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[OM] Re: White Balance & the E-510

Subject: [OM] Re: White Balance & the E-510
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 03 May 2008 09:15:05 -0400
My personal opinion is that far too much attention is paid to white 
balance because perfect white balance is something we rarely ever 
actually want.  Taking a photo at sunset or sunrise and doing a custom 
white balance will end up with a shot that looks like it was taken at 
noon.  The reddish light will be washed away and that's probably not 
what you want.  If you were to set your camera on "daylight" you would 
end up with what you've been shooting all along using daylight balanced 
film.  If you set the camera for "incandescent" you'll get what you 
would have gotten using "type B" film... and the chances are that you 
rarely if ever actually used any of that stuff.

My own camera is rarely set on anything other than "daylight" or "flash" 
although I would make an exception shooting strictly by fluorescent. 
Fluorescent can be ugly green if uncorrected.

In fact, I never shoot anything other than raw so the actual setting on 
the camera really doesn't matter.  However, what it does do is allow me 
to "develop" my raw images mostly "as shot".  Daylight or flash is 
usually correct (or at least as correct as necessary) but if a 
particular images needs tweaking it can be easily done.  Even then I 
normally do it by eye and not with a white balance tool. I have a couple 
white balance cards but don't use them often.  If I do it's not by 
setting a custom white balance as that's for JPEG shooters.  I just take 
a shot with the card in the scene and use that as the balance reference 
for white when developing the raw files taken in that same light.

If you're shooting a bride's white wedding dress you want it to look 
white.  If you're shooting a soup advertisement you want the color of 
the can label to look exactly like it looks on the store shelf.  If 
you're shooting strictly by fluorescent light you don't want your 
subjects to have sickly green looking skin.  For shooters who really, 
really need accurate color reproduction digital is a savior over using 
hundreds of different Kodak color correction gel filters.  For the rest 
of us we only rarely need or want it.

As to white balance tools a piece of white paper or an exposure gray 
card usually does the job fairly well although they may not be precise 
enough for the product advertising shooter.  You can check some 
alternatives by making shots and looking at the RGB histograms.  If you 
get three RGB curves that all look very similar then there isn't any 
significant white balance error in using that material for white 
balance.  You can use either a white card or gray card or both but white 
is most useful under low light and gray under bright light so as to 
avoid possible under or overexposure problems.  I use a WhiBal card 
because it's small and convenient and because it has a glossy black 
patch which is designed to detect glare and give a true black.  But, 
IMHO, most of everything having to do with white balance products is 90% 
hype... including the WhiBal pitch.  But if you watch the videos here 
you'll learn a lot about white balance.  Just ignore the hype.
<http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/WhiBal/01/index.html>

Chuck Norcutt


Gary Teller wrote:
> Well, the E-510 two lens kit arrived a couple of weeks ago. Given 
> that I had other things to do, I think it took the better part of a 
> week to read through the manual, with camera in hand, and learn 
> what's available in the menus & buttons. Seems easy enough to use 
> despite the Microsoft mentality of offering three ways to accomplish 
> certain functions.
> 
> However, the one thing I'm having some difficulty with is the white 
> balance. I understand the concept (I think) but am not able to 
> translate it to photos with accurate enough color rendition.  I 
> haven't used Auto WB-seems everything I've read suggests not doing so 
> in most cases. Using the settings for bright sun, shade and clouds 
> yields mixed results.  As I understand it, if there's some white in 
> the scene to be photographed the WB will do well. So, to you users of 
> the E-410, E-500 & E-510 I'm asking what combination of settings 
> works best for your WB when in sunny, shady or cloudy conditions with 
> no discernable white object in the frame.
> 
> Custom WB seems to be the way to go if I want to carry around a piece 
> of white paper and change the reading whenever the ambient light 
> changes. I read about a gadget called Expodisc WB filter that snaps 
> on to your lens. 
> http://www.expoimaging.net/products/product_detail.php?prodid=2&productname=ExpoDisc_Digital_White_Balance_Filter_-_Neutral
> Seems like an easy enough way to get the job done. Anyone every use 
> this sort of thing? Or have suggestions about how to go about trying 
> to get WB nailed down better?
> 
> Gary
> 
> 
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