WB calibration in studio shooting

Could you suggest me a procedure to adjust my WB at the beginning of a

shooting? Also, what king of material do I need to do it? thanks

I use a white dish towel. I increase my exposure until the detail disappears, then back off 1/3 stop. I then use that shot (the properly exposed one) to set the white balance for the whole session in the RAW converter. My Alien Bee strobes are pretty consistent for color temp within a limited adjustment range so making +/- 1/3 stop changes doesn't change the WB appreciably. If I change the lighting more than that, I shoot the towel again.

 

<Chas>

Which is a pretty inaccurate way to do it. Hope you don't have clients taking your word on accuracy. Yo uhave no idea about what bleachign agents the material was made wit hor are used i nthe detergent you use to do laundry with.

 

Get a WhiBAL card (http://www.rawworkflow.com/products/whibal/index.html )or a X-Rite 24 patch Color Checker. USe the light gray patch not the white,

a whibal card is great. Cheap easy and accurate.

<i>Ellis Vener, "Which is a pretty inaccurate way to do it. Hope you don't have clients taking your word on accuracy."</i><br>

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*cough*asshole*cough*<br>

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That's two minutes w/ your nose in the corner, Ellis. Unless Charles is shooting fashion, makeup, or commercial autos, for high end clients-- where color accuracy is so important-- I doubt his way leaves much to be desired.<br>

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It's one thing to spread book smarts, for educational purposes, but if you are going to actually be insulting in a retort, you should make sure that your pictures are examples of prestine color and lighting accuracy. Just saying.

One of the lessons I've learned in life is that perfection is not achievable in anything, therefore my job is to determine "how good is good enough." That philosophy has worked well through a successful career running a recording studio and then managing a world-wide technical documentation effort.

 

The method I describe is "good enough" for my purposes. I do not need perfect color temperature balance, heck my colored walls probably affect the color temp also. But I'm not too worried about it. I'm not shooting for clients, just for me.

 

My technique may not be "good enough" for you. Only you can make that call. Ellis, if you read my original post, you will note that I was describing what I do, not what you do, or what you should do. It works for me, your mileage may vary.

 

<Chas>

I hate to be even more inaccurate than Charles but I set my wb to daylight most of the time, seems to work well for my lights and the space that I use as a studio.

 

I can't use Charles method because I have a dishwasher and its not white.

Why do people keep asking how to set white balance in the studio. Studio strobes are all 5500 plus or minus just as they always were in film days. You simply set your WB for 5500 or daylight just like you would have loaded your film camera with daylight balanced film. If the camera gives you a range of choices between 5000 and 6000 you can experiment and see which you like the look of the best. Can you even take a custom white balance off the pop of a flash. I think most cameras would be white balancing off the modeling light, guaranteeing the wrong white balance.

Why do people keep asking how to set white balance in the studio. Studio strobes are all 5500 plus or minus just as they always were in film days. You simply set your WB for 5500 or daylight just like you would have loaded your film camera with daylight balanced film. If the camera gives you a range of choices between 5000 and 6000 you can experiment and see which you like the look of the best. Can you even take a custom white balance off the pop of a flash. I think most cameras would be white balancing off the modeling light, guaranteeing the wrong white balance.

Thanks to people who want to help others! To me any, question is good (that's the only way to learn) but sometimes it is the answer that makes all the trouble Mr. Shearman. And also, if you think "Why do people keep asking how to set white balance in the studio?..." just dont answer!

Whibal is very good, as are other color checkers (use on the grey patch as ellis suggested)

 

Very easy to do, just pop one shot of the whibal with the lighting in place, and you're good to go (either set to that WB in camera, or easier, use the WB set method of your rawconverter)

Hi There,

 

I am new to photo.net but I have two suggestions whether in the studio or not.

1) Invest in an expodisc. Great little tool

2) Shoot in RAW mode. In the world of Canon that will allow you to adjust your white balance post shooting.

 

Bill