How to Syncronize my White Balance: Does anybody know how to adjust your white balance to see true color, like you see with your own eyes. I can always edit later but I want to sync my...

ahzwizerd2 Loc: Willowbrook, ca

Does anybody know how to adjust your white balance to see true color, like you see with your own eyes.
I can always edit later but I want to sync my white balance with correct Factory Default.
With a Card

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

mite try youtube for tutorials on youre camera

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

First, Factory default and with a Card are two different things. Check out your Manual for the reset on your camera to get back to factory default. On my nikon if you look close two of the buttons have red dots on them, push these at same time and back to default settings I go. Not sure for your camera.. Now that said, read Your Manual and it will tell you how to get correct white bal. for what ever light you shoot in. I can take a white piece of Paper ,fill my lens View, as seen thru viewer, in "Custom White Balance Setting", focus and shot, and it will read that white paper as True White for the light I'm shooting in.. Kinda hard to understand at first,, Get them books out and read.

ahzwizerd2 wrote:

Does anybody know how to adjust your white balance to see true color, like you see with your own eyes.
I can always edit later but I want to sync my white balance with correct Factory Default.
With a Card

snowbear

I just set mine to auto - it usually works fine. It will be in the setup menu, somewhere (I don't know what camera you have). A quick look in the owner's manual should point it out.

WxGuesser Loc: Portland OR

snowbear wrote:

I just set mine to auto - it usually works fine. It will be in the setup menu, somewhere (I don't know what camera you have). A quick look in the owner's manual should point it out.

However auto does a miserable job in snow as I discovered to my sorrow-a lot of Photoshop work to correct (hundreds of pictures).

gobster Loc: Cleveland, Ohio

Easist way to set ur WB is to photograph a white sheet of paper. Fill the whole viewfinder with white. It's also best to use manuel focus but don't focus on it, just photograph it. Then look in ur menu for "Custom White Balance" and click it. Set the photo u just shot, then make sure u set ur WB to the "custom" setting, (the oblong looking setting next to the "flash" lightning bolt). To be more accurate buy a "gray balance" card at any photo shop. Hope this helped. Happy shooting.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Color balance is perhaps the most difficult setting. My experience with auto or any of the built-in settings is that they are all, ultimately, unreliable.

I would not trust paper because it may not be truly white. The traditional gray card is an improvement but a little unwieldy. I use an Expodisc which is a calibrated white diffused plastic filter that fits on the lens. I now rarely have to adjust the color balance and it is worth the money. Once in a while, I get a slight color cast due to changing lighting.

More than worth the investment.

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

ahzwizerd2 wrote:

Does anybody know how to adjust your white balance to see true color, like you see with your own eyes.
I can always edit later but I want to sync my white balance with correct Factory Default.
With a Card

Here is some information on a card I use and it works great.

http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/WhiBal/01. I usually shoot in RAW format and when starting I just place the card in the first frame and use it to correct all my shots in post processing. As long as your shooting enviroment doesn't change you can correct all of your shots automatically with a Sync function in Adobe Camera Raw. The card is small, travels well and above all it works.

snowbear

WxGuesser wrote:

However auto does a miserable job in snow as I discovered to my sorrow-a lot of Photoshop work to correct (hundreds of pictures).

The problem with snow is caused by the meter. They are designed to work with midtones (12%-18% grey) so they render all white, and all black as a mid grey. Try overexposing by one to two stops to get white snow, and bracket the shots.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

snowbear wrote:

WxGuesser wrote:

However auto does a miserable job in snow as I discovered to my sorrow-a lot of Photoshop work to correct (hundreds of pictures).

The problem with snow is caused by the meter. They are designed to work with midtones (12%-18% grey) so they render all white, and all black as a mid grey. Try overexposing by one to two stops to get white snow, and bracket the shots.

You can also look at the histogram and adjust the exposure that way. However, that does not address the color balance. My Expodisc avoids this problem: snow is white, not blue.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Fstop12 wrote:

quote=ahzwizerd2 Does anybody know how to adjust ... (show quote)

I also use ACR and with Expodisc, all the color temperatures and tints are the same. This is because the custom color balance setting does not change from shot to shot.

How do you juggle the card when doing flash?

Julian Loc: Sarasota, FL

I use a Gossen Color Temperature meter for critical and unusual lighting conditions. I can manually set the white balance on my Nikon D700 to whatever the meter indicates.

oleg Loc: NYC

I shoot raws ignoring on camera color balance. When previewing/opening ALL at once I select a group of similar shots and choose approp CB. Then I open RAWs.

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

fstop22 wrote:

First, Factory default and with a Card are two dif... (show quote)

The only problem with resetting to default is that it wipes out all of your settings not just the particular one you are having a problem with. If you're willing to go back and reset every setting on your camera then go for it........

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

Also in camera class I was told not to use white card but to use a grey card. They also said that if you are shooting outside which I do alot of shooting sports you can use the green of the grass. Acts much like the green backgrounds you see when people shoot movies where they stand in front of a green background and a picture or moving scene is projected onto the back.