Custom White Balance Thread

[sbug_adam]

So I've been reading a lot about custom white balance and I'm not really understanding it. I have a 20D but have never played around with the white balance on it. Can someone explain to me what it is and what I can do with it? if possible, show some examples.. much appreciated guys!

Adam

[RandySmith]

Adam ..

My two cents ... I don't have any immediate examples, if I can dig some up I'll try to post here ..

What I do, and how I use this:

The high school gym where I shoot a lot of volleyball/basketball, etc., has mercury vapor or sodium lights ... they produce a pretty bad color shift .. I try to shoot a properly exposed "grey" card, then I use that grey card for my custom white balance. I know it's a bit contradictory in logic to use a grey card, to set a white balance but I'm able to get better "whites" when I set the custom white balance this way. Using the "auto white balance" setting doesn't work as well as setting a custom white balance. The alternative to using a grey card is to use a meter that measures the color temperature, and then setting the camera to that measured color temperature... ie: 6200k, 5500k, etc..

Hope this helps, maybe someone else will chime in with another or better explanation.
Randy

[boomerd35]

I use the custom white balance sometimes, and I'm happy with the results. I just take a photo of a white card. Then go into the 20D menu and select Custom WB. The camera will ask which photo to use in its custom white balance calculations (the photo of the white card). After exiting the menu, go to the AF button on top and set the WB to custom. Of course, some people just shoot RAW and set the WB in RAW processing.

Troy T.

[AjP]

I only use WB if I shoot JPG, either take a shot of grey or white object and then use it for WB of cause if light constant, otherwise it won't workout well if light will change all the time.

sometimes I also use Kelvin instead WB if I know aprox light temperature.

if you shoot only few shots you can always fix WB in Photoshop,

IMHO

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Each light source out there has a differen Kelvin rating-
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glos...Balance_01.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_t...lm_photography
http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_white-balance.html
So it used to be that when you shot in certain situations you used special film-ie tungsten- or filters on the camera or gels over the light sources to correct for their Kelvin ratings. Well now we do it in camera or on the desktop after the shoot.

Studio Flash units put out a light which is close to full daylight Sunlight or 5500 K
http://ronbigelow.com/articles/white/white_balance.htm

Now you can set a different white balance than the light source to force a certain look in your colors on camera or just have the camera on auto and hope that there is enough white in the scene for the camera to pic it up and adjust.
(BTW many grey cards have a white balance side on the back).

So it basically comes down to if you want yout whites WHITE then adjust for your light source and the type of light that it puts out. If you train your eye you can actually see some of the subtle differences between light sources.
Try this experiment- get an incandecent bulb, a florescent bulb, a halogen bulb, a candle and look at a piece of white paper in a dark room using each light source seperately-you should be able to see some difference in color (be sure the halogen is on full power).

[evil4blue]

There's always the white, translucent pringles can lid trick:

Hold the lid to the lens, set your WB through it. Works kinda like the expodisk.

Another person has suggested doing the above trick using the lightsphere top cap. Haven't tried it, but it could work.

I tend to shoot stuff in my environment to get close WB like gray walls or streets, gray tree trunks, a gray t-shirt someone is wearing. This will get you in the right ball park and I only shoot raw so I fine tune at home.

[Gordon]

Different light sources have an associated colour cast to them. Your eye is quite good at ignoring it and making things look 'white' but in general indoor lighting is quite a bit warmer (orange) than sunlight or a cloudy day. The white balance in your camera compensates for that.

Custom white balance is just a way for you to tell the camera that 'this is white - adjust things appropriately' To do this, you should shoot a light/ white reference card in the light that you want to white balance for. When you select the reference, the camera will assume that that is white and make adjustments to subsequent images.

I've also used custom white balance as a way to carry a complete set of colour filters, without taking up space in my bag. I print out a reference card with a series of colour swatches on it, then use those to select a custom white balance - which is basically the complimentary colour of that pointed at. This introduces a set of controllable, repeatable colour casts which can be quite interesting to shoot with.

You can also use the 'wrong' pre-set colour balance in a similar way - e.g., shooting outdoors with a tungsten white balance gives a strong blue cast to the image - great for shooting ice/cold scenes. If you shoot RAW you can adjust the white balance later - but I still try to set it correctly at the time, because the overall colour tone of the scene on the LCD display can influence how you might think about a scene and may impact your compositional choices.

[evil4blue]

Originally Posted by GordonMcGregor

I've also used custom white balance as a way to carry a complete set of colour filters, without taking up space in my bag. I print out a reference card with a series of colour swatches on it, then use those to select a custom white balance - which is basically the complimentary colour of that pointed at. This introduces a set of controllable, repeatable colour casts which can be quite interesting to shoot with.

You can also use the 'wrong' pre-set colour balance in a similar way - e.g., shooting outdoors with a tungsten white balance gives a strong blue cast to the image - great for shooting ice/cold scenes. If you shoot RAW you can adjust the white balance later - but I still try to set it correctly at the time, because the overall colour tone of the scene on the LCD display can influence how you might think about a scene and may impact your compositional choices.

I do the same thing. The technology is there so why not use it. I love using Tungsten WB for my dusk/twilight shots. This gives the sky an almost jewel like blue color. Try it out and you'll be amazed.

You can also set a WB around 5500-6200K to give a nice warm look to a scene.

[chrisf]

Hi Adam,
I've just started working with the white balance settings. Here are some examples with a
20D, a tungsten bulb above the subject, ISO 400, f2.8, 1/60sec, RAW+S, images are the JPGS resized:
WB = AWB

WB=Tungsten

I photographed a common 18% gray card
WB=AWB

went to the menu set it as the custom white balance
WB=Custom


Concentrating on the white of the box, AWB gives a yellowish cast, Tungsten takes alot of the yellow cast out, creating a custom white balance provides a finished JPG with the white area white. Don't forget to reset the WB when conditions change.
Regards-

[RandySmith]

Adam -

Here's a comparison side-by-side in the gym I shoot at. If you shoot RAW photo's this is a mute point.

Hope this helps.

Randy