Beginner needs help (with thanks!)

New to rawtherapee. Downloaded v5.8. Began editing yesterday and loving it after having used LR in the past.

I don’t think I have changed the default settings but I have a problem with the white balance tab. When I turn off the WB tab the image edit window (and file browser thumbnail) both turn green. When I turn it on again, the image defaults back to the camera jpeg.
I have deleted the side car file in the pictures folder (windows 10) and « cleared » the edits from rawtherapee but again the green when WB tab deactivated.

Looking at the histogram, it seems that by deactivating WB tab, the blue and red channels are squashed way down to the left end of the histogram.

I can still edit photos, just need to keep wb tab activated. All wb functions work.

Have I inadvertently changed something, or failed to set up correctly?

The answer is there! Why do you want to deactivate white balance? It’s a basic thing for a raw processor.
Welcome btw!

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Don’t need to deactivate it, just curious really. Very very happy with the results! - i just wasn’t sure if it was a bug or not​:thinking::blush: or, more to the point, if I’d screwed up the installation and would have other problems​:sleepy:…

And many many thanks for your prompt reply.

Cheers
Rick

If you don’t demosaic and WB this is what you get …note it looks green for a number of reasons but one is that there are 2 green channels and only one red and one blue…

Thanks for the information - steep learning curve currently…

For sure but mastering some of the basics really helps later to understand the tools and what you can do…

This a good spot to make a run through to get an understanding of key terms concepts and practices…

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/

The nature of how Bayer CFAs on silicon respond to light is such that you HAVE to white balance raw data for it to look “normal”, because they are much more responsive to green light than red/blue.

I think one of the only workflows I know of where you want to turn white balance off is when performing color profiling - and that’s for the purposes of measuring how the sensor behaves so that white balance will operate more consistently.

The advantage to working with raw, of course, is that you can change the white balance settings after the fact if you disagree with the WB settings the camera chose, or accidentally used the wrong settings. (Shooting in daylight with tungsten WB will basically ruin a JPEG, but has no effect on the raw data.)

Absolutely - was just that at first i didn’t realise that closing the wb tab i had turned it off rather than hiding it! Traps for new players😉

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Todd, Thankyou very much for the tips, and keep them coming!

All good …you will find everyone here will try to help…most of the advise is really helpful…and very accurate unless it comes from me and then its buyer beware…:slight_smile:

Of course….