White Balance: Whibal

[KevinStecyk]

Originally Posted by DierkHaasis

2. WhiBal is not developed to set [inconvenient] in-camera WB. It's normal use is too shoot a reference photo for the lighting conditions encountered, then get a WB reading in your image processor of choice, save it and use it for all photos in the same lighting conditions.
You can use it to set a custom WB in the camera; depending on the camera you need to fill the full frame [Nikon] - meaning you should get at least a Studio, better yet a Reference - or the shown spot metering area [some Canons].

That was my impression too. That is, you need to fill the frame.

Yet, in the video he seemed to have color corrected his photos in camera. So I am curious as to how he did it.

The comments on Strobist (see my initial post) also seem to indicate that the photos were color corrected in camera.

Again, I understand the general concept of color correcting in post with a target. Use the target to obtain proper color calibration and then use the settings for all similarly lit shots. In this case, however, I get the impression that he did something different.

[DougAxford]

I'm not sure if this is helping any but if the area outside the white is neutral, the WB will still be reasonably good. Perhaps one person's view of correct WB is different from another's.

We used to WB with a white board, filled 100% of frame and still found it was inconsisitent. I would much rather dial in a set Kelvin to get repeatable results. If using the same flash system and with no strong ambient light, the preset K is our preferred method every time. Simply do some quick tests to see what the K setting should be and you're all set.

With the 40D and fine tuning in the menu, I can get the WB to be EXACT (used to be called dead-nuts-on). That's something I could never get before. Any CC in PP is now strictly due to wanting to get skin colors better than the actually are in real life. Winter is pretty brutal on skin color in our area, especially those d*** tanning lotions.

Sadly, most people are mystified by Kelvin and are afraid to use it.

[David_Buzzard]

I'm not familiar with the Whibal unit, but it seems like he's putting it in there so that he can do a 'click balance' in post production.

I'm big fan of the Photo Vision Digital Calibration Target. I make a custom white balance from the grey section of the target, and then check the exposure by shooting the whole thing. That almost always gets me right on the money, but to be safe, I usually shoot a scene with the target in it so that I can 'click balance' it after the fact in Aperture.

With Aperture, all you have to do is click on the white section of the target, and that will give you a proper white balance. Once I've saved the white balance setting, I can apply it to all the other shots in the sequence. One thing I'd like to see in a future version of Aperture would be a feature where you could click on an 18% grey card and use that value to set the exposure. That way you could click on the white part of the target to get colour, and the grey part to get exposure, and you'd be on your way.

The coolest thing in the video was how he was using a portable DVD player to preview the images. That looks way easier and cheaper than tethering to a computer.

David Buzzard's Technical Blog

[WitoldWaldman]

Originally Posted by MikeA

What I found was that I got different color temps depending where I clicked on an apparently evenly lit and exposed whibal, everytime I used it. It could be the sensitivity of the picker is too fine or something like that, but in the end, I just put it in the drawer and forgot about it.

How different were the colour temperature readings? In Lightroom both the colour temperature and tint would be varied by taking a colour temperature reading. Did the colour balance of the image change quite noticeably between the different colour balance readings? From the way in which Lightroom's white balance colour picker is displayed, I believe that Lightroom takes an average of a number of pixels when trying to determine a white balance setting.

[MikeA]

Ah.

Yes, it was all over the place. After my last post, I experimented and found I could broaden the picker area, it's a lot better now.

Mike

[Doug_Kerr]

Originally Posted by KevinStecyk

In the video, I get the impression that only a small portion of the camera frame is filled with the Whibal target. My question is, how did the photographer use a small target to obtain his white balance in camera?

Canon EOS cameras make a white balance determination (for use mainly in "in-camera" color correction) from an existing frame by only using the central portion of the frame (supposedly corresponding to the scope of the "partial metering" circle in the viewfinder).

Are you speaking of an even smaller image of the neutral target in the "reference" image? (I haven't looked at the video yet.)

[KevinStecyk]

Originally Posted by Doug_Kerr

Are you speaking of an even smaller image of the neutral target in the "reference" image? (I haven't looked at the video yet.)

Hi Doug,

It's been a while since I viewed this video, but as I recall, the Whibal unit shown in the video is quite small, yet the photographer seemed to have color corrected his photos before showing his clients the images just after shooting them. My impression was that you needed the center portion of the viewfinder filled with the target for Canon to properly set its whitebalance.

Best regards,
Kevin