Spider vs. Caterpillar: I had a really hard time getting the while balance correct in LR. Is there some trick to it? I know you can use the sliders, type in a value or click on gray.

kpassaur Loc: Valrico FL

I had a really hard time getting the while balance correct in LR. Is there some trick to it? I know you can use the sliders, type in a value or click on gray. None of which seems to work well for me. One of these shots was taken on the top of a hand rail and is mostly black. The others were on the side of the rail and it has sort of a redish orange tint to it. (County Park Stain). If it correct the rail the white has a redish orange tint and the yellow in the caterpillar goes away and it was there when I shot it. The other thing that seems strange to me is that these were taken inches away from each other with flash and white balance setting are not the same. Any tips or references to an easy way to set white balance would be appreciated. (setting a custom one each time is out of the question.

Side of Rail 1

(Download)

Top of Rail

(Download)

Collie lover Loc: St. Louis, MO

Did the spider win or the caterpillar?

Great pictures. Both look fine to me.

kpassaur Loc: Valrico FL

Caterpillar didn't stand a chance. I put at least an hour into the white balance, that's why I'm looking for some sort of trick if there is one.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

I think the pictures are great as well. I wonder how the spider decided where to put his teeth with all of the fluff in the way.

Dennis

kpassaur Loc: Valrico FL

dennis2146 wrote:

I think the pictures are great as well. I wonder how the spider decided where to put his teeth with all of the fluff in the way.

Dennis

Thanks for the compliment Dennis. I have never seen a spider eat a caterpillar before (other bugs yes). At first it looked like the spider was humping the caterpillar.

wings42 Loc: San Diego, CA

kpassaur wrote:

I had a really hard time getting the while balance... (show quote)

WB is for general color tone. Your problem is resolving all the information in a high contrast photo where the lights are too light and the darks are too dark. Generally for a high contrast photo, move the "Highlights" and "White" sliders to the left as needed to get some structure to show in the light areas (toward darker) and the "Shadows" and "Black" sliders to the right (toward lighter) as needed so the dark areas lighten up and show some structure. Expect noise in the lightened dark areas.

This will only work to a degree, i.e. it can't resolve structure in a totally blown out white area or a totally black area. It will bring out what structure there is in RAW photos but won't do much at all for a JPEG photo because the hidden structure just isn't there.

wings42 Loc: San Diego, CA

kpassaur wrote:

Any tips or references to an easy way to set white balance would be appreciated. (setting a custom one each time is out of the question.

Set WB to AUTO in your camera, and AUTO in your LR Import preset. That way, the image in LR will closely approximate the WB in the scene. This will show you how to do that: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-create-a-standard-import-preset-in-lightroom-4/ . Import preset setup is almost the same in LR 5 as LR 4.

kpassaur Loc: Valrico FL

wings42 wrote:

Set WB to AUTO in your camera, and AUTO in your LR Import preset. That way, the image in LR will closely approximate the WB in the scene. This will show you how to do that: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-create-a-standard-import-preset-in-lightroom-4/ . Import preset setup is almost the same in LR 5 as LR 4.

Thank you for your response

That is the way it is set now. However, these are focus stacked images and they are processed in Helicon first. Which does not seem to make much difference except you cannot use "As Shot" for white balance.

It only really seems to be an issue with the color of stain they use. (no I am not screwy) In other words if the caterpillar was shot on a green leaf the white would be white. If shot on the fence it depends upon if it was the top or side. On the top he is closer to being white as more of the stain has washed off.

I was thinking is there a way to pick something like with the useless eyedropper and say adjust everything to make this white. I was playing with the color temp and tint and it took me forever.

naturepics43 Loc: Hocking Co. Ohio - USA

kpassaur wrote:

I had a really hard time getting the while balance... (show quote)

What kind of flash unit are you using? Do you use a diffuser (Softbox)?

kpassaur Loc: Valrico FL

Canon MT-24 with the plastic clip on diffusers. I have used other diffusers and the result is the same color wise. The down side of these is really highly reflective bugs or in the eyes.

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

?? WB ??
Shoot RAW - - then WB doesn't matter.

kpassaur Loc: Valrico FL

I shoot in RAW and there is always white balance as far as I know. Well that being said there is when you shoot with a Canon. If you use their Digital Photo Professional it will be transferred with the RAW file just as what the ISO was etc. In other words the RAW file contains what was on the sensor and how to interpret it. It also contains other things such as where your autofocus points were. What is different about it is when you change your RAW file you are changing the interpretation of what was originally captured; you are not changing a copy of it. In other words if I set a custom white balance or select flash etc. once opened in Digital Photo Professional that setting will be applied. If I change it I am not changing the file only how the data on the sensor is interoperated. Please tell me if i am wrong.

naturepics43 Loc: Hocking Co. Ohio - USA

kpassaur wrote:

Canon MT-24 with the plastic clip on diffusers. I have used other diffusers and the result is the same color wise. The down side of these is really highly reflective bugs or in the eyes.

I'm wondering if you are getting a colored reflection from something in the background that is changing the "white" balance of the image. Kind of like using a colored gel on the flash. Just a thought.

greymule Loc: Colorado

kpassaur wrote:

I had a really hard time getting the while balance... (show quote)

Cool capture. Epic Battle. :thumbup: :thumbup:

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

kpassaur wrote:

I shoot in RAW and there is always white balance as far as I know. Well that being said there is when you shoot with a Canon. If you use their Digital Photo Professional it will be transferred with the RAW file just as what the ISO was etc.

Yes - - I think you are correct - - when I open the RAW in Canon DPP or ACR, the image defaults to how the camera thinks the photo should be displayed. The benefit of course is you can then adjust those parameters {including WB} in Post without loosing any of the original Sensor data from the CR2 file. All the adjustments are saved in a companion file with the same name, but an XMP extension (at least for Canon). It's pretty neat - because you can tweak an image one way, then rename the XMP file, go back and retweak the image another way, rename THAT XMP, etc, etc, and then easily re-apply any of those series of edits by naming the desired set BACK to <CR2 Filename>.XMP