Manual White Balance C5050

[jwlast]

In another thread Gilligan mentioned "manual white balance calibrated off a dive slat at depth is the most important choice for no strobe shots."

Hate to sound clueless but my strobe shots aren't bad, non-strobe deep shots could use some help. So with my C-5050 in it's case, at depth, how would I go about this and what settings would I be looking for.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

JT

 

[5615mike]

JT

The non-strobe depth shots could be quite good even without a strobe if the white balance is correct. I've seen outstanding shots without strobe in low light situations. The white dive slate you use as reference.......sorry if you know this. In the case of the 5050 I'm not sure how you set it. What housing are you using?

 

[Gilligan]

jwlast,
I have a C4000 so I'm not familiar with the location of your controls. Find the WB on the menu, Toggle over to the choices for WB, toggle to the Manual symbol (mine is a rectangle with a wedge like symbol at each bottom corner), select that symbol then toggle right of it (on mine), hold a clean dive slate about 6" in front of the lens with no shadows on it, click 'ok' (on mine) then exit the menu. You are now on manual WB with that setting.

Depending on the clarity of the water changing at depths you may have to re-calibrate it more than once during a dive. You should re-calibrate it on every dive.

The most common mistake is to forget to take the camera off manual WB when you take a flash pic. and vice versa.

Use your personal settings to be able to toggle quickly from manual to auto WB.

Some folks choose not to have the info displayed on the monitor all the time as it is annoying. I leave the 'info' on so I can tell by looking at the monitor where I am at with my settings since I bounce around from Macro on to macro off to Manual WB, to flash off, flash on etc.

 

[friscuba]

I've yet to try my white balance so I'll have to try it at some point.

Here's a stupid thought. If you do the white balance off a slate about 6-10 inches in front of you so it fills out the entire screen, would results be any different if you used a larger item further away? Would the lens would be cutting through more water and trying the white balance, possibly giving you a more accurate white balance on distant shots? It'd be curious to take a reasonable sized white towel down and have a buddy hold it up a few feet away.

Just curious if anyone has tried this.

later

Steve

 

[Tearless Tom]

This is from the manuel. Page 137


Adjusting the image quality and exposureOne-touch white balance
This function is useful when you need a more precise white balance than
PRESET WB can provide. To set the optimum white balance for the shooting
conditions, point the camera at a white object under the light source you want
to use and adjust the white balance.
1 Display screen and point the camera at a sheet of white paper.
• Position the paper so that it fills the screen, making sure there are no shadows.
2 Press .
• The white balance is set.
• To cancel one-touch white balance, press
.
• Press repeatedly to exit the menu.

 

[Tearless Tom]

Steve its not a stupid thought, Actually you are correct. The additional water between your lens and the target will effect the balance. Not sure if I want to carry anything else down with me though. Maybe a foldable waterproof white card that I could put in my BC pocket.

 

[jwlast]

Thanks to all for the advice....seems pretty brainless. Gonna give it a try next time I dive. Let ya know how it goes!

JT

 

[PINBALL Rick]

JW
This is Pinball Rick and I was impressed with your P47 photos. Where were those taken? How long has the wreck been there?
Thanks,
Pinball Rick

 

[alcina]

How about simply shooting RAW? Much better solution imho.