White Balance Settings while shooting RAW in OMD EM5 (with and without strobes)

[BennyM]

What should the WB settings be while shooting RAW in the EM5? Does it matter? Are the settings (if any) different when using strobes from when not using strobes?

 

[supergaijin]

Without strobes you should manually WB.

With strobes you should Auto WB.

With photography 'rules', you should know that they can be broken if you want.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

I think the Olympus auto white balance works well for both A/V and strobe lighting when you have filled the frame with your subject. Video is a different issue. Along with the white balance tool in Lightroom I think auto is the best

The attached over/under photo was taken with daylight and auto white balance.

Phil Rudin

 

[supergaijin]

You gotta be fishing for 'likes' presenting that shot!

 

[BoltSnap]

So with RAW, one still needs to set WB to Auto when using strobes and to manual when not using strobes and does corrections later in LR? In other words WB manipulation in the camera still effects the pic in RAW?

 

[supergaijin]

I manually WB when shooting RAW with my compact- I find it helps reviewing the shot. That said I don't WB every few feet- only when I either see a change in review quality, or I know I've changed depth (or another significant factor).

For example when ascending from depth (having WB at depth) everything turns pink. This is distracting so I WB.

 

[BoltSnap]

I manually WB when shooting RAW with my compact- I find it helps reviewing the shot. That said I don't WB every few feet- only when I either see a change in review quality, or I know I've changed depth (or another significant factor).

For example when ascending from depth (having WB at depth) everything turns pink. This is distracting so I WB.

This is when shooting without strobes or with strobes?

 

[supergaijin]

This is when shooting without strobes or with strobes?

At the risk of repeating myself....

Without strobes you should manually WB.

With strobes you should Auto WB.

With photography 'rules', you should know that they can be broken if you want.

1. No Strobe.
Manually WB roughly every 10' or when lighting changes significantly. I use the palm of my hand. It gives me a realistic review, but can be changed later in editing.

2. With Strobe.
Auto WB. Understand the limitations of strobe strength. I recently bought a Inon S2000 which (like most strobes) has a working range of about 3'. Anything beyond that distance will not receive light from the strobe, so you're back to ambient light. Foreground should be realistically lit but the background will remain blue. If you intentionally shoot looking away from the reef then this is not a bad thing. If you're forced to shoot against the reef, then a blue/cyan reef can look washed out, and lacking in vibrance.

You can artificially increase reds sometimes with powerful applications like Photoshop's Channel Mixer. I find that at depths beyond 3ata it is difficult to get accurate pics with good colour. Most colourful shots are taken in the shallows (<2ata), and often the shots obey the simple rules:
1. Get close, then get closer.
2. Get the sun to your back or over one shoulder.
3. Shoot at eye-level or from underneath.



Depth: 1.3ata, Distance: 3'. Ambient light travels 13' through water to reach the sensor, strobe light illuminates foreground objects.
f8, 1/250, ISO 100, Auto WB, single INON S2000 strobe.

Compare with:

Depth: 3.5ata, Distance: 12'. Ambient light travels through 95' of water.
f2, 1/125, ISO 160, Manual WB, no strobe.
Manual WB helped me 'find' the Napolean while reviewing the shot. If I had a strobe at that point, I would have been able to put colour in to the Napolean. The background fishes would be unaffected by the strobe as they are too far away.
Finally:

Depth 4ata (I was at about 3ata trying to fit as much of the school as possible. Distance: approx 60'. Ambient light travelling through 150' of water.
f2, 1/125, Manual WB, ISO 125, no strobe.

I doubt manual WB did anything to help this shot at all- there is no colour at all. No strobe in the world could light this shot. Distance is far too great.

All shots are edited in Lightroom and/or Photoshop. Now that I know more about the 'channel mixer' I may try to adjust the deeper shots; maybe I can improve them.... maybe not.

The critical element of all the shots is the amount of water that light has to travel through before reaching the camera sensor. This amount is your depth + distance from the subject.

Manual WB can definitely help your shots without strobe. With strobe, just leave it on Auto and concentrate on other things.

edit:
I fooled around on Photoshop using level adjustments for the deeper shot.

 

[jetlife2]

RAW is just a record of what the sensor received with NO processing. Doesn't make any difference what WB you set because the RAW file is not modified by this setting. The WB in your final image will be determined by whatever adjustment you put in using your postprocessing software, if any. The RAW file has no WB adjustment, no compression and more bits per pixel. Hence its advantage for u/w.

If you are shooting jpg concurrently, the jpg will be affected by this setting. It is applied to the RAW data along with any other adjustments, then the data is compressed and stored as a jpg and once that is done, this is irreversible in the jpg, which is why RAW is better.

So if you are shooting RAW only and no jpg, don't worry about WB. You will set it later.

 

[PiggyRun]

Now i understand y shall we focus the underwater object .. XD