White Balance Blues (newbie-ish question)

[dlwalke]

My goal (one of them) for the upcoming diving season is to kick my photography skills up a few notches. I'm reading a lot of articles and so on and some of it makes sense and some of it almost does but not quite. Re: using the white balance function which some people seem to find quite useful - I am in need of some clarification. If the camera is going to fire the flash (which it almost always does), am I correct in thinking that you shouldn't adjust it (i.e., using a white card) because you don't have the light available to adjust it according to the dominant light when the pic will actually be taken and the camera will determine the best white balance automatically for the strobe. And since the strobe almost always goes off underwater, it seems like white balance would mostly be important for adjusting out-of-strobe-range background in which case the holding-the-white card at arms length would be irrelevent anyway because it is in the foreground. So I guess what I'm asking is if the only time it makes sense to adjust WB with a white card is when you are taking a foreground pic sans flash. If you've got both foreground and background in focus in your shot, then it just seems like you're in an impossible dilema and the only thing to do if you really find it neccesary to fiddle with this is to do it post hoc with some software that can treat the fore- and background independently.

More philosophically, is there really any such thing as true color? I appreciate that you can make things look more like they would look if they were above water in the sun, but even in the atmosphere don't things have a color bias that is a function of white sunlight filtering through the atmosphere. Put differently, is the sky REALLY blue? Not that I'm a big advocate of reality or anything, but isn't the uncorrected color the most 'true'. I've used color 'correction' on some pics and not on others, but I often like the 'uncorrected' version better. I think it sometimes conveys more of the ambience of being underwater. But maybe I just don't understand the function of white balance well enough.

 

[dbh]

I find that it is much easier to shoot in RAW and not have to learn how to set WB manually

Dave

 

[dlwalke]

I find that it is much easier to shoot in RAW and not have to learn how to set WB manually

Dave

I saw this somewhere else but don't understand. I can certainly do a lot of color cast manipulations with my jpegs. What specifically can I do with Raw pics that's different?

 

[Diver Dennis]

The good thing about raw is that you get much more information in your file. This lets you have a much greater range for computer manipulation. I think this is what you mean?

 

[Diver Dennis]

You can use auto white balance with strobes or a flash, where you have to adjust the white balance for shots with no flash.

 

[scubaaaronh]

Using white balance is really easy first thing to do is turn off your flash. Then select the ok buttonpush the down arrow right arrow up arrow once right arrow point at something white(I used the sand in bonaire a lot) and hit the ok button. once you set it the first time it is easier at depth the first time there are a few more steps.. Adjust about ever five to ten ft depending on how clear the water is. The pics you take will be just as you see them. Take a look at some of my pics in the link below all were taken using white balance and no flash. I know you can shoot raw and play with the pics color later but i hate taking the time on every pic. I shoot lots of pics i have a 512 card and a 1 gig card in my cam all the time and they are usually pretty full after three good dives. When i get back to the hotel i hook the cam to the tv and delete the bad ones, and still have tons of pics. Take that cam out and start taking pics of every thing you see, changing the settings in different lighting and you will be surprised that changing white balance becomes so second nature you wont even think about the settings you are changing. I shoot in one of three modes a, s, or manual. If you have any questions PM me and i will try to help ya. There is another person on the boards nick = Dee, she helped me a lot with starting out. This year i am adding a strobe and modeling light to my cam.

 

[Tortuga Roja]

I would advise using RAW if you got it. You can still use manual WB if you like so that you have a better rendition on your review screen but when you are looking at it on your computer, having RAW, especially for UW, is sooo much better.

The idea is that your camera filters (read eats up) information when it creates an image file like tif or jpg to give you the settings - WB, sharpness, contrast, saturation - you have chosen in your camera menu. A RAW file retains all the info before filtering. A little more post production, yes but not as much as many think. Much of it can be automated and you only have to put an effort into your keepers. If you just want snapshots and don't think your images are worth a little extra work, then forget about it. But if you are taking the time to go online and try to learn more about getting quality from your shots, what's a few extra minutes in post production if it means a better picture to hang on your wall?

I really doubt you will find any UW photographer that has taken the time to learn the basics of RAW conversion and goes back to not using it.

Your question on true color is a good one. Jim church talks about the adaptation of color by our minds helping us to see the color we expect to see. He even has an experiment to show how it works in his composition book. A must for UW photographers BTW.

But yes, you can choose to have the colors your camera sees at depth, or the colors that you expect to see and adapt toward, or the colors that can be seen when a strobe lights up your subjects. It's your art so the choice is yours. But the more information you record, the more choice you have. IMHO the rich colors of a lit up yellow CTW next to some red sponge is hard to beat. Is it true? I dunno but it's probably close to what it would look like to our eyes if the ocean were drained. But I like it.

 

[scubaaaronh]

What is the title of the book i would be interested in getting it.

I do touch up pics that color doesn't come out well and you are right in that raw is easier to adjust with more information stored.

Beautiful pic.

 

[storm1fishing]

what do you mean by RAW and how do you set your camera

 

[Tortuga Roja]

The book is "Jim Church's Essential Guide To Composition" - It's a very small book but I bet I have read it 15 times.

RAW, if your camera offers it, will be listed with files types and resolutions in the menu. Look up RAW and/or Quality settings and/or file types or formats in the index of your camera manual. Sometimes you use RAW in place of jpg and/or tiff and some cameras you can use both jpg and raw. Keep in mind that using RAW files will require more space on your card and will have longer write times. Some RAW files, like Canon and Nikon, are compressed which will help a lot in file storage and write requirements but some - like Olympus's are not. All in all, it's still worth it.