nikon d40 and white balance

[jjoos99]

I am trying to get the white balance to adjust with my step daughters nikon d40 camera with no luck. i place the camera into the m or p mode and go to the white balance page and take a picture to adjust the white balance like the menu says to do. After taking the pic it switches back to the main menu. The pic I take to use as a adjustment pic is very blue. I take another pic after what I think has been adjusting the white balance and i get a picture that is identical with the very blue coloration. Any nikon users have any suggestions?
thanks
Jeff

 

[SoloGarth]

I have found that my Nikon has a hard time compensating for the blue lighting on my tank. I don't do any WB on the camera but instead use light room to WB.

 

[Misled]

What he said!! Party on Garth!!!

 

[SoloGarth]

What he said!! Party on Garth!!!

Haha

 

[rickztahone]

I have found that my Nikon has a hard time compensating for the blue lighting on my tank. I don't do any WB on the camera but instead use light room to WB.

What he said!! Party on Garth!!!

That is also what I would do. You can photograph a white piece of paper first and then when you open up your set in an editor, you adjust the WB according to that white piece of paper.

 

[BCasper]

I would suggest getting a cheap gray card and setting your white balance off that. If you don't have access to a gray card you can use a white piece of paper, but you may find it will still push towards the blue end of the spectrum. It doesn't have to be a grey card either... it can be anything close to 50% gray. Even a gray shirt will be better than nothing.

 

[tgrove]

I had the d40x and I got this:

http://www.expoimaging.com/product-overview.php?cat_id=1&keywords=ExpoDisc

its price but works great and has helped with all of my photos.

 

[rickztahone]

I would suggest getting a cheap gray card and setting your white balance off that. If you don't have access to a gray card you can use a white piece of paper, but you may find it will still push towards the blue end of the spectrum. It doesn't have to be a grey card either... it can be anything close to 50% gray. Even a gray shirt will be better than nothing.

or, you can go to lowes or home depot and simply get some of their gray sample color cards in their paint department. Simple

 

[jjoos99]

No matter what I do with this stupid camera I cant get it to do any white balance adjustment. I have tried to set it using an existing photo and also one I take in the balance menu. I have an older adobe photo editor program but don know how to use it. I tried tonight and couldnt get it to look natural at all. I have attached one of the pic I took and was wondering if anyone could suggest what to do with it?
thanks
jeff

 

[Misled]

I see one step has been left out. Make sure to set the camera to shoot in RAW. This should bring up a different window when you want to edit the pics.

 

[rickztahone]

I see one step has been left out. Make sure to set the camera to shoot in RAW. This should bring up a different window when you want to edit the pics.

^^^This^^^

Also, you want proper exposure on your RAW files in order to get more details in the shadows. The second photo seems very under exposed.