White Balance Preset

[Baywing]

On occasion, I use the preset WB when I need a custom WB not in the D100's menu. I use a Kodak 18% grey card. I find it easiest to place the grey card on the ground and do the WB proceedure. Is this best, or should it be placed at the subject, facing back toward the camera, as it would be if using it for exposure? (I shoot landscapes, so placing it "at the subject" is a relative term, which seems to require an extra hand I don't have!)
Interested in thoughts and discussion........if you have an opinion, please explain/back it up. Thanks.

 

[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[Henry Goh]

IMHO Kodak 18^ gray cards produce cooler than correct WB. Furthermore, many of us prefer a slight warmth for skin tones.

You may need a slight adjustment to your images during processing to give the images the slightly warmer tone instead of using the results directly.

Henry

 

[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[Henry Goh]

Paul

No we are not in disagreement, not at all.

White cards or paper may carry a dose of yellow and so your results are cooler. I find Kodak 18% cards are also not neutral, they are slightly yellowish, at least mine are. That is why I was discussing with Illah about gray paints (see Illah's thread further down in this section on GRAY). In any case, is there ever such a thing as "accurate" WB? I'm not sure.

If you are photographing a 4" x 4" flat object illuminated by a common light source perhaps one can claim to have captured it in an accurate WB. I suspect in a broad scene there will always be many zones of different WB, technically speaking.

Would love to hear from others who are more educated in this area.

Henry

 

[Iliah]

Paul,

Accuracy - in colorimetric sense, or to reproduce the impression?

And of course as we see colour differently, each of us has its own colour balance in particular scene.

Gray on sunset - what colour do we see? If we neutralize it - isn't it similar to the scene in broad daylight? When I look at white paper in incandescent light, I see it yellow.

Of course "correct" white balance gives more variety in colours in the scene (BTW one of the methods of setting wb is watching channel histograms to become most diverse), but IMHO often kills the light in the scene, its atmosphere.

I read somewhere an attempt of fundamental analysis what should be the light in museum to reproduce February light in the artist studio, located in Paris. To iterate it, author used different white balance for reproduction. I saw very familiar painting in the absolutely new light