I have a DC 1200. I see mention of what balance and not sure what that is and how it effects my picture taking. My pictures do sometimes turn out too reddish or greenish inspite of me setting the dive depth (DIve less than 25 ft or more than 25ft). How will manually setting white balance help me? Thanks
What the heck is White Balance, what does it mean to me?
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archiebald
Contributor
White Balance simply gives your camera a reference point as to what White is. When the camera can identify white, then all of the other colors make sense to it, and will look as they are supposed to.
So... If you have something that is actually white (like a slate) that you can balance off of at whatever depth you are at, you are telling your camera, "This is what white looks like for real" even though some of the red may be missing because of the absorption of color at depth. This will then adjust the color balance so that white is white, and all others look relatively correct.
I hope this makes sense.
Great. So this is something I should set once I get down to say, 30 ft, assuming I don't use the flash. Is the manual setting of the white balance more "accurate" in making the adjustment than when I set my camera at "No Flash >25 ft?
Does setting the white balance influence at all Flash Photagraphy?
Does setting the white balance influence at all Flash Photagraphy?
If you use the flash, and have already white balanced, there is a good chance your images will have too much red.
Mostly when I do white balance, it's for shallow dives without strobes, mostly I use WB when shooting video.
Mostly when I do white balance, it's for shallow dives without strobes, mostly I use WB when shooting video.
I'm not familiar with the settings on this particular camera, but you should be able to reset the WB point manually whenever you want (if it has manual white balance)
00wabbit
Contributor
White balance also works on land too. Every kind of light has a different white balance. Indoor normal lightbulbs are tungsten and give off an orange light. This is why indoor pictures have a warm tone to them. Flourescent lights have a green tint and cna make people look sick in photos if the white balance isn't set.
If you want to get real advanced and want to use ambient light with a flash you will want to match the light color of the flash to the ambient light then set the cameras white balance to make everything blend together. FOr instance if you are shooting in tungsten light you can add a slightly orange gel (filter) to the flash so the flash gives off a color of light similar to the tungsten lights. Then set the cameras white balance to tungsten and the camera will add a little blue to the shot to make everyhting appear natural white. If you don't do this then everything in the flash will be natural white and the background will be orange or if you set the white balance and don't use a gel then the background will be natural and everyhting in the flash will have a slight blue tint to it. As you can see white balance can be very important to your photos.
If your camera has a RAW mode then you don't have to worry about white balance as much because you can adjust the white balance later in your raw processing program. If you have the opportunity to shoot RAW and want the best pictures I would recommend that you do it. Even if you don't know how to process them now it is good to shoot raw and read up about it. In the future when you know how to process raw you will have your old raw files to work with. WOrking with RAW is not difficult in a program like Lightroom (for pc and mac) or aperture for mac.
If you want to get real advanced and want to use ambient light with a flash you will want to match the light color of the flash to the ambient light then set the cameras white balance to make everything blend together. FOr instance if you are shooting in tungsten light you can add a slightly orange gel (filter) to the flash so the flash gives off a color of light similar to the tungsten lights. Then set the cameras white balance to tungsten and the camera will add a little blue to the shot to make everyhting appear natural white. If you don't do this then everything in the flash will be natural white and the background will be orange or if you set the white balance and don't use a gel then the background will be natural and everyhting in the flash will have a slight blue tint to it. As you can see white balance can be very important to your photos.
If your camera has a RAW mode then you don't have to worry about white balance as much because you can adjust the white balance later in your raw processing program. If you have the opportunity to shoot RAW and want the best pictures I would recommend that you do it. Even if you don't know how to process them now it is good to shoot raw and read up about it. In the future when you know how to process raw you will have your old raw files to work with. WOrking with RAW is not difficult in a program like Lightroom (for pc and mac) or aperture for mac.
An update on the topic but first I want to thank you guys for responding. I was in the Keys (Sombero Reef) and on my first dive I used the DC 1200 auto light adjustment (Camera only, no flash 25ft or less) rather than white board. I noticed two things 1) the pictures still had a greenish tint but when I went to manual white balance the color was spot on and 2) before I shifted to setting manual white board it seemed when I was closer to the object (12-18") the color was also spot on. Why is that?
While I was taking pcitures fussing with white balance some buddies with me were using a Go Pro video with no filter and the color balance was perfect. Why was video seemingly unaffected by the depth and my still camera was? Their video even at 70 ft look great.
Finally when we were diving it was only about 2 weeks afteer Isaac and the water was "cloudy" and so some of my pictures have a "milky" look. IS there a program I can use to wash the milkiness out?
Thanks
While I was taking pcitures fussing with white balance some buddies with me were using a Go Pro video with no filter and the color balance was perfect. Why was video seemingly unaffected by the depth and my still camera was? Their video even at 70 ft look great.
Finally when we were diving it was only about 2 weeks afteer Isaac and the water was "cloudy" and so some of my pictures have a "milky" look. IS there a program I can use to wash the milkiness out?
Thanks
Pillpusher
Contributor
If I understood your most recent question correctly, typically, the closer you are, the better color you'll get. My only guess is that when you had auto WB on, the camera was able to get a point of reference somewhere in the frame? For best results though, manual will usually come out better though.
The GoPro cameras are very good at auto WB underwater for video. They are pretty much designed for it. I'm not so sure about the picture taking quality though. I haven't seen any, so I don't know. IMO, Sealife cameras are better designed to be used with strobes for photography. Without strobes, once below 20-30ft, you need to manually set the WB to get decent results. When taking videos though, the Sealife cameras do add a red filter to the image as well, and I've seen good results with it.
I was on a dive trip Labor Day week in Utila, and the vis was pretty "milky" for me as well. Early September is typically when coral spawning takes place, so that may have been a cause as well. As far as I know though, if the vis is bad, there's not much of a way to improve it in your pics. One other note is that manually setting the WB on the DC1200 can be a bit of a pain, having to go through all the menus to get to it... Especially if you need to do it somewhat quickly. The DC1400 does have a "hot key" for setting it though, which makes it much easier.
---------- Post Merged at 08:17 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:14 AM ----------
I forgot to mention, a few of my Utila pics are posted a few threads down. If you look at the pics of the spotted eagle ray, you can tell that I had the same issues with the "milky" waters as you did.
The GoPro cameras are very good at auto WB underwater for video. They are pretty much designed for it. I'm not so sure about the picture taking quality though. I haven't seen any, so I don't know. IMO, Sealife cameras are better designed to be used with strobes for photography. Without strobes, once below 20-30ft, you need to manually set the WB to get decent results. When taking videos though, the Sealife cameras do add a red filter to the image as well, and I've seen good results with it.
I was on a dive trip Labor Day week in Utila, and the vis was pretty "milky" for me as well. Early September is typically when coral spawning takes place, so that may have been a cause as well. As far as I know though, if the vis is bad, there's not much of a way to improve it in your pics. One other note is that manually setting the WB on the DC1200 can be a bit of a pain, having to go through all the menus to get to it... Especially if you need to do it somewhat quickly. The DC1400 does have a "hot key" for setting it though, which makes it much easier.
---------- Post Merged at 08:17 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:14 AM ----------
I forgot to mention, a few of my Utila pics are posted a few threads down. If you look at the pics of the spotted eagle ray, you can tell that I had the same issues with the "milky" waters as you did.
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