White balance question ...

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Yes, I've tried several noise-reduction programs, and they were okay, but I wasn't entirely impressed. It could be because of the situation in which I'm likely to get noise, which is in extremely low light, a condition I absolutely love shooting in. Noise reduction just doesn't seem suited for that. Neither is my camera (Olympus E-20) even though in many ways, it's my ideal digital SLR with its total manual control, but its sensitivity to low light is its true Achilles heel. When the time comes to replace it, I'll want everything this camera has plus speed and incredible low-light abilities. I don't want a friendly camera; I want a capable one.

Barbara

[JC Profile Private message]

Choosing something other than AWB makes batch processing a whole bunch easier.

I tend to stick with aperture priority mainly to try and keep my lens in the sweet spot.

[Bolty]

Hi Guys

I'm new to this site but I'd like to add some information that might help Mikey with white balance and sunsets.

I noticed that Mikey says he uses CS2 so he can follow this excelent tip for white balance. It is mainly about getting good skin tones but it will still help with getting correct colour balance. You will be amazed with the results.

http://www.digitalphotopro.com/tech/cur ... color.html

Also, another technique is to use the hue/saturation sliders. The best way to use it is as a layer so that you can change blending modes (try playing around with different blend modes and opacities) but best of all you can make selective colour changes and use the mask option to remove /add areas that you want/dont want to change.

When hue/saturation is selected you will see at the top of the box it says MASTER. To the right you will see a V shape. Click on this and it brings down a list of colours. By doing this you can move the main colours red, yelow, green, cyan, blue, magenta individually. If you move your pointer over your image while the hue/saturation dialog box is open you can be even more precise with which colours to enhance by clicking on the colour in the image you want to change. Note, you must be out of the master selection and have already chosen another colour.

You can be even more precise by changing the sliders at the very bottom. The two outer half circles control the amount of blending betwen colours and the two more central solid bars control the colour you are selecting.

Also, by using things like graduated filters (I use the Cokin Sunset filter nearly always to enhance sunsets/sunrises) you can improve your results by getting better contrast control between background and forground.

See my image http://www.adamboltphotography.com/-/ad ... D=1&row=15

Here I used a Cokin Mauve graduated filter. Applied some contrast and beefed up the red, yellow and blue sliders in hue saturation.

I also can't speak highly enough about Noise Ninja. It is an absolute life saver when doing weddings in low light and I need high ISO's

And finally,

As far as camera settings go, I will use daylight as my colour but I will also shoot in RAW to make sure I can get the most out of my digital file.

But don't be afraid to play around with your colour balance. By doing this you can enhance colours to give a very different image. This image was shot in the flurescent setting to netralize the colour of the lights from the rooms, but it also gave a wonderful colour to the sky.

http://www.adamboltphotography.com/-/ad ... earchTerm=

Cheers Adam

[Tarafrost Profile Private messageWebsite]

I always shoot RAW (and boy am I glad that Mikey didn't post any self-portraits of him shooting in the RAW!! ), and use auto white balance.

Trivial to make WB changes in my raw converter software this way (either PS Capture Raw or Nikon Capture), though I rarely need to. Sunsets are special cases, since there is rarely any grey tone you can use to do colour corrections, but unless you are doing journalistic photography where the image needs to be "exactly" what was seen, I find I prefer to adjust the white balance after the fact in post to get the effect that is most pleasing to my eye.

Problem I have found with using a specific WB is that light can change too fast. Sunsets/Sunrises are good examples of this....total light change in 15 min or less. Even worse is when you are doing indoor work (eg. weddings) and are switching between ambient and flash, with some flourescent thrown in for good measure. Most of the time I let it go auto, then fix it if necessary in post, rather than always having to re-calibrate the WB, sometimes between individual shots.

That being said, I do carry a WhiBal card with my in my case. If you think the light will be a bit strange, then I take a shot with the WhiBal black/white/grey cards in the frame to start, since this makes it a snap to fix colour casts with a single click in post (assuming you shoot raw). Highly recommended and very inexpensive.

And BTW....aperture and shutter speed or priority have nothing to do with white balance.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Andrzej

You ain't the only one glad there are no pixtures of me shooting in the raw ... I hate
being laughed at !!

