Setting in camera White Balance and Infrared: Help me to understand. I'm breaking into Infrared capture I shoot raw. White Balance has to be adjusted in raw processing. I get that.

iamimdoc

Help me to understand.

I'm breaking into Infrared capture

I shoot raw.

White Balance has to be adjusted in raw processing. I get that.

Many of the online instructional videos suggest setting a custom white balance in camera for IR capture.

Is this to make the image when viewed at time of capture more useful/recognizable/interpretable
or
is something else happening/occurring?

Thanks

IR Jim Loc: St. Louis

iamimdoc wrote:

Help me to understand.

I'm breaking into Infrared capture

I shoot raw.

White Balance has to be adjusted in raw processing. I get that.

Many of the online instructional videos suggest setting a custom white balance in camera for IR capture.

Is this to make the image when viewed at time of capture more useful/recognizable/interpretable
or
is something else happening/occurring?

Thanks

Your RAW images will likely be all red. If you plan on converting them to black and white then it won't matter. Setting a custom white balance will shift all the color information to the right. With the filter I have the skies will be red, foliage yellowish or glowing white, people blueish. You can channel swap red and blue for the blue sky effect.
Some cameras, including my D3100, fail at setting a custom white balance in camera. I need to do this in Capture NX. Lightroom for some reason does not let me shift the white balance as far. RAW Therapee can also work but not as good results as Capture NX.

iamimdoc

Thanks

The images are red as you say

I have reset the color balance in various raw processors. Usually about 1600-2000k it seems. Foliage is now green.

I can swap the red and blue channels.

I can edit thereafter ang get color images like others do on internet tutorials.

But, does setting the color balance in camera have any effect except that it is easier to view an image just taken that is not red?

Thanks

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

One technique many IR photographers use is to set a custom WB on green foliage. It takes some of the red out and looks fine when you swap the red and blue channels.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

When using the standard 720 nm and converting.. no wb is not critical. If shooting 520 or 620nm then yes it can make a difference. Why RAW, why not just use JPEG or shoot both.

Go to FlamingPear.com archives for free old program that has color switching with just a click. or use PS and work hard.

Go to search in UHH and I explained it in one of my posts.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

JohnSwanda wrote:

One technique many IR photographers use is to set a custom WB on green foliage. It takes some of the red out and looks fine when you swap the red and blue channels.

This is what I do using a converted D70, by Lifepixel, converted around 2008

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The owner's manual will tell you how to set the custom white balance. Like Manglesphoto, I used green grass to set my D70 IR camera. That works fine. The company that did the conversion will tell you what to use to set the WB.

If you haven't converted or bought a camera yet, look at the LifePixel site and see which cameras work well for IR conversions and which don't.

iamimdoc

Thanks for the answers, although my question was more or less "Does it make a difference when doing the capture"

Reading may websites and comments it appears the answer is yes as the metering can be off without correct WB being set in camera.

So when I get my IR camera back (being converted as we speak), that is what I will do