Mark-60
Little Dog
Let’s talk a little about white balance. White Balance is used to make the colors of your photograph appear “normal” or match what you eyes see when you took the shot.
Your camera does not know what color the light source is when you use it to take a pic. It does it’s best to guess, but it just can’t know. Most cameras have several settings for WB. The usual ones are tungsten, florescent, sunny, cloudy, flash, and custom. All of these types of light have a very different color from each other. Look around next time you are in a room lit by tungsten or florescent lights. If you look, you’ll notice the yellow color given off by tungsten or the blue given off by florescent lights. The automatic modes do a fair job with adjusting the WB, but there are some better ways to set it. I’m going to go shoot some pics now, to demonstrate white balance for ya’ll. I’ll be right back after a work from our sponsors.
Aaaand we’re back. I stepped out and shot some pics with my camera on all of its WB settings. I used the sunlight available and just changed modes. I don’t have a bunch of different lights sitting around that I can use to demonstrate the different colors that the lights produce, so this will have to do.
The following shots were taken with my Canon 1D Mark II and my 70-200 f2.8 L lens. The camera was tripod mounted, and the ISO setting was on “Low” which is less than 100.
Auto (3000 – 7000K)
Daylight (Approx 5200K)
Shade (Approx 7000K)
Cloudy, twilight, Sunset (Approx 6000K)
Tungsten (Approx 3200K)
White Florescent light (Approx 4000K)
Flash (Approx 6000K)
Custom (2000 – 10000K)
The Custom setting was set up with an “ExpoDisc”. This is a custom WB tool that is sold just for this use. It is like a “grey card” and is used to set a proper WB in all kinds of light.
The above pic is of my Expodisc, and 17-40 f4 L lens. The expodisc just pops on to the front of the lens, and then you aim the camera at the light source and take a shot. Then using the menu of your camera, you select custom white balance, and select the “grey” pic you just took. This will produce very accurate colors in many kinds of light. I have found this product very, very helpful for getting WB right in camera. I don’t know what I did before I bought it. I’ve heard you can do close to the same thing with a coffee filter. I haven’t tried this yet, but I hear that it works very well. Don’t forget to switch your lens to “Manual focus” before you try to shoot with the disc or coffee filter over the lens or it won’t auto focus and your camera won’t let you shoot.
I’m sure that I’m missing something. If so, let me know and I’ll add it. If you have any questions, fire away!
-Mark.
Your camera does not know what color the light source is when you use it to take a pic. It does it’s best to guess, but it just can’t know. Most cameras have several settings for WB. The usual ones are tungsten, florescent, sunny, cloudy, flash, and custom. All of these types of light have a very different color from each other. Look around next time you are in a room lit by tungsten or florescent lights. If you look, you’ll notice the yellow color given off by tungsten or the blue given off by florescent lights. The automatic modes do a fair job with adjusting the WB, but there are some better ways to set it. I’m going to go shoot some pics now, to demonstrate white balance for ya’ll. I’ll be right back after a work from our sponsors.
Aaaand we’re back. I stepped out and shot some pics with my camera on all of its WB settings. I used the sunlight available and just changed modes. I don’t have a bunch of different lights sitting around that I can use to demonstrate the different colors that the lights produce, so this will have to do.
The following shots were taken with my Canon 1D Mark II and my 70-200 f2.8 L lens. The camera was tripod mounted, and the ISO setting was on “Low” which is less than 100.
Auto (3000 – 7000K)
Daylight (Approx 5200K)
Shade (Approx 7000K)
Cloudy, twilight, Sunset (Approx 6000K)
Tungsten (Approx 3200K)
White Florescent light (Approx 4000K)
Flash (Approx 6000K)
Custom (2000 – 10000K)
The Custom setting was set up with an “ExpoDisc”. This is a custom WB tool that is sold just for this use. It is like a “grey card” and is used to set a proper WB in all kinds of light.
The above pic is of my Expodisc, and 17-40 f4 L lens. The expodisc just pops on to the front of the lens, and then you aim the camera at the light source and take a shot. Then using the menu of your camera, you select custom white balance, and select the “grey” pic you just took. This will produce very accurate colors in many kinds of light. I have found this product very, very helpful for getting WB right in camera. I don’t know what I did before I bought it. I’ve heard you can do close to the same thing with a coffee filter. I haven’t tried this yet, but I hear that it works very well. Don’t forget to switch your lens to “Manual focus” before you try to shoot with the disc or coffee filter over the lens or it won’t auto focus and your camera won’t let you shoot.
I’m sure that I’m missing something. If so, let me know and I’ll add it. If you have any questions, fire away!
-Mark.
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