need help with white balance

[gail]

most of my photos indoors have a yellowish tint to them even when using flash. maybe it's something to do with my w/b is not set correctly.
below is a sample of what I'm mean.

pic #2 is one after touch up in PS using the curves adjustment and auto color. #1 is straight out of the camera. most of all my indoor photos i have to use PS to correct the color.

can someone help me as what I need to do. and I'm using the
Canon 420 EX flash not the built in flash.

http://photos.imageevent.com/gailsgallery/familyalbum/websize/maddie2.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/gailsgallery/familyalbum/websize/maddie.JPG

[johneric8]

That is kind of the nature of the flash. If you can adjust the color temperture try messing with it until you get something that looks more accurate. I use that allot with my camera. If you can do that then just try setting it to awb. You are getting ambient light and flash light combined so it's very hard to get a perfect white balance. But, if you shoot a white or grey card with the flash and do a custom white balance you should be able to get a good starting point color wise. Make sure you dont get too close to the white card. Do it from about 3 feet away and manul focus. take a picture of it and set it as your custom white balance. Make sure that you dont overexpose the picture of the white card it must be exposed properly.

[Marvinspu36]

The picture is really cute! It looks like you might have bounced the flash off the ceiling, which will color the light reflected onto the subject.

One option is to use a gray card to set custom white balance. You can purchase a gray card at most photography stores for around $10 for a set of two 8"x10" cards. I use the Delta 1, 18% gray card. Canon recommends using a gray card to achieve optimum color balance.

You will see differing opinions on whether you should use a white sheet of paper (which is not always pure white), or an 18% gray card. My personal preference is the 18% gray card, since it yields consistant results. The best thing to do is to experiment and decide what works for you.

Click here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=56710&page=1&pp=40) for one post on white balance. Some of it may be a little confusing, but it will give you some ideas. If you still have questions after reading the post, then ask away.

The basic procedure for using the gray card is:

Note: To use custom white balance, you will have to use one of the Creative Zone modes, the Basic Zones do not let you set custom white balance.

1. Set the gray card where the subject will be.
2. Look in the viewfinder and fill the partial metering circle (large circle) with the gray card (you have to at least fill the partial metering circle in the view finder, it is not neccessary to fill the entire frame). It is best to turn off auto focus, as the camera may not let you take the picutre as it has a hard time focusing on the gray card. The picture of the gray card does not need to be in focus.
3. Take a picture of the gray card using the flash just like you will be for your actual photo.
4. Press the Menu Button and select Custom WB.
5. The picture you just took of the gray card should appear in the dispay. If not, turn the Quick Control Dial until it does.
6. Press the SET button, in the middle of the Quick Control Dial to select the picture.
7. Press the AF-WB button on the top of the camera and turn the Quick Control Dial until the Auto White Balance Icon is diplayed on the LCD.
8. You are now ready to take pictures using your custom white balance.

Hope this helps.

[gail]

thanks johneric8 and marvinspu36 for the advice on setting the white balance. So which one of the icon is the custom white balance? after i go from the AWB then there is different little icons which one do I set it on? I will have to go pick up a gray card. and just play around with the w/b settings.
again thanks for the help.

[glangston]

thanks johneric8 and marvinspu36 for the advice on setting the white balance. So which one of the icon is the custom white balance? after i go from the AWB then there is different little icons which one do I set it on? I will have to go pick up a gray card. and just play around with the w/b settings.
again thanks for the help.

If you have a 20D the icons are on page 50 of the manual. The custom WB icons looks like two opposing triangles with a small square in between. When you shoot a grey card the picture will be in the camera. When you select Custom WB in the Menu on the back (it's between WB Shift and Color Temp) the pictures in your camera will come up and you find the grey card you just shot (it will likely be the one showing, but if not wheel through the images and find the grey card pic) and press select. Then on the LCD on the top press the button for AF/WB and get the icons for WB and select the Custom icon. Is that pretty clear?

It's pretty simple to do and easy to change as the lighting changes. I don't hesitate to get a white balance reading right before I start to take pics, either indoors or outdoors. It's just a matter of shooting a card and then selecting it.

[Vita Rara]

Gail,

I have recently switched to using custom white balance and am finding the resutls very good. I used to try tuning by eye in DPP or C1, and that is good, but since using custom white balance my starting point is much better and all I have is fine tuning to do, if at all.

Mark

[Dante King]

I use a grey card and it helps alot. I also only shoot in raw or raw+jpeg formats so I can really tweak when I post process. Shoot raw give great latitude.

[gail]

thanks yall I see what you mean my raw it's awesome. But have to have a large card to use it if you plan on taking lots of pic's. So guess I need to invest in a larger card. But the raw is so much of a difference from jpg. And I did the custom white balance and still can't tell much different. But maybe I didn't do it just right.

I shot in awb and then cwb and their was not much of a difference. So guess I'm not doing something right. I just did the white piece of paper for now didn't have the gray card guess I need to pick up one and try that. But then I put it in raw mode and tried that and it was just want I'm looking for in the color. takes all that yellowest tint away. In raw in the shot in mode and change to auto balance and it made a big change. Well thanks for everyones help. I will be shooting in raw most of the time maybe jpg when taking out side shots.

[Marvinspu36]

I use high quality jpeg most of the time. I shoot RAW for only special shots. Using white balance works great for my jpeg images. For the RAW shots, it gives you a starting point for post processing.

When taking a picture of your gray card, make sure you place it in the same spot as your subject and use the flash exactly like you will be using during the actual shot. That is, if you are going to bounce the flash off the ceiling, then shoot the gray card with the flash bouncing off the ceiling.

Also, it is important to not overexpose the gray card shot.

Try the white balance correction in differing lighting situations, like indoors with no flash, indoor with flash, outdoors with no flash, etc. and see if you notice a difference in your shots. Hope this helps.

[rammy]

Indoor house bulbs put an orange/yellowish colour cast to images because of their low colour temperature.

Whenever I do indoor shots, I change white balance to remove the orange cast; Try using the tungsten bulb or fluorescent bulb setting.

You can see this effect if you open your RAW shots and change WB. Custom WB is a little OTT I think because you can easily remove the orange cast by changing WB.

[gail]

I will try that and see what I get. thanks for the help. Gail,

[R1 Kid]

One of the things I love about RAW is the little eye dropper feature. I can almost always find an accurate WB by touching different parts of white/gray on the picture. If all else fails play with the temp settings. But I understand about not having much space on a smaller card.

[gail]

yeah sure have to have a larger card when using raw. I only get 31 pic's to my card using raw. I need to get a larger one. I have 2- 256mb cards. Yeah I love the way you can work with the raw files. But I like to take lots of shots and it don't take long to use a card up fast ha.

[Jon]

You don't want to use AWB for your basis shot when planning to use CWB. Use one of the "fixed" white balances, even if it's off for your basic lighting conditions. That way the computer knows what kind of offset to make to bring things into balance. If you used AWB, the scene adjustment was done on the fly, while if you used a standard (even the previous CWB setting) the camera knows where it was starting from.

One thing that'll throw off your white balance when using flash indoors is the reflected light from the painted walls and ceiling (which are never neutral).