WHITE BALANCE ref Dave W

[FUJI]

Boring shots I know, but after Dave W suggested that my DIY Diffuser gave a warm ....Colour Cast....to my recent post I decided to photograph our white wallpaper as a test the Flash fired in each case on the default EV setting.

 

Both shots taken as RAW converted to JPEGs for posting, both totally untouched, as-taken...shot in a shadowy corner of the living room in daylight:

 

#1 White balace as set for my recent post....Setting was for FLASH:

 

# 2 White Balance set to Cloudy daylight:

 

I see little difference, but advice is welcome as to where my white balance shoud be when using this diffuser.....look at almost any opaque plastic kitchenware and you will see there is hardly any colour:

 

The £100 Gary Fong Diffuser I borrowed and was inspired by looked far more yellow than the Basin:

 

Verdict and advice please:

 

Many thanks!

 

FUJI

[annie]

the second shot is whiter to my eyes fuji...

[annie]

 

one of those i done yesterday fuji...have only up loaded to see if we can compare, does it show what settings i was using. this was taken on the up stairs landing where we have only a very small amount of natural light, so it is quiet dim ......

[FUJI]

Thank You Annie,

 

Now I see your example, the second of my shots is the best......I realise now that, for the first and for my posts,  I had inadvertantly  left my camera on the FLASH WB....it really required CLOUDY WB, which is where I have left it:

 

All the second shot required was a much higher Flash EV setting.....Yes?

 

Note to Self:.........I must check my WB before any shooting:

 

FUJI

[annie]

together we will get there!

[Guest DaveW]

Yes neither shot is remotely white on my calibrated monitor using an EyeOne calibrator Fuji. I noticed it on a few of your pics in the past. I hope you did not mind me pointing it out since flash is often on the slightly blue side of neutral rather than "warm" as your wallpaper is. Try your camera on auto white balance and see what colour you get on the white wallpaper then.

If you want to see the maximum white the computer monitor can produce click on "Reply to this topic" and compare the white where you type in with your wallpaper (you need to click on to "Reply to topic" as it is greyed out before you do). Highlights should however be just slightly veiled, not burnt out to maximum white on the monitor.

As I say though check your monitor calibration to see it is producing a true white since if not you may be over compensating.

http://www.tranquilityimages.com/calibrate.shtml

[Guest]

fuji I have pasted both into one image and added a plain white stripe so you can see how far from white each is

 

[FUJI]

Thank you Richard, that really helps.......

I did suggest that my Flash EV setting should have been on its brightest, I can't remember what the ISO was......200 I think?

As stated, this was taken in the darkest corner of my north facing living room deliberately to carry out a fair test of my DIY diffuser.....I am sure that the £100 Gary Fong Diffuser would give exactly the same results in the same situation and settings.

I usually shoot all of my pics with adequate light.

I appreciate all the input on this, and my other posts.

More experimenting and testing to follow.

FUJI

[Guest]

iso was 200 on both of them according to the exif data

[Guest DaveW]

Found these Fuji:-

 

http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/white-balance/4500-wb-comparison.html

 

I wondered why you used the "Cloudy" setting (6000k-6500k) for flash since flash is close to "Daylight" (5200k-5500k) therefore the "Cloudy" setting would produce a warmer colour cast?

 

"To make a warmer-than-normal image, simply select the cloudy white balance setting while shooting in normal daylight. This sets the camera white balance to about 6000 K, which makes nice warm-looking images."

 

http://www.ianplant.com/photo-tips-how-to-white-balance.htm

[Black Pearl]

Of you're shooting RAW just use the WB dropper on any neutral (white/grey) area and it'll zero the WB to suit your light source.

There's no point in fiddling with any in-camera setting with RAW files as everything can be altered in the processing stage.

[NannyFerret]

It might sound silly, but what about a translucent blue basin or lid?

[Guest DaveW]

Fuji's dish is acting as a reflector not  as a "shoot through" diffuser, so no point in it being translucent Nanny.   A blue reflector would inpart a blue cast since the flash itself is supposed to be daylight balanced anyway.

 

See Fuji's reflector here:-

http://www.tipf.co.uk/index.php/topic/1877-saving-moneyflash-diffuser-diy/

 

Incidentally, whatever camera you shot your Sony and the reflector with in the above link seems to have the correct white balance setting, since it's whites are white. I would suspect therefore it's something awry with the white balance setting on your Sony rather than your flash set up, plus I doubt the Fong flash reflector would be selling with such a colour cast. 

 

As BP says you can correct it in post processing but I would be inclined to sort out what settings are wrong on your Sony first. Have you tried setting it back to the manufacturers default settings?  You may have inadvertently changed something without realising it and a default reset is the easiest way to solve it.  I don't know your model so check in the manual but for A100 on the Web:-

 

http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/photography/9780596529253/section-4-setting-up-the-camera/setting_the_defaults

 

And for A200:-

 

"Setup Menu 3 Options:-

 

 

Reset default

- OK
- Cancel

Restore factory defaults.

 

[annie]

thats a good trick of richards to see how white the white is....

 

 

out of curiosity fuji...how did both our exif data compare...?