Custom White balance

[Dimain]

I am a novice in using D60 (owned one month).
Situation: shooting D60+ext.flash (I used metz 54). Flash direction: to the wall.
Object: one or more persons + interior objects
My question: optimal way to install custom WB.

I've tried it making snapshot of white paper sheet whith the following parameters: apperture+shooter speed (as planned for next shoots f.e. 1/125, 5.6), white balance - for flash, ext.flash: ETTL mode.
After that I want to use this snapshot as custom WB.

So, can I believe in correct white balance??
One more question: ISO for shooting with flash. Shall I always use ISO100 or higher ISO is more suitable?

[hmhm]

As far as I've ever been able to tell (and I have tested this), it doesn't matter what WB mode you're in when you're taking your AWB reference frame (i.e. the shot of the white paper).

What you're doing sounds fine. You might get more accurate results with something specifically designed to be neutral, like a real photo grey card. White paper comes in a variety of different shades of "white".

The tricky part about white balance used with flash is that the ambient room light is likely to be a very different color from the bounced flash, so the accuracy of your white balance will depend on the relative amounts of flash vs ambient light, if that varies from shot to shot. Being consistent about aperture and shutter speed should help minimize this problem, but the "mix" can vary if you're moving around the room.

In terms of ISO selection, you generally want to use the lowest ISO you can, barring other "factors", to minimize noise. Of course, the other factors can be kind of important. In particular, if your flash isn't powerful enough to provide enough light (particular when bounced), and wider aperture isn't an option, then you have no choice but to up the ISO. Also, sometimes you'd like to maximize the input of ambient light, to provide some lighting for the background, versus a "deer in the headlights" flash-only shot against a pitch-black background (note that the background's white-balance won't flash the flash-lit foreground's very well, which you may or may not be bothered by). A higher ISO might help you to get some ambient lighting of the background without lowering shutter speed to the point where there's blur due to camera or subject motion. In general, on-camera flash shots tend not to be maximal image quality to begin with, so bumping up to 200 or 400 might not hurt, if you like the resulting background better.

Experiment a bit, see what works best for you, and then come report your results!
-harry

[Dimain]

thank you, Harry, for this topic.
one more question to you &everybody.
how often do you use custom WB for your pictures.
thanks

[neil_r]

I don't use custom white balence in camers, I shoot RAW and include a grey card in the first exposure, I then use this to set the custom white balance in Breezebrowser when I extract the linear tif, it works for me.

[Dimain]

neil_r wrote:
I don't use custom white balence in camers, I shoot RAW and include a grey card in the first exposure, I then use this to set the custom white balance in Breezebrowser when I extract the linear tif, it works for me.
Where it's possible to download this Browser. Is it free?
Thanks in advance

[neil_r]

You can D/Load it from

http://www.breezesys.com/BreezeBrowser/

It is not free but the Try b4 you buy version will let you process RAW to Linear TIF without a disfiguring watermark.

The full version is $35 (USD) or £26.50 (UKP) well worth it IMHO

You may also want to check out Roger Cavanagh's guide to BreezeBrowser workflow at :-

http://www.rogercavanagh.com/library/t11_workflow02.htm

Hope this helps

Neil

[Roger_Cavanagh]

neil_r wrote:
You may also want to check out Roger Cavanagh's guide to BreezeBrowser workflow at :-

http://www.rogercavanagh.com/library/t11_workflow02.htm

Thanks for the plug, Neil. :)

Just for the record, I restructured my site, so the current address for this page is now:

http://www.rogercavanagh.com/helpinfo/06_workflow.htm

Regards,