Which white balance setting
- Thread starter coljun
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- Terry
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I just set auto.
I shoot in raw so it can be selected at the processing stage.
The flash gives constant colour... but the ambient can change to quite a wide extent.
For example the ambient light in the late evening sun will be very warm indeed, but the flash will still produce near mid day sun. so you will probably have to make a compromise, in processing.
The more exact way is to use gels on the flash, but not many people have them, nor a colour meter to make the right choice.
I shoot in raw so it can be selected at the processing stage.
The flash gives constant colour... but the ambient can change to quite a wide extent.
For example the ambient light in the late evening sun will be very warm indeed, but the flash will still produce near mid day sun. so you will probably have to make a compromise, in processing.
The more exact way is to use gels on the flash, but not many people have them, nor a colour meter to make the right choice.
Thank you janice, I do follow what you say , therefore is it best to set a custum W/B
albeit inaccurate but all photo,s will be same inaccurate . Ive never considered that before. Still not sure about the mix of flash & ambient Just wondering about it regards
colin.
albeit inaccurate but all photo,s will be same inaccurate . Ive never considered that before. Still not sure about the mix of flash & ambient Just wondering about it regards
colin.
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- Simon Everett
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For most of the day you can use daylight setting, but your pictures will be very "grey".
If you set cloudy, and even with a dash of fill, because the camera is warming everything up, the result will be even balance - or the result will be pleasing. Fill is only a shadow filler, so overall white balance is fine, if you really studied you could probably find the difference - but it is the effect that matters, not the pure technical quality.
Look at the overall picture. Are you pleased with it? Is the subject pleased with it (even more important) - then why worry about the technical difference between the ambient and the flash?
If you are using flash to light a subject in an ambient setting, then you do need to be a bit more careful, but to balance the light roughly is good enough. Last thing, a full warm gel, with the sun just on its way up or down (half height) then use a half warm up - it is close enough, UNLESS you are doing fashion or textiles where the result HAS to match the original. If that is the case you are going to need a colour temp meter and a full set of gels.
If you set cloudy, and even with a dash of fill, because the camera is warming everything up, the result will be even balance - or the result will be pleasing. Fill is only a shadow filler, so overall white balance is fine, if you really studied you could probably find the difference - but it is the effect that matters, not the pure technical quality.
Look at the overall picture. Are you pleased with it? Is the subject pleased with it (even more important) - then why worry about the technical difference between the ambient and the flash?
If you are using flash to light a subject in an ambient setting, then you do need to be a bit more careful, but to balance the light roughly is good enough. Last thing, a full warm gel, with the sun just on its way up or down (half height) then use a half warm up - it is close enough, UNLESS you are doing fashion or textiles where the result HAS to match the original. If that is the case you are going to need a colour temp meter and a full set of gels.
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Isn't this how it works? With Canon I think - when you have AWB set, this is automatically set for flash when the unit is switched on. If you don't want this, then any of the manual settings will override it, but of course the flash light output remains at 6000K.
To balance flash and ambient colour temperature, you have to filter the flash accordingly. Since we're not using film, so long as you get the flash and ambient roughly the same, you can correct in post and at least get the main subject spot on and the rest of the image shouldn't be far enough out to matter. You can't do much better than that without a colour temperature meter anyway, and who's got one of those?
In practise, the only time I worry about this is with flash and tungsten, and here I have a crude solution. I use a gold coloured cellophane wrapper from a box of chocs (Quality Street I think
) and either pop it under the diffuser panel or shove it inside a StoFen diffuser. StoFen make diffusers in a similar gold colour for tungsten, and a greenish one for flourescent tubes.
To balance flash and ambient colour temperature, you have to filter the flash accordingly. Since we're not using film, so long as you get the flash and ambient roughly the same, you can correct in post and at least get the main subject spot on and the rest of the image shouldn't be far enough out to matter. You can't do much better than that without a colour temperature meter anyway, and who's got one of those?
In practise, the only time I worry about this is with flash and tungsten, and here I have a crude solution. I use a gold coloured cellophane wrapper from a box of chocs (Quality Street I think
) and either pop it under the diffuser panel or shove it inside a StoFen diffuser. StoFen make diffusers in a similar gold colour for tungsten, and a greenish one for flourescent tubes.
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If you are shooting in raw all the captured data is the same whatever white balance is set.
The first view in the raw processor, is as set on the camera. but you can equally flick through all the other options to see what they would be like.
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I use a gold coloured cellophane wrapper from a box of chocs (Quality Street I think
Toffee finger - I do the same thing, does a great job
