Recently someone sent me a private message:
I just purchased the Amphibico white balance slate. I have a few questions.
1. What is the best way to white balance with the slate?
2. What is the starburst design on the white balance for?
3. Are the color bars on the back used for anything underwater?
And here is my answer:
Many people do not understand the importance of white balancing underwater. The Amphibico White Balance slate is the best on the market because of the color bars, the spiral and the white (with bluish tint) on the back. I am going to post an article next week on the color bar portion of the slate, but will try and explain it in user terms here.
First of all the spiral on the back is for focus. In professional film cameras and larger systems like the Sony F900 High Def Video Camera they need to be back focused. Also when you are underwater, it is sometimes difficult to know if you are in focus. You can use these lines for this purpose. You can white balance in two different ways under the water. You can either use the same side of the slate with the spirals and fill most of your frame with white to white balance, or you can use the color bar chart and fill the frame with the color bars by zooming all the way in (excluding the black border of the slate) and fill this image with the color bars and white balance off of that. You can also hit record for a few seconds before and after the white balance to see the effect on your image. If you do this, then you can see the importance of white balance. In addition, many of the software packages, Final Cut Pro and Avid, have color bars and you can see how close you are matching to these.
You also want to remember that you need to white balance early and often. Anytime your lighting changes. When shooting on land, the presets work well in many of the cameras today and you do not have to re-white balance that often. But underwater, you need to white balance every five feet or so...unless you are shooting macro and filling your subject with the light from your video lights. I hope that was not confusing...if your lights that you carry with you are the only source of illumination (like when you are night diving) then the color temperature will not fluctuate. It will fluctuate with the sun's light and depth for any system. Therefore you need to white balance every time you change depths or lighting conditions. Don't forget to always shoot with the sun at your back unless going for the silhouette look...or some other look...but for video you need light.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if I can answer any other questions.
Annie
I just purchased the Amphibico white balance slate. I have a few questions.
1. What is the best way to white balance with the slate?
2. What is the starburst design on the white balance for?
3. Are the color bars on the back used for anything underwater?
And here is my answer:
Many people do not understand the importance of white balancing underwater. The Amphibico White Balance slate is the best on the market because of the color bars, the spiral and the white (with bluish tint) on the back. I am going to post an article next week on the color bar portion of the slate, but will try and explain it in user terms here.
First of all the spiral on the back is for focus. In professional film cameras and larger systems like the Sony F900 High Def Video Camera they need to be back focused. Also when you are underwater, it is sometimes difficult to know if you are in focus. You can use these lines for this purpose. You can white balance in two different ways under the water. You can either use the same side of the slate with the spirals and fill most of your frame with white to white balance, or you can use the color bar chart and fill the frame with the color bars by zooming all the way in (excluding the black border of the slate) and fill this image with the color bars and white balance off of that. You can also hit record for a few seconds before and after the white balance to see the effect on your image. If you do this, then you can see the importance of white balance. In addition, many of the software packages, Final Cut Pro and Avid, have color bars and you can see how close you are matching to these.
You also want to remember that you need to white balance early and often. Anytime your lighting changes. When shooting on land, the presets work well in many of the cameras today and you do not have to re-white balance that often. But underwater, you need to white balance every five feet or so...unless you are shooting macro and filling your subject with the light from your video lights. I hope that was not confusing...if your lights that you carry with you are the only source of illumination (like when you are night diving) then the color temperature will not fluctuate. It will fluctuate with the sun's light and depth for any system. Therefore you need to white balance every time you change depths or lighting conditions. Don't forget to always shoot with the sun at your back unless going for the silhouette look...or some other look...but for video you need light.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if I can answer any other questions.
Annie
