Automatic whitebalance

[helmut]

XnView is a standard tool for standard users. Most users work with photographs and want to apply standard functions. One of those standard use cases is adjusting the whitepoint of an image. Most cameras do the job well, but for example when taking pictures in snow the results can be pretty bad and will need adjusting hue (not the brightness!). So I think that adjusting the whitepoint automatically is an important function for many users.

Automatic whitebalance
Not quite sure how automatic whitepoint should work in detail. Perhaps the user could select an area with "white" in it and then apply the function. Or perhaps XnView can simply analyze the whole image, determine the correct whitepoint and change the image colouring accordingly.

Edit: Changed "Whitepoint" to "Whitebalance".

[JohnFredC]

Totally support. Lacuna of functionality in XnView.

[oops66]

+1

[XnTriq]

I'd love to see a jpg-Illuminator add-on for XnView!

• PeNum's DigiCam Forum: jpg-Illuminator – Download & Updates (German freeware)
• XnView Forum: "Automatic levels" adjustment wrongly implemented
• RawTherapee Forum: Search for “illuminator”
• Google Images: Search for “jpg-illuminator”

[cppasm]

Totally agree.
Here is my topic about the same thing: Auto White Balance when viewing RAW images

I think they can be joined together.

[xnview]

You would like to have an automatic white balance for viewing?

[helmut]

You would like to have an automatic white balance for viewing?

The automatic whitebalance is for correcting the image and saving it.

[JohnFredC]

Rarely does "automatic" white balance work properly. Not even in the cameras...

An eyedropper tool to sample the image is essential.

Perhaps if users could save named white-balance settings, and then choose to apply a named setting to a group of photos in a script... that would be cool.

A setting to automatically apply a temporary, named white-balance setting to/through the viewer might also be useful. But there is a serious issue how to inform the user that the "auto" white balance adjustment is in use.

In that scenario, I foresee potentially dangerous user confusion over the status of the original image vis-a-vis WB.

[XnTriq]

See also:

• Wish: Histogram support
• "Automatic levels" adjustment wrongly implemented
• Equilibre des blancs dans Xnview ?

[durumdara]

In the GIMP list I got this description on Automatic White Balance:

> If I saw good, the Automatic White Balance function uses
> "gimp-color-balance".
GIMP's Auto White Balance menu command performs the same operation as
clicking on the AUTO button in the "Colors->Levels" dialog. It sets
the "black point" (lower threshold) and "white point" (the upper
threshold) of each of the red, green, and blue channels (separately)
based on that channel's histogram.

http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-layer- ... lance.html

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