White Balance Underwater

[DavisLL]

Being I'm a novice at underwater photography, I'm hoping someone can help answer the following questions. If you are using a strobe do you still need to white balance your camera underwater? What are the effects on your picture if you do or don't?

 

[Wisnu]

No, no need, set to auto or cloud.
If you WB, your picture will be redish.

 

[PatW]

If your camera allows it, shoot in RAW and white balance in post processing.

 

[Puffer Fish]

If your camera allows it, shoot in RAW and white balance in post processing.

I'm with Pat....if you cannot shoot raw, then you need to know if your strobe matches the built in strobe... you do that by shooting a white card and then checking the color later.

While a jpeg cannot show anything off the recorded image, you can make minor adjustments as long as you have not clipped any of the information (the curves are cut off on either side)

Usually, it is just a minor shift, if it is off.

Example: Canon cameras have a slightly cooler strobe than a Sea Sea uses. Images will be a bit redder than they should be, so you just turn down the red channel a small amount ... and you are there.

 

[Charlie99]

If you WB, your picture will be redish.

This is true if you use the non-flash manual WB and just turn on the flash.

My camera will do a manual wb with the flash on. I sometimes do that just because it is easier to do than to change WB mode.

In any case, WB will be a problem in shots where the foreground is illuminated by the flash and the background is illuminated by ambient light. In most dive environments, the background would be the same sort of monochrome blue that you would get in a non-flash photo taken with auto WB.

 

[Kilili]

If you can, shoot RAW, where white balance settings are ignored anyway. Then edit in PhotoShop.

Not like the old days of film.