My Canon XSi has a number of pre-programmed white balance options that work well enough. I will often shoot the same shot with different white balances, and, like you, I am interested in getting a proper white balance at every shoot and every location and I have found custom lens caps in various forms to do just that. I recently read a article where the photographer slipped the white lid from his coffe on the lens to get a custom setting. I'm sure you'll find a few options in any Photography magazine, or go to Lallyphotography.com and take a peek-see-boo at their Lally Cap.
I use and Expodisc but have use white coffee filters held over the lens and used the measure option. You point it towards the light source and measure.
Using the "preset white balance" on my D70 opened up a whole new world for me! A professional photographer and friend suggested the expodisc, which just didn't fit into my budget. So I decided to make my own.
After examining a real Expodisc I thought that the light diffusion material looked pretty familar......and then it hit me, it is very similar to a cover for fluorescent lights! Being a maintenance guy and an electricians apprentice at Western Oregon University this is a material that is in very good supply, broken light covers are easy to find. So I cut a small chunk out of a broken light cover and brought it home, found an old 52mm filter that was scratched up and remove the glass (this filter had a threaded ring that held the glass in place), and cut the new insert for the filter out of the light cover material and put it in place.
Since the filter screws onto the lens there is no light leaking to confuse the sensor and the camera is ready to preset white balance. On the D70 I simply find exposure first (extremely important), then install the filter on the lens, change the white balance to "PRE", then screw it on and press and hold the WB button until it blinks, then fully press the shutter button. White Balance is now set for the situation.
I attached a photo I took using this tool I made.
Nikkor-P 105mm f2.5 on Nikon D70. Exposure 4 seconds, ISO 200, f11, preset white balance, and lit by 3 60watt bulbs.
McBeth Photography wrote: Using the "preset white balance" on my D70 opened up a whole new world for me! A professional photographer and friend suggested the expodisc, which just didn't fit into my budget. So I decided to make my own.
After examining a real Expodisc I thought that the light diffusion material looked pretty familar......and then it hit me, it is very similar to a cover for fluorescent lights! Being a maintenance guy and an electricians apprentice at Western Oregon University this is a material that is in very good supply, broken light covers are easy to find. So I cut a small chunk out of a broken light cover and brought it home, found an old 52mm filter that was scratched up and remove the glass (this filter had a threaded ring that held the glass in place), and cut the new insert for the filter out of the light cover material and put it in place.
Since the filter screws onto the lens there is no light leaking to confuse the sensor and the camera is ready to preset white balance. On the D70 I simply find exposure first (extremely important), then install the filter on the lens, change the white balance to "PRE", then screw it on and press and hold the WB button until it blinks, then fully press the shutter button. White Balance is now set for the situation.
I attached a photo I took using this tool I made.
Nikkor-P 105mm f2.5 on Nikon D70. Exposure 4 seconds, ISO 200, f11, preset white balance, and lit by 3 60watt bulbs.
How much difference in the photo would there be if you had just left the camera to do it's thing? This is very interesting. Thanks for the post!
Well, in my experience in the past with long exposure times, anything over 1 second results in a orange color cast on the subject (incandescent = orange) and flourescent lights leave a green cast. I really wish now that I had shot a before pic without a preset white balance, maybe I'll do that sometime!
McBeth Photography wrote: Well, in my experience in the past with long exposure times, anything over 1 second results in a orange color cast on the subject (incandescent = orange) and flourescent lights leave a green cast. I really wish now that I had shot a before pic without a preset white balance, maybe I'll do that sometime!
That was a great post you made earlier, so it was just one of those "I wonder" questions! If you had it, great! If not, don't worry about it.
Here is a low light shot at a christmas vespers service. I shot this in raw and didn't have to adjust the color at all. Just cropped and darkened the highlighst a bit. Keep in mind that there are three different colors of light (soft light) falling on the girl plaing the piano. candle light, flourescent, and incandescent. Preset white balance makes the best of a bad situation, not to mention that the original pic was cropped a lot....cut away over half the pic.
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