"Warm Cards"

[Gilligan]

I saw a post on the digideep.com forum about using a product called "Warm Cards" from www.warmcards.com to set the manual White Balance underwater. They come in a set.
Anyone used these cards?

 

[norcaldiver]

Neat idea, but more than I want to carry with me, or try to handle at once underwater. I'm thinking, if I'm shooting digital anyway, I can adjust that in photoshop.

 

[TedJ]

Funny you should ask as I just emailed another firm about a gray card. I'll check it out. Although norcaldiver is right about adjusting it in Photoshop after shooting RAW. I just don't seem to want to shoot in RAW. It seems to take so much time to write the files to the CF card.

 

[Tearless Tom]

It’s an interesting concept but I don’t think it would help that much in UW photography. They seem to be aiming at the professional and video market, trying to warm skin tones under cold lights. There is a problem in that arena but mostly it is User Error AKA Lack of Knowledge of how to achieve a good white balance and not the cameras.

As you know the purpose of a white card or white balance is to teach the camera what you want it to see as white under different lighting conditions. Some of the higher end cameras also have an 18% Gray balance and the capabilities to fine tune the white balance in 1/3 or less stops or by temperature.

I believe I read on your site (which is a wealth of information by the way) that you take a white balance once you get to depth. I believe that this is the most effective way to get the correct colors, that and using a strobe.

As for correcting in Photoshop, It can be done but why spend hours correcting images and then more trying to get consistency between shots when it only take a minute or less to take a white balance?