Manual adjustment of white balance

[Randall]

I've read somewhere about the technique of adjusting the white balance by using a white slate attached to your arm or your buddies arm. Apparantly you just aim at the white slate and adjust.....I'm not sure about this. Do any of you use this technique? If so, how does it work?

 

[PerroneFord]

That's exactly how it works.

 

[alcina]

Randall -

On the A series:
Got to Function -> second icon down is your white balance
the bar along the bottom tells you which mode you are in; to get to manual left cursor once (it says Custom)
aim the viewfinder at something white - watch for shadows and fill the frame
Press Set - it will "fire" and you are good to go.

This will need to be redone every time you have a change of light underwater - inlcuding, but not limited to changes in depth and angle.

It works reallly well a lot of the time. I think LegoPacific uses this extensively - might want to check out his gallery.

 

[AggieDad]

I've read somewhere about the technique of adjusting the white balance by using a white slate attached to your arm or your buddies arm. Apparantly you just aim at the white slate and adjust.....I'm not sure about this. Do any of you use this technique? If so, how does it work?

First I am brand new at this stuff so take this with a grain of salt. I just attended SeaSpace in Houston and went to a seminar on video by Tim Blanton. He talked about this with a video camera. He said that you need to power down and then power back up when things change i.e. light etc. and let the camera readjust it self. Another technique I suppose.

 

[Swarth]

Thats the same way to set it on my S60 as well. I also have an underwater white balance setting, however its not ideal. What I have found works best is to shoot in RAW format if you can. I then found RAW Essentials http://www.pixmantec.com/index2.html currently a free download and is going to be incorporated in Paintshop Pro 10?? perhaps. Using this made a believer in shooting in RAW mode.While not perfect you can see the results using it in my Gallery. I am not using a strobe, just the internal flash.

 

[alcina]

First I am brand new at this stuff so take this with a grain of salt. I just attended SeaSpace in Houston and went to a seminar on video by Tim Blanton. He talked about this with a video camera. He said that you need to power down and then power back up when things change i.e. light etc. and let the camera readjust it self. Another technique I suppose.

That may have been a specific camera or in a specific mode. I do not have to power down with my video systems to use manual white balance - that would be extremely time consuming and frustrating!
:11:

 

[TostitoBandito]

It will be different for different camera manufacturers. Most newer cameras have some kind of quick or one touch white balance feature. On my Olympus C-765, I go into the One Touch WB menu, fill the frame with the white slate, and press OK.

 

[LegoPacific]

Alcina has it right, but here's my convoluted explanation...

I use a wrist slate, but anything big enough to fill the frame will work. In a pinch, a white tank or even white rocks will do. Switch to "P" "T" "A" or "M" mode. Turn off the flash. Press "function" and to the 2nd slot down for white balance, then move right until you get a symbol that looks like a circle between two triangles. Flip the slate open and hold it so there are no shadows on it. Here's the tricky part: aim the camera so the slate fills the whole screen and press "set" (big hands or a 3rd arm helps). You should see the screen suddenly become brighter. You'll want to reset the white balance anytime the available light changes (like going into a shadow or changing depth).

You'll probably end up shooting wide open (F2.8, 1/30-1/200) so keeping the camera steady is important (bracing against a rock works). Locking the ISO to 100 will help keep the noise down.

 

[Silvertip57]

I have to agree with Swarth. I have used both the S-30 and S-50 and have been shooting with the Raw format for a couple of years. I found a great piece of shareware callled BreezeBrowser Pro that has a great conversion algorithm for converting from Raw to Tif. It is pretty much a no-brainer (that's why I use it) just put the cross-hair cursor on something that you know is white or gray and click. You will be amazed at the results. There may be more sophisticated ways of doing this and as you get more familiar with uw photography you will probably find them. Good Luck