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Scuba Forum / General / May 2005Digtal Photo Color Balance
Should following a normal "custom" white balance process while at depth result in accurate color capture? Any special considerations? > Should following a normal "custom" white balance process while at depth > result in accurate color capture? Any special considerations? What is a "normal custom" (isn't that a contradiction) and what is "accurate" Personally, I shoot in RAW mode and play with the white balance in photoshop. > What is a "normal custom" (isn't that a contradiction) and what is > "accurate" 8^) > Personally, I shoot in RAW mode and play with the white balance in > photoshop. It also depends on the quality of the light used and the distance to the subject. Lee Good point... beyond a certain depth Red just doesn't exist. The CCD on a digital camera reads Red/Green/Blue and makes "white" much the same way your TV does w/o Red they can get cranky... I've only just started using a digital underwater but I've shot a lot of surface Video and in low light or weird situations it is best to use a default daylight setting and try to get the balance as close as possible in editing ... Like Alan Shooting in RAW. The other option is to take your own light.. > ? Should following a normal "custom" white balance process while at depth > ? result in accurate color capture? Any special considerations? [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > What is a "normal custom" (isn't that a contradiction) What I mean by normal is "as described in the manual". By "custom" I mean shooting a neutral (white) object than letting the camera set the white balance off that ---- as opposed to selecting "tungsten", "shade", "bright sun" etc. > and what is "accurate" As close to what one would see absent the strong blue bias introduced by the water. > Personally, I shoot in RAW mode and play with the white balance in > photoshop. Not an option for me. > > ? Should following a normal "custom" white balance process while at depth > > ? result in accurate color capture? Any special considerations? [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > balance off that ---- as opposed to selecting "tungsten", "shade", "bright > sun" etc. I suppose you could take an 18% gray card down with you (or something like these: http://www.warmcards.com/digital_camera.html) and set the white balance that way. > > and what is "accurate" > > As close to what one would see absent the strong blue bias introduced by the > water. With or without artificial light? Without artificial light, your eyes tend to compensate for the lack of red, so it's a little hard to define "accurate." What the camera sees and what you think you're seeing are usually different. If you add your own light (recommended) it will be easier to compensate for the lack of red. > > Personally, I shoot in RAW mode and play with the white balance in > > photoshop. > > Not an option for me. > Without artificial light, your eyes > tend to compensate for the lack of red, so it's a little hard to define > "accurate." We only think our eyes are compensating because we often don't really know what the scene "should" really look like. Last year I saw a guy spear a hogfish. After it poured lots of dark green/black blood into the water it turned much redder than I expected at the surface. The fish turned redder, that is, not the blood. I think that if the OP isn't going to do any software correction afterwards he should set the white balance with a white card.  SignatureSteve The above can be construed as personal opinion in the absence of a reasonable belief that it was intended as a statement of fact. If you want a reply to reach me, remove the SPAMTRAP from the address. >> ? Should following a normal "custom" white balance process while at depth >> ? result in accurate color capture? Any special considerations? >> What is a "normal custom" (isn't that a contradiction) > >What I mean by normal is "as described in the manual". By "custom" I mean >shooting a neutral (white) object than letting the camera set the white >balance off that ---- as opposed to selecting "tungsten", "shade", "bright >sun" etc. There is not enough red to permit the camera to obtain white balance at depth. >> and what is "accurate" > >As close to what one would see absent the strong blue bias introduced by the >water. You mean lack of red bias, surely? >> Personally, I shoot in RAW mode and play with the white balance in >> photoshop. > >Not an option for me. RAW is good. Post processing is good. I shoot in RAW mode, to solve all the above. I do not perform "custom" colour balances. The camera, in order to perform a custom balance needs to amplify some colour channels. If that channel does not exist it cannot be amplified. Red is dead by about 10m. Pete s. > Should following a normal "custom" white balance process while at depth > result in accurate color capture? Any special considerations? This site has a good explanation on underwater techniques http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/uwphoto/index-e.html I've found that you really need to bring a good light or use a flash and take pictures as close as possible if you want decent color or to be able to do any color correction on digital images later. Red, orange, and yellow light drops off pretty quick and if you don't have some sort of light source the color just isn't there. > Should following a normal "custom" white balance process while at depth > result in accurate color capture? Any special considerations? Yes...but be aware that there's not always something around that should be white, or similar to a grey card unless you take something with you. In fact in blue tropical water I've often had better results taking a reading off the palest sand I can find on the seabed instead of using a white slate. With this method you can also often get a reading from the sand where the latitude of the camera isn't enough to get a reading from the slate. If in doubt try it and see what the result is like. Stan G Winstanley a écrit : >>Should following a normal "custom" white balance process while at depth >>result in accurate color capture? Any special considerations? [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Stan hi, if your camera doesn't permit raw mode i recommand the custom balance : now i use raw mode too (i have a canon s70) but with my precedent camera (ixus 400) i was using "custom balance". the result is really good compared to automatic balance. it's about the same than with a red filter. For example you can look on my website this photo with automatic balance => http://www.diveinredsea.com/displayimage.php?album=8&pos=49 and with custom balance => http://www.diveinredsea.com/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=48. julien www.diveinredsea.com |
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