Custom White Balance

missourigrl

Just wondering how you all set your custom white balance? I read on another forum that some people were using a Pringle's can lid? I found a cool little filter online called an Expodisc but it's rather pricey.

Thanks!

pathfinder

I shoot in RAW with AWB usually, and then adjust the color balance in PS.

If you shoot jpegs, setting the color balance to sunlight, shade, tungsten, etc can be helpful for the correct color balance.

The Exodisc has a number of fans who swear by it, especially for mixed lighting conditions. I have an aquaintance who shoots theatre under highly mixed lighting though, and he just uses AWB for his color balance.

Art Scott

like Pathfinder, I too just leave my camera set to AWB and adjust in PS Raw converter....whether shooting outdoors or stage performances or flash set ups.....

TylerW

Typically I shoot in AWB mode. The camera gets pretty close but I get to make the final decision in the converter. There's two exceptions to this:

Mixed lighting conditions. I tend to find, at least in my video work that setting the camera to sunlight seems to work pretty well, and keeps the camera from trying to WB on a magenta light or something awful like that.

Canon's AWB seems to get really confused on cloudy days in AWB. So I set it to the cloudy settings and all is well.

Of course, this is all talking about Canons - both still and video. YMMV.

StevenV

I too use AWB most of the time. My exception is when I'm at an event (football stadium for example) where the lighting is both somewhat constant and bad. I carry a "known white card*" in my bag, and at the beginning of each quarter I get a shot of it on the field and reset the camera.

* that's not a trademark or anything, just means that I know what it looks like. To most people it just looks like a plain white paper, and wonder why on earth am I taking a picture of it?

Shay Stephens

I have used a lot of things over the years. Pringles lids, white paper, styrofoam, gray cards, and my current is a gray lens cleaning cloth (two birds, one stone). My conclusion is they all work equally well. The key is knowing how to use it, color neutrality, and having it when needed.

As far as white balance, I tend to prefer using the presets (incandesent, sunny, cloudy, shade, etc). I am using canon, and AWB never seems to be as good or consistant as the presets. I fine tune all the WB in post.

StevenV

Shay Stephens wrote:

I fine tune all the WB in post.

True - the 'puter inside the camera's never perfect, there's always some work to be done

wxwax

I only seem to worry about white balance when dealing with skin tones. In those situations, I shoot the WhiBal card, and adjust my white balance in post.