Whats all this W/B stuff?

[usmc4x4]

What exactly does the white balance do and in what situations should I adjust it? I just bought my rig and don't even have it in hand yet but I am trying learn and read as much as possible. Thanks...

 

[The Kraken]

That's a good question, Jar Head !!!

I'm new to u/s digital photography.

As best I can understand it, is that it is a method by which one can use a white card to set certain parameters in the camera/video in order to remove the excessive blues and greens of underwater shots.

I think in the digital camera world it facilitates color correction at the computer before saving or printing.

I'm sure some of our resident experts will help us out here shortly.

the K

 

[CompuDude]

Pretty much, yeah. I'm sure you already know water filters out reds, the deeper you go. Having no real reds kinda skews the camera's idea of what white is supposed to be, so the automatic settings don't work well and your shots can have really bad color. Setting the white balance manually, by pointing the camera at something truly white (like a white card, or a slate, or even sand, in a pinch) and telling the camera "THIS is what white looks like at this depth!" let's the camera compensate appropriately, and give you more natural looking colors. IT can't compensate completely for the fact that there's just not a lot of red, but it'll be a LOT better.

 

[Barracuda2]

What exactly does the white balance do and in what situations should I adjust it? I just bought my rig and don't even have it in hand yet but I am trying learn and read as much as possible. Thanks...

Various lights have different temperatures; flouresant throws out a different temp. than a light bulb; sodium lights are different from both. Outdoor Ambient light is different for all other types of lighting. This difference can really be noticed if you shoot video or photo inside next to a window. The window side of the image may have a bluish tint to it while the opposite side may be natural or even have a slightly redish tint. Most cams have indoor and outdoor presets, or automatic (self adjusting--not totally reliable) The most accurate way to set WB so the image has true colors, or at least as close as possible, is to manually set the camera using a white background lit in the prevailing lighting of that environment. White is is "colorless" so if set to white, the other colors of the spectrum should be correct. I really don't know the science behind this, thus a simplistic explaination. If I'm shooting in one location with artifical lighting, I wll manually set the WB. If I'm moving around outside (especially UW where the environment is constantly changing), I wil shoot in auto WB. Some guys actually cruise the reefs with a white card and set WB for every shot.

 

[ronrosa]

I like to set manual white balance whenever my depth has changed more than 20 ft. I can easily switch between auto and manual, so it's pretty easy to see which mode is working better, which most of the time is manual.

You can still get good footage on auto, but in my opinion, manual helps the coloring big time. With manual white balance, colors look better through the camcorder lens than with my own eyes.

Here is a clip shot in Aruba at 90 ft. White balance was set using the sand. I've posted this clip before, sorry if you have already seen it.

white balance clip

 

[yceltikci]

Can you offer a good way to W/B your camera?

I have a gates housing, which I need to use both hands to W/B. You need to face a white slate towards the lens at this time. Unless you are an octopus or you have a buddy around, it is impossible to do that. A firend of mine suggested to paint one of the fins to white... but this doesn't satisfy me...

Another problem is, you in front of a hole, and there are many colorful critters in it, you have lit your lights and there is no space for white slate? How am I going to W/B? Is it a better idea to switch to auto W/B mode?

Any opinions?

Regards,
Yener

 

[Barracuda2]

Can you offer a good way to W/B your camera?

I have a gates housing, which I need to use both hands to W/B. You need to face a white slate towards the lens at this time. Unless you are an octopus or you have a buddy around, it is impossible to do that. A firend of mine suggested to paint one of the fins to white... but this doesn't satisfy me...

Another problem is, you in front of a hole, and there are many colorful critters in it, you have lit your lights and there is no space for white slate? How am I going to W/B? Is it a better idea to switch to auto W/B mode?

Any opinions?

Regards,
Yener

Find an area where you can prop the slate up without touching the reef (perhaps in the sand or against a piece of dead coral) then set the WB. BTW, why do you have to use both hands to set WB? Your second question---in a difficult positioning situation, such as you described, I would just set to Auto WB for shots like that. Unless you're shooting something really rare and unusual, it's not worth the trouble to attempt to WB that scene.

 

[limeyx]

Can you offer a good way to W/B your camera?

I have a gates housing, which I need to use both hands to W/B. You need to face a white slate towards the lens at this time. Unless you are an octopus or you have a buddy around, it is impossible to do that. A firend of mine suggested to paint one of the fins to white... but this doesn't satisfy me...

Another problem is, you in front of a hole, and there are many colorful critters in it, you have lit your lights and there is no space for white slate? How am I going to W/B? Is it a better idea to switch to auto W/B mode?

Any opinions?

Regards,
Yener

I think if your camera can shoot in .RAW mode, that might be the way to go.
From what I understand, you can then adjust the WB on your computer without loss of information.

If you take in JPG then you are losing info and it's best to WB underwater.

Just my meager understanding (from someone who's still having trouble spelling F-stop

 

[PeaceDog]

But see, now, MY question is, how does white balancing affect lighting? Do you need to white balance with the lights on if you're going to use lights for that shot, or does it not matter? My next setup with have HIDs, I'm really curious about all this.

 

[limeyx]

But see, now, MY question is, how does white balancing affect lighting? Do you need to white balance with the lights on if you're going to use lights for that shot, or does it not matter? My next setup with have HIDs, I'm really curious about all this.

I *think* if you do RAW it doesn't matter.