Adjust white balance/using a white reference card?

[kat.hayes]

1. Is there a way to adjust white balance of a GoPro2 under water?
2. Do any of you use a white reference card under water to adjust levels in post?

Thanks.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

I had this same discussion recently on this thread http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/production/460010-using-white-balance-reference-cards.html

I just tried the white balance reference card (set with white, gray, and black card) method this past weekend and they gave me some pretty good results. You should have your camera in RAW WB, not Auto! Here are comparison screen caps from my video.





This was shot at a depth of 23ft max but it was overcast and rainy. I did nothing for color correction other than use the dropper tool on Vegas Pro and click it on each of the WB cards for high, mid, and low.
Before After White balance white card only

The White card balancing only is not quite as accurate with the blacks but is still a vast improvement and good starting point. Some of the more basic video editors will probably only have the White Balance feature.

In my video I shoot footage under a bridge which was really dark. I never used the WB cards there so that was the only place I had to tweak the color myself. I should have used the cards as references more often because over the span of the dive the water clarity changed so some scenes aren't as accurate as they should be. My next dive there will be with a SRP red filter. I will try that in conjunction with the WB cards and see what results it gives.

Here's my video of that WB card color corrected dive. Remember, the dark under bridge scenes where based of a card correction but further tweaked to look decent.
[video=vimeo;71364393]http://vimeo.com/71364393[/video]

 

[avigulf]

Hero2 only has auto WB. You will have to do it in software.

 

[stanw]

Hero2 only has auto WB. You will have to do it in software.

Yes, however, if you shoot a white reference card underwater, can't you adjust it in post based on the white card? I know in Photoshop you can do this by clicking on the eyedropper tool from Levels and click on a color that is supposed to be white, not sure if it works the same way with video editing...

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Yes, however, if you shoot a white reference card underwater, can't you adjust it in post based on the white card? I know in Photoshop you can do this by clicking on the eyedropper tool from Levels and click on a color that is supposed to be white, not sure if it works the same way with video editing...

Yes, its the same. I've done it as demonstrated above. It works just fine for the most part.
What i'm not sure about is how WB Camera Raw affects it.

 

[stanw]

I would think that if you are shooting RAW then setting the white balance when shooting the pics wouldn't matter because you have full control over changing the color temperature in Lightroom, Camera Raw, etc.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

I would think that if you are shooting RAW then setting the white balance when shooting the pics wouldn't matter because you have full control over changing the color temperature in Lightroom, Camera Raw, etc.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. What I do is just throw those cards in front of my camera as it's recording every now and then, especially when the lighting or depth changes. Then, later when I'm editing in post, I use those brief shots of the cards and create color correction presets with them (after I've used the color corrector dropper tool on the cards in that frame) and then I apply those color correction presets to any video clips that share that same lighting situation. It makes it very easy and fairly quick instead of trying to color correct completely on your own by trial and error.

I don't set the cameras WB at the moment of filming underwater. The GoPro cant do that I believe and the lighting in moving video underwater is simply too dynamic. For Photography, the cameras can do that and since the camera is usually stays in a fixed position with sometimes controlled lighting, setting the WB at the scene will suffice for the rest of the photos.

 

[fbk]

If you set WB to auto the camera will constantly try and adjust for what it sees as changing conditions, in some cases getting it completely wrong altogether turning everything fluoro green. Raw mode turns off any in-camera WB processing making it easier to adjust in post if you have a white reference like the cards mentioned above.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

If you set WB to auto the camera will constantly try and adjust for what it sees as changing conditions, in some cases getting it completely wrong altogether turning everything fluoro green. Raw mode turns off any in-camera WB processing making it easier to adjust in post if you have a white reference like the cards mentioned above.

Now that makes sense.

 

[TechDeep]

Your results look great! Where did you get the cards?