Help with manual White Balance

J. Odoms

J. Odoms

Well-known member
OK so I finally bought me a WhiteBalance card, which has three cards (Black, White, Grey)

My question is, seeing that the 7D's AWB is so terrible, since it changes every few seconds in some situations, how am I to set Manual WB.

If someone familiar with this can provide a detailed step, by step, instructional I would gretly appreciate it.

Or

If you know of a Vimeo or youtube video which details this please link to it.

Thanks

J. Odoms
 
The camera does it's manual white balance through stills.
So you have to take a photo of your white reference, then go into the menu and choose "Custom WB"
At that point you'll be able to scroll through the images you have on your card, simply choose the one you want to use for your white balance reference and hit the set button.

That should be it.
 
Luis, does that card have to take up the entire frame, or does it simply need to be predominately in frame?

Also is this something I need to do at every location change, or is it that one picture of the WhiteCard used forever?

I would imagine you take the picture over whenever you change location, since each place has different bulbs and such.
 
You're right - white balance will change with new lighting - so you should do it at every location change.

I don't believe the card has to take up the entire frame - not sure the percentage it needs to give you an accurate reading.
Test it out and you'll see the differences between taking up different parts of the frame.
I think as long as it's taking up the majority of the frame (in the center) you should be okay.
 
One more question, what is the deal with them also sending me a grey and black card. How are those tools used with filmmaking.

Do some cameras have a black balance setting or grey balance?

Will these ever be used, or are they simply just there...
 
J. Odoms said:
One more question, what is the deal with them also sending me a grey and black card. How are those tools used with filmmaking.

Do some cameras have a black balance setting or grey balance?

Will these ever be used, or are they simply just there...
Click to expand...

Filmmaking uses all of them. In fact if you ask a telecineist (guy who transfers motion picture film to video, and usually the first person to color correct/exposure correct your film) what color the card is that he usually sees at the head of a roll of film, he'll say "grey".

Another reason for sending all three is that you could shoot a clip of all three, and then use those three points for your levels. Some color correction programs (including Stu's wonderful "Rebel CC" that comes with his book) allow you to start your color correction by setting white/grey/black points, so if you shoot all three together at the head of your shooting of that scene you'll have the reference when you go back to correct.

I don't know the story behind white balance instead of grey balance, but I'm assuming it's because a sheet of white paper is easier to find than an 18% card. Some people will say that you should be using the grey card for the 7d and not the white card, but that's an argument (discussion?) for another time.

I would say shoot as much of the card as you can, and do it in the lighting of the scene.
 
That makes sense, for the most part, especially when it comes to the positioning of the card. I'm really wondering why some suggest White Balancing with the 18% Grey card over the True White card, regarding the 7D.

Are they suggesting that the 7D has a skewed reference when it comes to white, and the more accurate way of getting accurate color balance is through the GreyCard. I'm just attempting to wrap my head around this.

Also if you can find links to that thread (discussion) that would be great, so I can read up on it.
 
It's not specific to the 7d, and the argument goes back a while.

Anything found in <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=white+balance+with+a+grey+card&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a">this</a> search will certainly give you some information.

Basically an 18% grey card reflects light in a very specific way, from card to card. I would assume a manufactured white card would be the same from card to card, but it's not the same known quantity. Part of the argument stems from people using whatever "white" card they have available (notebook paper, poster board, styrofoam cup), with none of these having the same value (or reflectiveness) of white.

This is my understanding from what I've read and heard discussed.
 
J. Odoms said:
Luis, does that card have to take up the entire frame, or does it simply need to be predominately in frame?

Also is this something I need to do at every location change, or is it that one picture of the WhiteCard used forever?

I would imagine you take the picture over whenever you change location, since each place has different bulbs and such.
Click to expand...

The area that is used for spot metering is used for the white balance (that circle in the middle). Make sure that area is covering the white card and take a picture of it while in custom white balance mode. Then go to the menu and select the custom white balance feature and make sure that picture is used when it calculates the white balance. Yes, it will need to be done in every location or when the light changes.
 
J. Odoms said:
Here is something I came across that isn't much but definetly displays the benefits of Manual White Balancing.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E7D/E7DIMAGING.HTM
Click to expand...

What do you mean isn't much?

This is a good find, probably should be a sticky. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but there's a lot of information there. I also don't know how accurate but it is very informative and covers a lot of the topics that get asked here again and again.

This is quite an extensive review. :love4:
 
Each one of these: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=WishList.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=429983&is=REG comes with an instructional DVD that really helped me understand histograms and manual white balance. It is recommended to take a final still of the target in each scene after you are happy with exposure and WB, delete any of the "work" stills you used to set exposure and final WB and save the one still from each scene you shoot as a tool for CC in post. It made perfect sense to me and I have adopted the proceedure as a habit.
 
Here is my step by step process (so far) for setting a custom white balance for Video on the Canon T2i


1. Start in Photo Mode - take a picture of a white object (white should fill the screen)

2. Switch over to video mode

3. Press DISP button (display) twice or until the big list of icons is displayed

4. Press the Q/Printer Button to highlight the top white balance icon

5. At the bottom of the screen, see the first of the white balance options,

6. Turn the scroll wheel until it says “CUSTOM” and press Set button

7. Press Menu Button

8. Navigate to 4th Icon and select “Custom White Balance” - it should show you the still image of the white object you photographed earlier

9. Press Set button

10. “use WB data from this image for Custom WB” - select OK and Set button

11. Get out of Menu mode and into Live View and confirm that the white balance is now correct
 
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