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Recently I’ve shot a couple of family get-togethers and on location shoots. One struggle I was having was with my white balance. There would be at least three different WBs on each location and sometimes more. (Outdoor, flash, incandescent etc.)
I shot RAW so I can fix it in post, but I would like to get it right in camera. I also have an expo dice, but haven’t gotten into the habit of using it. I’m also not always happy with the color it gives me. Would you recommend the Expo disc?
Does anyone have tips for quickly and accurately changing the WB?
Thanks in advance for any tips!
-Hannah@blessingscaptured, I shoot in RAW and just adjust in post-processing as well. It’s not a big deal for me. But getting it right in camera is always a good idea, so it’s something I’d like to grow in as well particularly if it becomes more of an issue for me, like you were describing.
I don’t have an expo disc myself, so don’t want to comment much but I did recently hear someone who uses one say that they will face the same direction as their subject when using the expo disc, so they color it is capturing is the color light that will be landing on the subject’s face, not the color of light behind the subject. This was in context of outdoor portrait photography, using natural light. And they adjust it every time they move into a different lighting setting, or as the light changes. That made sense to me. If you’re exposing for the subject’s face, it makes sense you’d change your WB in context of the light that’s hitting your subject’s face as well. Anyways, I’m not sure if I explained that well, but it might be worth experimenting with. 🙂
Interested to hear others’ comments on this topic!
Perhaps you could gel your flash to make it the same/similar color as the other dominate light-source colors.
Also, dominate with your flash if possible. Increase flash power (and use a faster shutter speed), turn off lights in the room, use modeling lights?
That does make sense about using the expo disc @lenspirationlydia.Thank you! I was testing it out last evening with a little still life shoot. I set the WB with the disc at the beginning and didn’t change it during the 30’ish min of shooting. When I reviewed the pictures later it was interesting to note how the color of the light had changed as the sun began to set.
So when using the expo disc, I should practice being more aware of what the light is doing and reset the WB accordingly.I’ll have to try gelling my flash @jamesstaddon! That also makes sense to have the flash dominate. How do you know what color gel to use? Do you just have to train your eyes to see the slight variations of light color and pick the matching color gel?
Here’s a follow-up question.
Let me give you a sample scenario. I’m taking pictures at an event: one room has a orangey color light; I have a flash-lit photobooth were I’m also taking pictures as people are available; there’s another room with yet a different color light; and finally, once in a while I’ll step outside and grab a few pictures. I’m responsible for taking picture at all the locations and I keep going back and forth among them.
How would you keep up with all the different colors of light and do it quickly?Manual WB takes a lot of practice to learn just like Manual exposure took a lot of practice to learn!
When I reviewed the pictures later it was interesting to note how the color of the light had changed as the sun began to set.
Yeah, that makes sense!
How would you keep up with all the different colors of light and do it quickly?
I think what you said at the end, “Manual WB takes a lot of practice to learn just like Manual exposure took a lot of practice to learn” is one answer. 🙂 Practice, practice, practice. And in the meantime, similar to using the semi-automatic modes like Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority when you’re still working on Manual, keep using auto WB or the other preset WB settings when you need to. Especially since you’re shooting in RAW.
Thanks Lydia, for you encouragement to keep at it! I’ve been trying to intentionally use my expo disc and to watch the color of light.
On a funny note, the other day I was photographing in our local firetower and I thought “this would not be a good place to use the expo disc. I would have to ‘fly’ over to where the sun is hitting my subject to set the WB.” I just used sunny wb. 🙂
Haha, that’s hilarious!
You’ll have to let me know how it goes with the expo disc and how worth it you find it to use one! Thanks for your example of persistence and diligence in working at this!
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