White balance on S100

[nikefreekz]

hi there, just bought myself a S100 and housing, hoping to get advice from fellow users as to setting white balance for underwater, is it better to just switch it to 'underwater' white balance mode or shall i do a custom white balance? How do you do a custom white balance on a S100 anyway? I mean the manual says to fill the screen with a plain white colour object and press the 'RING FUNC.' while in custom white balance mode, but obviously this is meant for top side photography, how then do i do it underwater? pls help!

 

[dfx]

The "underwater" preset WB works reasonably well if you don't want to be bothered with manual WB and/or don't care for "perfect" shots. Manual WB works just as explained in the manual, you'll need something that you know is white, like a dive slate, somebody with white fins, or the sand if you know that it's actually white. You should adjust WB every time you change depth if you go manual. Alternatively/additionally, you can shoot pictures in RAW format, which allows you to adjust the WB later on with the right software on your PC. There's a bit of a learning curve to that though.

 

[VAmtnguy]

I used the custom white balance via a dive slate on my SX 260 HS, and it worked much better than the "underwater" setting.

I set the white balance about every 15' in the fairly clear waters around Bonaire, but I think every 10' would be better. And several times I forgot to do the white balance on the way up, and my pictures turned out too red.

 

[PatW]

I would not fool with setting white balance. You have enough to do as it is. Shoot in RAW format which allows you to set white balance in post processing.

 

[Gilligan]

Your camera has RAW capability and IMO you should take advantage of it, especially with ALL non-strobe shots.

The "underwater" setting pales in comparison to the results shooting RAW. Using "custom" white balance in the JPEG mode is better than the "underwater" setting but still gives you little control over your white balance compared to RAW.

If you shoot RAW then you can post-process with the Canon software that came with the camera or other software such as Photoshop if you have the RAW plugin for your Canon camera. I use the Canon software for processing my white balance the use Photoshop for the balance of my post-processing with my G10 and G12.

It does not matter what white balance setting you use shooting RAW since you will control that in post-processing.

If RAW is too much work for you then shoot your strobe shots in JPEG using the "Auto", "Cloudy" or "Daylight" white balance settings. Cloudy offers softer colors. You will not have the control over the post-processing as with RAW. If the S100 has the capability then shoot your strobe shots in RAW+JPEG and use the RAW if you are not satisfied with the JPEG. It will use up a lot more space on your memory card.

If you are new to the camera then shooting everything in RAW will be less work for you while underwater.

This page on my website gives an example of post-processing RAW with the Canon software:
RAW Processing in Canon DPP

 

[Interceptor121]

The underwater white balance is nothing else than a higher temperature light color with red more saturated and won't work well with external strobes

For pictures I recommend shooting in RAW and setting the white balance later as Gilligan says, results are better and the time added is not as much as it would seem. Canon off the shelf DPP software is good and is able to restore the same sharpness and contrast setting as you would take a JPEG so all to gain nothing to loose.

All shots in the latest Canon S95 gallery in this same thread were just taken on RAW with no jpeg saved and corrected in lightroom

For video instead you need to set custom white balance before taking your shot and ideally when light or depth change

 

[nikefreekz]

Looks like shooting RAW is the way to go, appreciate all the advice!

 

[AandK]

You need to manual white balance if you want to shoot good movies. Otherwise they end up blue green and look bad. See here for a custom white balanced movie taken with a S100 SCUBA Diving A&K HD | Seacliff Reef March 2013 South Australia - YouTube Once your used to aiming the camera at a slate and pressing the button it takes no time at all. Put the camera on evaluative white balance which is one further to the right of the underwater setting.