Setting White Balance Help

[CLINTOS]

Hi,

I'm new to photography and I have a canon eos t3.

I was wondering if someone can help me set up my white balance.

So far I took a plastic bowl and sliced the bottom of it off. but first I matched it up with a plain piece of computer paper so that it is the same shade of white.

Then I placed it in the middle of my tank, tilting it towards the light so that it is nice and bright to reflect the light while not allowing the plastic to be see through.

From there I tried to focus in on it, but I feel that I might of not came to a complete focus.

So I was wondering if I can draw a small circle on it to focus? or is it not important to focus?

Will drawing a small circle on it throw off the white balance?

Can I take a pic and upload it here and if so can people tell if the white balance is set?

my light's are 4 ati 20 000k and 2 x 10 000k ati I was hoping to set the w.b for all 6 and then just the 2 x 20 000k

Any suggestion's on how others do it, would be appreciated.

 

[IslandCrow]

First of all, the object does not need to be in focus for white balance. Just make sure it's filling up the majority of the frame. All that matters is the color, and focus does not affect color. As for using a bowl, that doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Light is going to hit a curved object at different angles, possibly casting shadows which could potentially add color casts to the object, affecting your white balance. Using the white cover from a 5g bucket, or one of those white synthetic cutting boards, or even buying a waterproof white balance card will also work.

But rather than going through all of that, here's what I usually do. Just shoot in auto white balance and Raw (as opposed to JPG). The auto white balance will usually get you close. Then, you can adjust your white balance with your Raw editing software to get the color right. About the only time I'll set a manual white balance is if I'm posting pictures of a coral I'm looking to sell, and I want to make sure I'm giving an accurate representation. Otherwise, I'm not concerned with a perfectly color balanced photo, as it actually may not be very representative at all of what you "see", since our minds have a tendency to adapt to the lighting, especially if it's not "normal" light.

 

[Hookup]

I also just shoot in raw.

for non-macro shots, talking anything that isn't a super-macro/close-up I set color temp to 14000 and tint to -27 as my starting point.

Macro's tend to need a little more tweaking, but FTS etc the above WB seems to be pretty good (again, as a starting point).

I would guess this is somewhat bulb/lighting dependent, but it seems to work on my tank.

 

[dudemp52]

old photog trick use the top of a can of coffee.

 

[CLINTOS]

I think I'm going to pick up a white cutting board from the dollar store. Hopefully it will work, it's not as pure of a white as a piece of computer paper, but fairly close.

I have photoshop installed from my computer guy that clean install's my window's, but I'm unsure if I get the whole version. It allows me to save some adjustment's.

I'll be using extension tubes and a 50 mm for most of my shot's.

 

[Reef Bass]

IME, custom white balances are way more troublesome and result in less accurate colors than shooting in raw and setting the white balance while post processing. Just slide the color temperature slider until the colors look as you see them in the tank. It's that easy. And did I mention more accurate colors?

 

[CLINTOS]

here's a few pic's with AWB

18-55mm lens

18-55mm lens

50 mm and I think a low mm extension tube

They seem really close to my tank, it's maybe half way between a tad-alot brighter and a tad bit less blue.

I'll probably invest in a legit copy of photo shop.

What exact copy am I looking for?

 

[Misled]

IME, custom white balances are way more troublesome and result in less accurate colors than shooting in raw and setting the white balance while post processing. Just slide the color temperature slider until the colors look as you see them in the tank. It's that easy. And did I mention more accurate colors?

What ^^^^^ he said!!!

 

[reefradder]

white sheet of paper is the way to go. light directly over top. pics look good though

 

[Misled]

What exact copy am I looking for?

Depends on how far you want to go. This will allow you to do wb and editing.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/822135-REG/Adobe_65136565_Photoshop_Elements_10.html

 

[Regric25]

Okay I have been photographing corals for a long time. I'm new to this forum and I love it here! I finally found something i can help someone with! LOL

It sounds like you are try to manually adjust the WB by taking a photo of something white to get the correct white balance.. Right?

If what you are going for is to eliminate the blue case and highligh the florecent colors in the coral do this,..

1. set to manual WB where you were earlier.

2. Turn on your actinic lights

3. Take the WB correction pic. DONT use a white piece of paper that will just increase the blue light.

4. Instead take a manual WB data photo of the blue actinic colored sand. Remember that it does not have to be in focus. It's just a data photo for the camera use.

What will happen after that is when you take the picture of the corals anything that is that actinic color will be either gray or white, highlighting the vivid colors in your tank. What you get is the awesome bright glowing effect of reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and so on... The down side is any coral that is blue will look white or gray. Let me know if you have any other questionis. OH yea I almost forgot. If that is not what you are looking for then my best recommendation is to work with the WB in post processinig. I photograph in RAW format and edit with Photo Shop Elements 9. Runs about $100 for a copy Good Luck!

 

[Regric25]

Here are some examples of my photography using diferent WB adjustment techniques.

The colors in these pics were not altered in anyway. I do work on the photo to make it look better but in terms of increasing the saturation or making it look more vivid the only time I do that is if the coral in the pic does not match the coral in the tank. I do a lot of photography for hobbyists locally who are trying to sell their corals so I dont want to misrepresent the corals becasue that can give that person a bad rap... I do this for fun so I never charge. Photography is the reason why I got into this hobby!


This was using the manual WB technique eliminating any blues from the image in the camera

The rest were adjusted in post processing

 

[CLINTOS]

Thanks Regric25

What is the creature in the 4th pic? a chiton? great shot.

I have a 18-55mm lens and a 50 mm with kenko extension tubes.

Both of the 18-55/50 mm, will imo make it hard for me to get the majority of the sand in my pic to use as a pic for white balance.

Would using a few extension tubes with the 50 mm, allow me to fill the majority of the pic with my sand and allow me to use it as a reference pic to adjust the custom white balance?

I have a 29G, so there isn't a lot of space, but at the same time, I could move things around if I have to?

Is Photo Shop Elements 9 the same as 10?

 

[CLINTOS]

cs5.1 extended is what my photo shop says on my computer, but I do not have the actual cd, is this not the right one, for white balance?

 

[Regric25]

Thanks Regric25

What is the creature in the 4th pic? a chiton? great shot.

I have a 18-55mm lens and a 50 mm with kenko extension tubes.

Both of the 18-55/50 mm, will imo make it hard for me to get the majority of the sand in my pic to use as a pic for white balance.

Would using a few extension tubes with the 50 mm, allow me to fill the majority of the pic with my sand and allow me to use it as a reference pic to adjust the custom white balance?

I have a 29G, so there isn't a lot of space, but at the same time, I could move things around if I have to?


Is Photo Shop Elements 9 the same as 10?

So I shoot with a Nikon D60 and use the standard 18-55mm kit lens to take all of my reef tank shots. I dont use anything special. I also turn off all the pumps so that anything moving (minus critters and fish) will stay still for me to get a good shot.

Yup thats a Chiton. Thanks! BTW I have a 10 gallon nano and use the 18 - 55mm kit lens to get the WB adjusted. I know you can do it!

If you have CS5 you should be able to do virtually anything with your photos. That's a VERY expensive professional grade program.

PSE10 is the newest version of PSE9.

 

[CLINTOS]

Looks like my cs5.1 extended is working and saving new file/folder images.

I'm going to use the 18-55mm lens to get the white balance pic tonight.

I'm guessing that I should remove the detritus and discolored small L.R rubble in the aragonite.