Setting the custpm white balance

[glogower]

I have been shooting theater dance productions with available light

under tungston spot lights and am experimenting with setting the

custom white balance and the white balance correcion on the 20D.

Any tips or advise will be much appreciated. And also shooting in TV

or AV mode, any preferences there either?

[KenPapai]

My first question to you is -- why did you post this image as a GIF? (256 colors only) I can't imagine having any preference in Tv or Av mode -- that would be your preference depending on the situation and how much dance movement is involved and also how much post propcessing you want to do if you bump the ISO to 800 or faster. Are you shooting with at least a fast f/2.8 lens?

[chiswick_john]

Shoot RAW and adjust it later. Shoot AV and set your aperture to the widest setting - this will alow your shutter speed to be at it's fastest and ensure minimum motion blur ( provided you focus accuratley).

[glogower]

Oh yes, I have a Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 IS and Canon28-70mm L L/2.8 and canon 50mm 1.8 lens

[steve_dunn2]

<p>If the lighting stays the same throughout the show, and if there's something neutral you can sample, then by all means go with custom white balance; it will do a good, and consistent, job. But if the lighting changes, you'll need to set a new custom white balance each time it changes, which could be hard to do if it changes frequently or if sometimes there's nothing neutral to use as a reference, and you may miss a shot while you're fiddling with the custom WB settings.</p>

 

<p>If it's possible to shoot RAW, that would be a good idea. The WB you set in the camera is essentially meaningless if you shoot RAW; it comes up as the default when converting the RAW file but you can always fine-tune it.</p>

[chrisjb]

Hi, so far I`ve found the WB of the 20D quite trying. Short of using a color meter and setting WB in K not much can be done in theater as most shows change lighting with the mode of the play. You could set the K to a basic tungston setting and try that. I`ve found myself using the white point in curves more often now to remove color cast.

I also think you`d be better using manual than AV.

 

I apologize for altering your image as you problably already know proc. but is this the look you are after.,.Good luck<div></div>

[jbq]

What Steve said: if you insist on JPEG and you can reliably set a custom white balance, it'll work fine (emphasis on "reliably"). Otherwise shoot raw and adjust the white balance when extracting, either globally, or on a per-shot basis.

[glogower]

Chris, I am not familiar with white point in curves? What is that?

[jim_larson1]

White point: Click on a white object, and Voila! The color temp is changed to make that point white.

 

This, of course, brings up a very subjective question: Do you want the dress to be white? Sure, that is the "natural colour", but that is not what you see on stage. You see the colour cast projected by the lights. Like I said. . .a very subjective question.

[chrisjb]

Hi Andy, Jim is right which is why I ask if you wanted the photo to look this way. To set the white point in order to remove color cast. In photoshop bring up the curves box, then in the bottom right side 3 boxes with color pickers to choose, black,gray & white. click on white then place the picker onto part of the image that you want white and click mouse, you can do it again as much as you like till you get the desiered affect. Not always successful but it often gives a starting place.

 

In Elements. go Enhance>Adj brightness & contrast>levels

 

or Enhance>Adj color >color cast.

 

I hopes it helps sure is better to get the affect with the camera 1st. but this maybe a remedy.