Difficulty setting custom white balance with strobes

[douglascott]

I'm having difficulty capturing a custom white balance with studio monolight

strobes. Part of the reason, I imagine, is that until the flash fires, there is

not enough light on my white card to allow the camera to focus and lock. I've

tried to lock the focus on the edge of the card and then shift back to the

center, but it hasn't worked - I get a "no good" response. I've had more

success when there's some ambient light in the area, but in this particular

studio setting there is none. I'm familiar with other white/gray cards used in

post-processing, but I would prefer to resolve in camera, if possible. I would

appreciate any suggestions.

[brooks short]

Manual focus?

[michaelklothphotography]

Doug,

 

I see that you are using a Nikon D80 which allows you to dial in the Kelvin temperature settings for your light source. Since you are having difficulty with your current method and since your strobes are likely daylight balanced, one solution would be to dial in a setting of 6500K (or what ever your strobes are rated at). Another possible cause for your difficulty is the color of the room that you've set up to use as your studio. If your walls or ceiling are painted with bright, saturated colors, you might be introducing a color shift from the reflected light and you would have to adjust your Kelvin temperature accordingly. Lacking a color temperature meter to give you an accurate measurement, you will have to experiment to find the best setting.

 

Best of luck.

[mrstubbs]

No need to focus for the white balance.

[brandon.r.foster]

Shine a flash light on the card to focus, and then turn the flash light off.

[brandon.r.foster]

Or you could always gel the strobes to a know Kelvin value, and dial in. You could also go with the in camera WB setting for flash. But I have had to use a flashlight to focus on subject in a dark studio before, and on critters at night for macro work. I will work just fine.

[beauh44]

What Anthony said. And you can always shoot RAW and dial in a custom color temperature after the shot's taken in something like ACR. Good luck!

[douglascott]

Thank you for all of the answers. I've had some success with placing a small thumb tack in the middle of the white board that I use. It gives the camera something to focus on, and therefore allows me to push shutter release. The modeling lights on the strobe, when the strobe head is in close proximity, usually puts out enough light. I will definitely keep the flash light trick in mind.

[ellis_vener_photography]

Stop shooting jpegs and manually focus at infinity. In Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), Lightroom, Nikon Capture , Bibble , etc. there are white balance eye dropper tools.

 

Just be mindful that with virtually all monolights , due to their internal engineering, when you change output levels, you'll also change the colro temperture of the light and flash duration. How big a change this creates will be dependent on how the pack was engineered.

[john_aceti]

<p> Last I checked strobes are 5500K not 6500K<br>

Set your camera to 5500 and go to town.<br>

Nikons will not fire unless they lock when using autofocus. Take a black pen and draw an small X in the center of the card, it needs a sharp edge to focus on</p>