setting white balance

[benny z]

i was always taught to white balance digicams on something white placed in the tank or on the sandbed itself. seems colors aren't always 100% accurate when doing this. someone suggested white balancing the camera on something gray instead. just curious about the theory behind this. how does this work? i haven't tried it yet, but did order some white balance cards which come with white, gray, and black.

is it possible to white balance the camera so that no post processing is needed to adjust the photo?

also, i see comments about how nice the white balance cards make it to adjust photos in post processing. how do you go about using the cards to adjust the images in photoshop?

thanks!
- ben

 

[benny z]

*bump

 

[Angels 2010]

tagging

 

[JuniorMC8704]

Cutting a lot of info short, and keeping it simple....No.

Our cameras do not have the ability to work higher than around 10,000K.

safe to say, all of our tanks are much higher than that.

Shooting in RAW format, and using adobe raw to set the white balance is the easiest way. Elements or CS can do this just fine.

As far as what to click on, i look for the live rock, unless its coraline covered.

sand works, but just click around till it looks right if all else fails. its easy as pie once youve got the idea.

 

[JuniorMC8704]

a little tip though...the preview you can see on the camera, even when shooting in raw is a JPEG thumbnail. This will reflect the cameras white balance setting...even though the actual raw file will not set anything for white balance.


So, to make things a little easier in knowing if you got the shot, set your white balance to shade and fine tune to the bluest area (nikon). This will sometimes get your pretty close. Makes previewing for exposure easier.

 

[ibjhb]

+2 for what JuniorMC8704 said about shooing RAW. Really the smart way to go.

 

[benny z]

i tried shooting raw the other day and my version of photoshop doesn't recognize the new raw format of the 50d. any idea on how to update that?

i think i did figure out how to get the colors very close, though, otherwise with a jpeg image.

 

[ibjhb]

i tried shooting raw the other day and my version of photoshop doesn't recognize the new raw format of the 50d. any idea on how to update that?

i think i did figure out how to get the colors very close, though, otherwise with a jpeg image.

Had the same problem with my D5000. Try this link:
Adobe - Adobe Photoshop CS4: Digital camera raw file support

Also, check out Lightroom Beta 3:
Adobe Labs - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

 

[benny z]

thanks!

 

[m and m]

Benny ever since i read your post i have been doing it. Place a PVC in there and use that, I twisted it a little i use a frag disk (unused and white) click that and there is almost Zero editing i use. This is a picture taken with that method and ZERO PS just uploaded to comp in JPEG, ok now i just did it and i acualy used the plug wwc sent it on so the diskin the picture is the disk i used towhite balanceit.