White balance under LEDs

[mpderksen]

Shooting with a Canon Rebel. I can shoot in RAW to adjust the white balance, but what's a good starting point? I could get a off-shoe cable for my Speedlight, but I'm trying to capture the neon colors when only the blue LEDs are on, and not wash them out with full spectrum white light.

Michael

 

[Reef Bass]

what's a good starting point?

Turn pumps off. Let tank settle. Use a tripod and shutter release cable or self timer. Shoot straight through glass. Use manual focus to place focal plane where you want it. Shoot manual for full exposure control or start with Av (aperture priority) to select the amount of depth of field you desire. Be aware that camera will be selecting what it thinks are the appropriate shutterspeed and iso for that, so less control for you. Take picture.

When post processing, set white balance / color temp and then adjust other parameters (exposure, contrast, clarity, vibrance, saturation, sharpening, etc). You are likely to have to allow blue areas to blow out some to expose the rest of the image sufficiently.

 

[mpderksen]

Oops, I should have been clearer about my question. Your tips are a great summary that I picked up through reading. I have a tripod, remote trigger and get fairly sharp photos, but they are generally under full lighting.

What white balance should I select for shooting to specifically capture the neon colors my eye sees WITHOUT over saturating the blue channel?
I'd like recommendations for both the camera as well as the levels to set on the LED fixture (i.e. 10% white, 40% blue?).

 

[Reef Bass]

Sorry, you asked for a starting point and I misunderstood.

I shoot under very blue MHs (20,000K), not LEDS, so I can't help you with the LED fixture intensities. Adding white light, via white LEDs or flash, will assist overall exposure but will soften the blue light pop.

I don't know if what you desire is possible. The human eye is a much better optical sensor than that in our cameras. If you think about, you're sort of asking how to make everything not so blue when you're lighting with essentially all blue. If you expose to keep the blue areas from blowing, the rest of the image is going to be very dark.

 

[mpderksen]

Thanks again. I should have said "a starting point for white balance".

I'm going to try a trick I learned with sunset shots. Create a duplicate layer and use is as a mask. Then I can independently balance the coral from the background. Ive done it successfully to get a brilliant sky color while keeping the foreground light enough to see details. Maybe that's cheating. Don't care. Lol.

 

[Reef Bass]

I like your mask idea and would enjoy seeing the results.

 

[critteral]

I too would like to see the results, sounds like a great idea!