White Balance: The photos attached were taken with auto white balance and then manually corrected with Expodisc. Any idea what caused the color to be so off before the correction?

toxdoc42

The photos attached were taken with auto white balance and then manually corrected with Expodisc. Any idea what caused the color to be so off before the correction?

auto white balance
auto white balance...

(Download)

using the Expodisc to set white balance

(Download)

shelty Loc: Medford, OR

Sorry, I correct that in Photoshop.

Joe Blow

That might be a question best asked of the ExpoDisk people. My guess would be you didn't set the camera's white balance properly. BUT, that is a guess.

Good luck with your question.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

toxdoc42 wrote:

The photos attached were taken with auto white balance and then manually corrected with Expodisc. Any idea what caused the color to be so off before the correction?

AWB usually isn’t programmed to be completely neutral. It gets less and less accurate, the farther away light is from about 5000K. The assumption is that a hint of the actual light color is desired.

ExpoDisc averages all colors of light and custom WB makes neutral gray of it. It sets hue and WB accordingly. It’s very accurate, but may be TOO neutral for some tastes.

toxdoc42

You didn't understand the question. The incorrect one was when the camera was on auto white balance. The corrected one was w=after I used the Optidisc. Perhaps the answer is above, the color light was so far off that the auto couldn't correct it.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Potentially, the AWB photo was taken with matrix metering and the WB photo was metered using spot metering. Additionally, the first was Auto exposure the second manual. In light of those two observations, I'd say this was not exactly a valid test.
--Bob

toxdoc42 wrote:

The photos attached were taken with auto white balance and then manually corrected with Expodisc. Any idea what caused the color to be so off before the correction?

toxdoc42

It was not meant as a test.

I am new to digital. I was on a trip. I shot photos that day before the initial shots in St Marc's Square. I always look at the LCD to be sure if I got the photo that I wanted. When I saw the funny color, I checked the exposure and shot another. When it came out almost identical, I figured it had to be white balance so switched ONLY that, using the Optodisc that someone here on UHH suggested I invest in. The result was the other photo. No change in focus, metering, etc.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

rmalarz wrote:

Potentially, the AWB photo was taken with matrix metering and the WB photo was metered using spot metering. Additionally, the first was Auto exposure the second manual. In light of those two observations, I'd say this was not exactly a valid test.
--Bob

Agreed. Do you have Lightroom? The WB dropper, if you have Auto Dismiss turned off, lets you check different areas of the image for the setting you want. I was thinking the second image looks just like when I select areas in shadow to pull out more details with the dropper. Oh yeah, with Auto Dismiss off, you have to put the tool back on the WB panel when you're done.

Dziadzi Loc: Wilkes-Barre, PA

toxdoc42 wrote:

You didn't understand the question. The incorrect one was when the camera was on auto white balance. The corrected one was w=after I used the Optidisc. Perhaps the answer is above, the color light was so far off that the auto couldn't correct it.

I am confused about what you used to make the correction. Initially you said that you used ExpoDisc. Now you mention OptiDisc. Which is it?

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Test or not, there was a change in metering modes and exposure.
--Bob

toxdoc42 wrote:

It was not meant as a test. br br I am new to di... (show quote)

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Let me tell you that in my humble experience AUTO WB is pretty erratic. Try using the right WB like for instance Sunlight for sunny subjects or Cloudy when working under cloudy conditions. If the expo disc is working for you that is what you should use.
If shooting RAW WB can be changed during editing. I can change WB working with JPEG but I leave the discussion for another day.

SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

What Bob said was true, the metering modes were different. Because you are metering off different parts of the image, your results would be different whether using the expodisk or not.

The metering mode for the first image was set to "multi-segment". The white balance and exposure was set using a large portion of the image. The metering mode for the second image was set to "spot". The white balance and exposure was set using a very tiny portion of the center of the image.

Most likely, if you were to have taken several shots, one right after another" while in the "spot" metering mode, you would likely have a different white balance for each image.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

SalvageDiver wrote:

What Bob said was true, the metering modes were di... (show quote)

Read carefully:

Metering mode is not really that important when using an ExpoDisc, because it turns the camera into an incident meter. You use it as you would any incident-domed meter, pointing it at the light source from the subject’s position (or in the same light as the subject).

The ExpoDisc is basically a milk plexiglass like diffuser. Spot, matrix, center-weighted should (do, on my camera) yield the same exposure reading and the same custom white balance.

AWB is like using a wet finger in the wind to determine temperature.

SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

burkphoto wrote:

Read carefully: br br Metering mode is not really... (show quote)

If the expodisk is that good at scattering light, the you are correct and my apologies for misleading the OP.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

SalvageDiver wrote:

If the expodisk is that good at scattering light, the you are correct and my apologies for misleading the OP.

It’s quite good, so long as it faces the dominant light source from the subject’s position.

Getting it there is often difficult or impractical.