NI-IMAQ White Balancing Utility FAQs

Why do the colors in my image look incorrect after auto white balancing?

The most common cause of incorrect color decoding is an incorrect Bayer pattern selection. The correct Bayer pattern depends on the camera sensor, but also can be affected by the left and top offsets of the current acquisition window. Click the Bayer Pattern tab, choose a different pattern, and perform the white balance again.

Which Bayer encoding pattern should I use?

Because the correct pattern is dependent on the left and top offsets of the current acquisition window, use the following trial and error procedure to find the correct Bayer pattern:

1. Click the Bayer Pattern tab and select a Bayer Encoding Pattern.
2. Click the Gains tab.
3. Click the ROI button and select a white region of interest on the image.
4. Click Auto Calculate Gains.

Repeat this procedure until the colors appear correct.

Why does my image still look incorrect or appear to be dominated by one color after I have tried all of the Bayer patterns?

Make sure the Bit Depth value matches the bit depth of the camera. Try changing the gain and exposure of the camera. Images that are too dark or too light may adversely affect the gain calculations.

Why does my image appear all white?

Make sure the Bit Depth value matches the bit depth of the camera.

Why does my image appear washed out?

The maximum value for the individual color gains is 3.99. If any of the gains reached the maximum value after white balancing, the image may have been too dark to begin with and the gain was not able to compensate. Increase the gain or exposure on the camera, take a new image, and perform the white balance again.

I have a 10-bit Bayer sensor, but BMP saves only 8 bits per color plane. What happens to the other 2 bits?

Currently, the Bayer decoding algorithm supports only 8 bits per color plane. The Bayer decoding algorithm uses all bits to appropriately scale the data to 8 bits per color plane.