typical” photograph that would involve increasing the Temperature value to add a little warmth to the image.

After reading other questions about using a grey card on this site, I do not see anyone else recommending "adding a little warmth" back in after using the white balance tool off of a grey card. Is this a typical practice? Do grey cards produce cooler colors then most scenes require?

Asked by dpollitt

Answer

I usually find, especially when dealing with artificial light, that an image that is white balanced that accurately is often cool and I tend to find it a little harsh as a result, so I've been known to warm up the image a little either with the white balance tool or a filter in Photoshop afterwards.

I would note that it wasn't all that rare with film, which was white balanced for appropriate light, to use warming filters to make it a little more pleasing, especially with people in the image. Cooling filters also existed, so it is entirely dependent on the look you want to achieve as to how you would filter.

At any rate, skin tones tend to look better if the blue is minimized...

Answered by John Cavan

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