Fed up with white balance on DSLR...


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behyx

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Jun 15, 2002
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Took the plunge into DSLR not long ago, but the issue with white balance keep haunting me. Some of the white pictures i took were rather yellowish white and such. I even tried to shoot a few times on a same subject a few times (background white), but all the photos gives me different tones of white to slight yellowish. This is quite disturbing as previously i'm using a old Minolta mechnical camera and such problem doesn't bother me at all, and i must say i'm a very happy user of the Minolta.

So how can i use the 'white balance' thing more efficiently to snap better quality photos?
 

Either :

1. Use custom white balance
2. Use "Sunny" white balance to emulate daylight slide film
3. Correct WB in PS.

If you have been shooting with negatives, you will never have this problem coz the lab will correct the colour casts for you during printing.

Regards
CK
 

ckiang said:
Either :

1. Use custom white balance
2. Use "Sunny" white balance to emulate daylight slide film
3. Correct WB in PS.

If you have been shooting with negatives, you will never have this problem coz the lab will correct the colour casts for you during printing.

Regards
CK

Thanks, so custom white balance is using a gray card ya?
 

behyx said:
Took the plunge into DSLR not long ago, but the issue with white balance keep haunting me. Some of the white pictures i took were rather yellowish white and such. I even tried to shoot a few times on a same subject a few times (background white), but all the photos gives me different tones of white to slight yellowish. This is quite disturbing as previously i'm using a old Minolta mechnical camera and such problem doesn't bother me at all, and i must say i'm a very happy user of the Minolta.

So how can i use the 'white balance' thing more efficiently to snap better quality photos?

same as your minolta, decide which "film" you want to use before shooting...
If you used to shoot using daylight film on the minolta, try use daylight or probably cloudy white balance.
If you got your pictures with correct colors on minolta when using daylight film under indoor lighting, I believe you didn't process the film yourself & it was corrected by the film processor. Actually - to some extent - you can correct colors on digital as well by asking someone else who's more familiar with color correction thing to process the pictures for you...IMO it's the same thing ;)

DSLR has more control on the image processing from the user, i.e. more chance for the user to make errors...
 

behyx said:
Took the plunge into DSLR not long ago, but the issue with white balance keep haunting me. Some of the white pictures i took were rather yellowish white and such. I even tried to shoot a few times on a same subject a few times (background white), but all the photos gives me different tones of white to slight yellowish. This is quite disturbing as previously i'm using a old Minolta mechnical camera and such problem doesn't bother me at all, and i must say i'm a very happy user of the Minolta.

So how can i use the 'white balance' thing more efficiently to snap better quality photos?

one of the methods...ExpoDisc (www.expodisc.com)

or learn more about colour processing/tuning in PS, test out all WB settings in different lightings' environment, indoor/outdoor...etc

WB is no problem actually...
 

rncw said:
one of the methods...ExpoDisc (www.expodisc.com)

or learn more about colour processing/tuning in PS, test out all WB settings in different lightings' environment, indoor/outdoor...etc

WB is no problem actually...

Yes, ExpoDisc works well.... ^^
 

Expodisc so powerful? i never hear before..
is it some kinda gimmick stuff??
 

behyx said:
Expodisc so powerful? i never hear before..
is it some kinda gimmick stuff??

No gimmick, it actually works pretty well when used properly.

Here's an example, a Hamadryas Baboon, Papio hamadryas hamadryas, having his afternoon snack at the Singapore Zoo.

WB was achieved via ExpoDisc, JPEG-FINE.

LINK

1/320s f/5.6 @ 420.0mm iso400
Canon EOS D60, Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM + EF 1.4x II

P.S. This shot was selected for NPN Editor's Pick on Fauna section on that week as well.
 

oeyvind said:
No gimmick, it actually works pretty well when used properly.

Here's an example, a Hamadryas Baboon, Papio hamadryas hamadryas, having his afternoon snack at the Singapore Zoo.

WB was achieved via ExpoDisc, JPEG-FINE.

original.jpg

1/320s f/5.6 @ 420.0mm iso400
Canon EOS D60, Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM + EF 1.4x II

P.S. This shot was selected for NPN Editor's Pick on Fauna section on that week as well.

Wow not bad at all!
So do you have any shots of this without ED?
 

behyx said:
Wow not bad at all!
So do you have any shots of this without ED?

no... was there that day with non-photographer friends, so didn't really shot much that day.
 

behyx said:
Expodisc so powerful? i never hear before..
is it some kinda gimmick stuff??


it not a gimmick, it had been around for quite some time.
Had seen it in action and convinced with the result.
 

behyx said:
Expodisc so powerful? i never hear before..
is it some kinda gimmick stuff??

when setting custom WB with items like white paper, styrofoam...etc, what the camera "see" is not white, but what's being reflected...by the lights in your surrounding environment. with expodisc, your camera only see one shade, which is 18% grey (not white)...

i've been using the expodisc since may last year, and most of the time, i get very satisfying results from it. expodisc is really good for outdoor...

but it's a piece of really expensive plastic for people that doesn't think it's useful... :bsmilie:
 

rncw said:
when setting custom WB with items like white paper, styrofoam...etc, what the camera "see" is not white, but what's being reflected...by the lights in your surrounding environment. with expodisc, your camera only see one shade, which is 18% grey (not white)...

i've been using the expodisc since may last year, and most of the time, i get very satisfying results from it. expodisc is really good for outdoor...

but it's a piece of really expensive plastic for people that doesn't think it's useful... :bsmilie:

Hi,
Any idea any shops here sell the expodisc? Thanks! :)
 

Search Fred Miranda forum on " Yet another alternative to Expodisc " very useful discussion on using coffee filter bags for preset white balance.
Another suggestions used 3m filter for preset white balance. It works and cheaper Coffee filter bags from NTUC less than $4
 

StreetShooter posted something about using a styrofoam coffee cup for the same effect, have to do a search to pull it out. :)
 

airforce1 said:
Search Fred Miranda forum on " Yet another alternative to Expodisc " very useful discussion on using coffee filter bags for preset white balance.
Another suggestions used 3m filter for preset white balance. It works and cheaper Coffee filter bags from NTUC less than $4

sehsuan said:
StreetShooter posted something about using a styrofoam coffee cup for the same effect, have to do a search to pull it out. :)


all tried and tested. doesn't really give me what i wanted. i read that FM forum too...
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/viewtopic_archives.php?TopicID=64826&page=13

well after reading all 14 pages i have realized 2 things:
1- a lot of you people have too much time to wasre taking pictures in the house of sundry items.
2- the expodisc is still the most accurate/repeatable WB device available.
 

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