Custom white balance methods under 20k lighting?

[xenon]

What method do you use to set custom white balance?

We all know how challenging it can be to get the correct colors under 20k lighting. I basically take a picture of a white lid from a plastic container under my light fixture inside my tank and use that as the image to adjust the custom white balance.

What other methods do you guys use? I was reading about using coffee filters? I am not sure how that works exactly but I am willing to try.

Please share your techniques!

 

[Reef Bass]

Shoot using RAW image storage. Set color temp in software. Custom white balances are an inaccurate pain.

I have 20kK lights and supplemental actinics. I played with custom white balances for months and never got accurate colors. Shooting in RAW and setting the color temp in software is SO much easier and SO much more accurate.

 

[Misled]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14377046#post14377046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reef Bass
Shoot using RAW image storage. Set color temp in software. Custom white balances are an inaccurate pain.

Yup, same here.

 

[xenon]

What programs do you use to do that?

I have PS CS2 but I never use it. Care to do a quick write up?

 

[Reef Bass]

I load my Canon RAW files (.CRW, .CR2) directly into Photoshop Elements 7 and a RAW conversion dialogue pops up. I set the color temp (and numerous other parameters) there. My understanding is that I could also use Digital Photo Professional which came with my camera to do the same thing.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

I use Digital Photo Professional as my Photoshop 5.5 does not support RAW. So I edit the raw in DPP, then convert to tiff and edit do any further editing in Photoshop.

 

[Hookup]

I use lightroom. It is very user-friendly and powerful. I also have Photoshop CS3 as there are some things that Lightroom cannot do. But lightroom is a simple program to use.

www.luminous-landscape.com sells a set of videos on how to use lightroom, i think for $70 CAD, I bought them and they really helped in understand and exploring the features of that product. Not sure if it's been updated for 2.x lightroom, but meh...

 

[xenon]

Thanks guys!

I opened the raw file in Digital Photo Professional and adjusted the white ballence from my sand. It worked out pretty damn well. Then I saved it as jpeg so now its useable.

 

[BlueCorn]

If you're going to do any editing on the image, after conversion, you should save it in a format other than jpeg. JPEG is a lossy compressed format; i.e. data is thrown away to make the file smaller. Image quality suffers greatly when you started editing a jpg.

 

[xenon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14381000#post14381000 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by beerguy
If you're going to do any editing on the image, after conversion, you should save it in a format other than jpeg. JPEG is a lossy compressed format; i.e. data is thrown away to make the file smaller. Image quality suffers greatly when you started editing a jpg.

I was only planning to correct the white balance. So I took the pic in RAW format, adjusted the WB and saved as JPEG so that I could post the pic online.

 

[nightOwl]

I recently purchased a camera that will now allow me to shoot in RAW. I have yet to take any pictures, but was curious about when shooting RAW and adjusting the white balance in photo editing software what white balance setting are you using while shooting? Are you just leaving it on auto WB while shooting or some other setting?

Thanks

 

[Hookup]

I leave it at AWB all the time it's good enuf for the view-screen and not so good that it's not obvious when I need to tweak it in lightroom.

 

[Reef Bass]

+1 for AWB.

 

[nightOwl]

Thanks!