I tend to shoot high rez jpg instead of RAW since it seems to fit my needs better.
As far as shutter speed goes, your comment is correct (unless I date myself and
go back to the film days and reciprocity and all that funny stuff). The big down
side of switching to a fixed white balance is ... forgetting to change it when you
go inside/outside/sunny etc.

As far as the strobe and flourescent lights combination, that has to be one of
the worst to deal with - you end up with the stuff closest to the strobe mostly
balanced for the strobe and the stuff farther off etc with the funny color balance
of the flourescent lights ... yech - been there, done that (especially bad if you
are right at the edge of the range of the strobe.

I do appreciate the comments and tips from people on this - as I suspected,
there is no "one size fits all" - just have to remember to work the problem (although
strange lighting like sunsets are definitely special cases).


Adam -- thanks for the tips - I shall check them out and add them to my Photoshop
notes !! I guess I am going to have to get a copy of Noise Ninja - I tend to have a
number of conditions where I need the high ISO - Seattle weather (dark clouds) and
fast moving girls on the soccer team as well as my other side interest - humming birds
those critters only have 2 speeds - hover and gone !!

mikey

[Tarafrost Profile Private messageWebsite]

oyu ain't the only one glad there are no pixtures of me shooting in the raw ... I hate
being laughed at !!

Don't they make things called Macro lenses, so as to make small things appear bigger?

I tend to shoot high rez jpg instead of RAW since it seems to fit my needs better.

Then you have to pay much more attention to WB. In raw, it's just not as big a deal, since it can be easily changed.

[I guess I am going to have to get a copy of Noise Ninja - humming birds
those critters only have 2 speeds - hover and gone !!

I've been using Noise Ninja for quite a few years....and I would highly recommend it, especially if you do a bit of high ISO work. I find it works wonders on my ISO 800+ shots of theatrical production that are captured with ambient stage lighting only, no flash.

As for humming birds, a lot of the key bird shooters are using multi-flash setups. The Nikon SB 600/800 combos work great in wireless mode for stuff like that...total stop action even on fast hummers on dull days. Don't remember if you shook Nikon or are from the evil side of the force?

You might want to check out Art's web site www.birdsasart.com His books on bird photography are great...lots of good tips. I believe he has info on good hummer flash setups.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Yep - macro lens is it

I have played a bit with the strobe in wireless mode, for the hummers, but
the problem is the camera uses it's strobe (although faintly) to drive trigger
the SB600. That faint flash from the camera sets them off. You are right
though - you set the strobe close to where they are and use the low power
manual mode (so it has the shortest duration flash).

Then there are people that use BIG flashes ...
http://www.meggaflash.com/Sustut%20Rive ... hbulb2.htm
(I sure hope the engineer knew that sucker was going to go off !! )
http://www.meggaflash.com/gallery%20of% ... photos.htm

You're right - Nikon D70s.

mikey

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

It seems those super-sized flashes can be used only once. I wonder how much they cost--this thought coming to me as I imagine setting the thing off and missing the shot.

Barbara

[MSMoore]

I primarily shoot RAW when I think my exposures could be pushing the envelope or I just want some flexibility in changing light situations. When shooting portraits, I do a custom white balance with a gray card under the lights. My D80 tends to add too much magenta if I shoot portraits either in auto white balance or with the flash white balance. If I'm outside and the light remains the same (like full sun on the beach), I'll do a custom white balance. Otherwise, I shoot with auto white balance and adjust in post processing to what looks good to my eye. I'll look for some white or gray in the image and click it with the eye dropper. So far, that works for me. I output the RAW files from Lightroom to PSD and tweak in CS2.

[fstop]

In some situations, I use the custom white balance feature of my camera. I carry a small neutral gray card and shoot it in the light that the picture will be taken in, then I tell my camera to use this custom white balance. It works really well indoors when I cant use a flash. Yeah, you have to remember to reset when you change locations. but getting it close the first tilme saves alot of tilme in post production. Depending on you camera, you should have several white balance selections for different scene settings, Tungsten, sunset, shade, sunshine etc. IMHO, I think that these are just starting points for creativity.
Who says you have to use the sunset white balance for sunset pictures only. Sometimes the most fantastic picture is only 1 fstop down or one crazy white balance setting over the top.



favorite saying, " Young guys know the rules, Old guys know the exceptions.