manual white balance vs. photoshop

[mannydib]

can photoshop be used in place of setting the manual white balance?
i suppose its harder without a white reference in the picture, but possible.

i did alot of shots with my sony dsc-p9's auto settings and photoshops autolevels which i could fade back.
i wonder if i could have gotten better results using a camera with a manual white balance setting.


thanks in advance!

 

[Cecil]

You can do manual white balance with a P9. Focus on something white at depth, depress the trigger half way, then go into the menus and put the white balance on hold. I have not tried this myself but it should work, I pretty much do it in Photoshop. I'm not much of a believer in auto levels and prefer to adjust them manually with the slide bars.

 

[SimonJ]

IMHO there is no right answer here. Start by capturing the image as close to the desired result as possible and then tweak in Photoshop. The better the original the better the edit.

 

[Dee]

Agree with Simon. Don't depend on PS if you don't have to. I prefer using the manual white balance of my camera.

 

[Jason B]

Dee, when you say "I prefer using the manual white balance of my camera", do you mean while not using a strobe, or always?

 

[Cecil]

I knew there was a reason I don't do the white balance thing. I always use the flash, I have hardly ever gotten a good shot without it. I keep trying and am never satisfied with the results. It's not so much the color as there's just not enough light, where I dive to get a sharp picture (motion blurring).

 

[Gilligan]

can photoshop be used in place of setting the manual white balance?
i suppose its harder without a white reference in the picture, but possible.

i did alot of shots with my sony dsc-p9's auto settings and photoshops autolevels which i could fade back.
i wonder if i could have gotten better results using a camera with a manual white balance setting.


thanks in advance!

I started out using "Auto" WB for all my non-strobe shots then adjusted them in PS using the "mandrake process"
I switched to using "Manual" WB on all my non-strobe shots by calculating the WB off a dive slate at the depth I am taking the photos. I found the original pics were better and adjusted better in PS w/o using the "mandrake process".

 

[Dee]

Dee, when you say "I prefer using the manual white balance of my camera", do you mean while not using a strobe, or always?

Sorry, I should have been more clear.

Yes, I prefer MWB when not using a strobe. I just have to remember to switch back to auto WB when I need the strobe.

I've read that you can use MWB with a strobe for macro shots as long as you calibrate with it but I haven't tried it.

 

[MikeC]

Ok, here's a question from a non-digital camera person BUT a person who has and does white balance broadcast video cameras for TV production. How can you correct a color if you do not know what the color is??? If you took a picture at the start of the dive of a white card, at depth, then you have a VALID reference point to correct the colors, otherwise you are guessing, right?

The purpose of white balancing a camera is to "define" white for the electronics in the camera. In fact, we MUST do both a white and black balance before a camera should be used. (Otherwise people at home can see the mistake )

 

[Kim]

Ok, here's a question from a non-digital camera person BUT a person who has and does white balance broadcast video cameras for TV production. How can you correct a color if you do not know what the color is??? If you took a picture at the start of the dive of a white card, at depth, then you have a VALID reference point to correct the colors, otherwise you are guessing, right?

The purpose of white balancing a camera is to "define" white for the electronics in the camera. In fact, we MUST do both a white and black balance before a camera should be used. (Otherwise people at home can see the mistake )

I think that the idea is to take a white slate with you and point the camera at that to adjust it. Then - whatever the slate looks like at any depth - you know that that is the true white. (some people use a patch of sand)