white balance (Page 2): carry one of these around you neck and learn to set Custom White balance or do it in post production PS. Videos on that too.

Bobbee

bobburk3 wrote:

What's the best way to set White Balance on a Nikon D3100 in different light conditions. Trial and error and looking at the screen after shooting? I took some night pictures of the front of a house with just the porch light and light coming through the windows and the exterior was all blue.

carry one of these around you neck and learn to set Custom White balance or do it in post production PS. Videos on that too.

http://www.amazon.com/Zeikos-ZE-DGC-Digital-Grey-Lanyard/dp/B0040JHG86/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1385721233&sr=8-2&keywords=grey+cards+photography

clansman Loc: wendover,england

Rongnongno wrote:

Shoot RAW and you do not care as you set it afterward.

Got it in one: that means you can concentrate on everything else, knowing that WB is sorted totally , until working on it later! Sure you will get it right.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Bobbee wrote:

carry one of these around you neck and learn to set Custom White balance or do it in post production PS. Videos on that too.

http://www.amazon.com/Zeikos-ZE-DGC-Digital-Grey-Lanyard/dp/B0040JHG86/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1385721233&sr=8-2&keywords=grey+cards+photography

Or, you can spend more than twice as much for the same thing. :D

http://www.amazon.com/GENUINE-WhiBal-Certified-Neutral-Balance/dp/B004G3NW5M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385726945&sr=8-1&keywords=whibal+card

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

tusketwedge wrote:

go to Menu> white balance click OK and try on of the settings. for the shot that you took you say it had a porch light .I would start with Incandescent. If still blue try a different setting.Without knowing the full scenario it's going to be trial and error.

:thumbup: That's why the camera offers those settings. I generally correct in post.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

As Nekon describes, I set the Kelvin and then shoot something red. If the red in the LCD looks like the red I shot , then the WB is set OK. Why red? Because red and purple are supposed to be the two hardest colors to accurately reproduce.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

Do a custom white balance. Since I started doing them for infrared photography, I do it for all difficult lighting situations.

bobburk3 wrote:

What's the best way to set White Balance on a Nikon D3100 in different light conditions. Trial and error and looking at the screen after shooting? I took some night pictures of the front of a house with just the porch light and light coming through the windows and the exterior was all blue.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

MtnMan wrote:

Get out your manual and look up white balance. It should give you a way to use a white or gray card, or any of a number of exposure aids such as a coffee filter...Or, as noted above, shoot in RAW and fix it later.

Two bits of terrible advice. You just cannot grab anything "white" because it is probably not a real white and is certainly not calibrated. Secondly, shooting in RAW and fixing later depends upon what you mean by fix. Do you want to replicate the white balance of the original scene and create a white balance for the sake of your artistic interpretation of the original? The first is objective and the second is subjective. If you want objective, you need a proper aid such as an Expodisc or color temperature meter.

I have used Expodisc for years. It gives very true colors without guessing and in no time. I do not know how anyone who considers himself or herself a serious photographer could not use an Expodisc or color temperature meter.

PS Forget those color temperature tables and camera color temperature pre-sets.

Donwitz Loc: Virginia Beach, VA

In most outdoor situations, my default setting is Cloudy. I feel that it gives you a hint of the golden glow you see after sunrise and before sunset.

Indoors, look at you shooting environment. If you see the yellow tint of old fashioned light bulbs, use Incandescent. If you don't see the yellow of the old bulbs, go Florescent.

This is not very technical, but it works for me in most cases. Hope that it helps!

WAL

This topic is a powerful argument for using raw. Just use a grey card or find a grey area in the photo. There are techniques for finding the grey area in a photo on UTUBE.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

bobburk3 wrote:

What's the best way to set White Balance on a Nikon D3100 in different light conditions. Trial and error and looking at the screen after shooting? I took some night pictures of the front of a house with just the porch light and light coming through the windows and the exterior was all blue.

If you are shooting raw just set your camera for auto w/b and make corrections in post. If you want more accurate w/b then shoot a grey card at the beginning of your shoot and then you can accurately set w/b in post or do the same at the beginning and set the custom w/b in camera at the beginning of the shoot.

romanticf16 Loc: Commerce Twp, MI

Mogul wrote:

If all else fails, buy a Gossen Sixticolor color temperature meter; for sale on eBay for $25 up.

Then you'll know there are several different color temperatures to deal with, but it still won't make them all the same without adding filtration to some of the light sources.

Pepsiman Loc: New York City

Rongnongno wrote:

Shoot RAW and you do not care as you set it afterward.

What if he can't shoot raw :?: :?:

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

bobburk3 wrote:

What's the best way to set White Balance on a Nikon D3100 in different light conditions. Trial and error and looking at the screen after shooting? I took some night pictures of the front of a house with just the porch light and light coming through the windows and the exterior was all blue.

Your D3100 has a custom white balance capability. In a lot of "normal" lighting, automatic works fine. With oddball lighting, or if you prefer precision to slovenliness and work afterwards, custom white balance is the way to go.

nekon Loc: Carterton, New Zealand

jeep_daddy wrote:

If you are shooting raw just set your camera for auto w/b and make corrections in post. If you want more accurate w/b then shoot a grey card at the beginning of your shoot and then you can accurately set w/b in post or do the same at the beginning and set the custom w/b in camera at the beginning of the shoot.

And you can do exactly the same when shooting jpegs

nekon Loc: Carterton, New Zealand

Pepsiman wrote:

What if he can't shoot raw :?: :?:

He can still set it afterwards!