Darcy explained white balance - once again interns which finally clicked for me.
"White balance is the process of letting your camera know what is neutral so white things look white. Custom WB also makes your colors as accurate and crisp as possible."
Darcy also explained 2 ways to set custom white balance - using a gray card and using an expo disk. I watched the YouTube clip Darcy linked to, plus a couple of extras. Both methods of setting white balance appeared super easy but I hit one snag - I had neither the expo disk nor the 18% gray card on hand, and I didn't want to spend $100 on the expo disk just yet. So I searched around on YouTube for a DIY alternative to the expo disk and found this tutorial espousing that you could use a piece of toilet paper in place of the expo disk. This I had on hand - so it was the method I used for setting my custom WB.
I am not totally convinced that the toilet paper worked in setting my WB correctly, as I feel my Custom WB photo below still has a "gray film" over it - which is what Darcy described when using Auto WB. Nonetheless, I have learnt a lot with this assignment, and maybe next time I am at a camera store I will see about picking up some 18% grey card stock. If nothing else I managed to be switching between the various WB modes whilst my 16 month old climbed all over my lap, and my 3.5 year old reluctantly climbed all over his lounge chair. All they both wanted was to watch a little Fireman Sam. Maybe I will try again with a vase of flowers?
But here are the relevant specs for the photos below:
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: AF Zoom-Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G
ISO: 500
Aperture: f/3.3
Shutter Speed: 1/80sec
Do you have a DIY alternative for setting custom white balance? Have you tried the toilet paper trick to great effect?
2 comments:
Not all paper is white or reflects equally all light sources. Try using white envelopes, paper napkins, or place a Pringles translucent cap over your lens to take a test WB shot. By testing figure out what brings the best results under different light conditions.
Thanks for the suggestions - I will play around with these suggestions and see which one I get the best results from.
Post a Comment