Custom white balance, using a piece of paper etc 10 stop

[steveatesh]

I have just got a hitech 10 stop filter and have been reading advice and reviews before venturing out into the field, some of which say that in order to make sure the WB is right it is best to set the camera to custom, and take a photograph of a piece of white card or paper then use that photograph to set WB from.

Bit I'm Not sure of is do I take that picture with the filter in place over the lens or without it?

Camera is a D5100 if that matters. Cheers.

[kman]

Set WB before you put the filter on. If the filter adds any tint (it shouldnt) you can always compare and adjust to the shot without filter.

[JustinMinns]

kman said:

Set WB before you put the filter on. If the filter adds any tint (it shouldnt) you can always compare and adjust to the shot without filter.

To set a custom white balance to account for any colour cast from the filter you need to shoot the paper with the filter in place and in the same light you will be shooting in.

There will be a slight colour cast from the filter as there is with all ten stop filters but I've found they are easily removed in post processing if you are shooting raw so have never felt a custom WB to be necessary

[markmullen]

kman said:

Set WB before you put the filter on. If the filter adds any tint (it shouldnt) you can always compare and adjust to the shot without filter.

The OP is discussing using a 10 stop ND filter, there is minimal point of taking a custom white balance before applying the filter.

OP, it depends on the filter as to how necessary it is, my Big Stoppers are slightly cool, no more, and certainly not something which is difficult to resolve when processing the image, in comparison some of the early Hitech 10 stops had a fairly horrendous cast, as I understand does welding glass. The main thing is that the cast should be uniform so it can be corrected.

If you want to do it properly as Justin says you should shoot your white balance reference in the same light as your subject, and with the filter applied.

[kman]

I've never had a filter cast issue even with a big stopper, but i suppose its technically correct or as i suggest tweak between the reference shot for any tint.

[steveatesh]

markmullen said:

The OP is discussing using a 10 stop ND filter, there is minimal point of taking a custom white balance before applying the filter.

OP, it depends on the filter as to how necessary it is, my Big Stoppers are slightly cool, no more, and certainly not something which is difficult to resolve when processing the image, in comparison some of the early Hitech 10 stops had a fairly horrendous cast, as I understand does welding glass. The main thing is that the cast should be uniform so it can be corrected.

If you want to do it properly as Justin says you should shoot your white balance reference in the same light as your subject, and with the filter applied.

Thanks for that, it's the latter hitech filter so supposed to be an improvement on the earlier version. A review I read advised setting a custom WB, but didn't say how to do that and I don't want to get out in the field and muck it up through lack of preparation.

Quite a learning curve all this!

Thanks everybody for your advice.

[Yellabelly]

Try this method posted by Darren Thorndick on the Flickr Welding Glass thread, should work on the D5100, it works on my D600:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/weldingmaskglassfilte...


How to get the right white balance in camera - Tutorial (D300 based)

Darren Thorndick says:

Right, I had a play last night trying to set the white balance until I got it right. This is what I did (This is for the D300 though, so may vary slightly).

Set ISO to maximum setting (I did ISO6400)
Set aperture to lowest setting (I did f4)
Zoom in on the sky (either full cloud or full clear sky, not a mix of both),
Turn autofocus off,
Manually adjust the lens so that the sky is OOF,
Place welding glass filter in front of lens,
------ From here it may vary -------
Press WB button,
Release then press and hold WB button until ‘PRE’ is flashing on the LCD screen,
Point camera at clear sky or cloud ensuring the entire frame is filled with whatever you choose,
Press the shutter release button,
Ensure ‘Good’ is displayed on the LCD screen
Take a shot to check the white balance is correct, or near enough.

Do NOT use a light source like the sun, street lamp etc as this will still give a green cast to the shot.

You should be all set. This worked fine on my test shots, and allows you to have more flexibility in Post Process.

I hope this helps and Good luck.

This is a photo that was done using this method, staight from camera with a few level tweaks.


Originally posted at 10:43AM, 10 September 2009 GMT

[Simpo Two]

^^^ If I interpret this correctly, you point the camera at a blue object, let it use Auto WB and then check it on the camera's monitor? That doesn't seem like a recipe for white balance to me.

If you are fussy about WB, shoot RAW and then you can play as much as you like afterwards, on a proper monitor, without any pressure. If you have anything white or neutral grey in shot it's easy, otherwise adjust visually to taste.

That said I don't use ND filters so maybe it's all different then