When is the WB set with a flash

[TrevorPierce]

Hi,

Just looking at my first photos back
using my Sunpak Auto 555 and I'm don't seem to getting the same sort of results as I get from my SB28.

This got me to thinking about when the Wb was set by the camera.

Also is there a best WB setting for shooting with a flash?

Thanks
Trevor

[Tom V]

Trevor,

The light emitted by an electronic flash is a very high color temperture, around 6000K° to mimic daylight.

Set your camera's white balance to SUNNY for typical shots that are mainly illuminated by sunlight or flash.

[TrevorPierce]

Tom,

Is this usually better than just having it set to auto?

I was thinking that this might be the way to go but had yet to really play with it.

Thanks
Trevor

[Tom V]

Originally posted by TrevorPierce


Is this usually better than just having it set to auto?



Trevor,

"Usually" means there are exceptions, but usually I set my white balance to SUNNY when I shoot with flash.

If I am just carrying the camera to shoot some candid grab shots during an aimless day, I will set it to AUTO as a default. If I find myself in a shooting situation and have a few seconds, I will start modifying the camera's settings to better suit the particulars If I am indoors with a certain lighting, I will switch the camera to the appropriate setting the first chance I get. If the lighting is mixed, or changing, I would leave the white balance on AUTO. If the lighting is all over the place, I would shoot in RAW mode, and adjust the white balance later in RAW File Converter EX on a shot by shot basis.

I encourage you to play with your camera. Playing with even the slightest purpose is really education. You educate your mind to the technical details of using the camera, and you educate your hands and fingers to the physical form and functions of the camera. Both will make you quicker and more confident with the camera. The more you educate yourself with the camera and results under differing conditions, the more able you are as a photographer.

Do some testing (playing), and learn from every exposure. Delete the what you don't need, but retain what you learn.

The great thing about digital photography is that it costs virtually nothing to try something. All it requires is electrons, and there are probably more electrons in the galaxy than I could count!

[Wichita Wayne]

It not only requires electrons but it also takes a lot of photons. Without PHOTOns you would not have any PHOTOgraphy. But then again, this is kind of a quibble. Not a Bibble, but a quibble.

Sorry, too much Guinness.

[Tom V]

Originally posted by Wayne
... too much Guinness.

No such thing.

[dhphy]

Having only recently acquired this camera and having some misgivings about skin tone rendition, I have been looking at white balance being a problem for the horribly pink tones at all settings, I seem to get with flash pictures.
Checking the manual, it says
'When the flash fires, white balance settings other than AUTO and CUSTOM are ignored.
A few tests with different WB settings have borne this out.
Any help on lobster toning would be of help.
I'm in the UK and this is winter, we should be pale white, not pink!
Dave

[ballroom_boy]

I agree with the above post... last night I ran an experiment with my S2 and SB-26. On the S2 I used both AUTO WB and DAYLIGHT WB with the flash... no difference seen at all between the 2 WB modes.

A couple questions:

1) When WB on the S2 is set to something else other than AUTO or CUSTOM with a flash, is AUTO WB used?

2) If I were to set the CUSTOM WB on the S2 for use with flash, would I photograph a white card whilst using my SB-26?

Thanks!

[Tom Nolle]

Couple of random comments:

First, if you shoot Raw, you could try experimenting with changing the WB settings in the EX converter to see what you like best, meaning what seems to give you the most accurate colors. That would at least let you know what the WB *should* be.

The next point is that unfortunately flash and ambient light are frequently going to have different color temperatures. If you shoot fill flash (meaning that the ambient light is bright enough to create an image), you'll probably see some color shift between the parts of your picture that are flash-lit and those that were lit primarily by ambient light. Shade has a high color temperature, so if your camera is setting WB automatically in the shade, it might be setting too cool a setting for the flash. That would make the flash-lit part of the picture seem red-shifted.

The ideal solution, if the camera is indeed ignoring other than Custom WB, might be to set a custom white balance to something close to the flash unit's real color temperature. Daylight (sun) approximates this, but repeating my first point, you could check to see which of the settings gives you the best color. Duplicate that color balance in a custom camera setting and use that in the future, and you might have a better balance.

All this color stuff seems to be one of the pains of digital, but remember that most labs have compensated for color-temperature problems in printing, so we probably all had this in film all along and never noticed!

Tom

[sandman]

Sorry dave ,got to correct you ,not on anything to do with this post or the question of W.B, but on a far more serious subject

I'm 30miles south of you, and yesterday was the hottest day on record ever!! 101 degrees in the shade (read the front page of any newspaper,

And your saying it's winter over here and we should be all be white?. either this post has been lost for 8 months ,or your on something, what have you been drinking to loose 8 months , and could you send me some.

P.S.
only kidding i'm sure you did'nt mean it to come out like that (or did you?). and i pretty much use auto W.B. flash or not

[dhphy]

Sandman
Normally its a heady mixture of Ruddles or Spitfire or Bombadier dependant on what pub and whether it has run out. That is often followed buy a couple of glasses of red wine at home. Does sometimes get me slaughtered though. However, never to the extent and that I don't know (for any extended period) what season we are in. This is indeed a revived thread and if you check the date of my posting it was in March. Technically I suppose it should have been considered as Spring but as I feel the cold a bit anything other than what we're having now I consider as winter.
This is definately summer.
30 miles south, Kent I suppose. Shepherd Neame I think. Not a bad pint

On a S2 note can anybody definately confirm that the camera defaults to "auto" white balance unless a custom or auto setting is set. It's the "anything other than auto or custom is ignored" bit in the manual that has always puzzled me. What does ignored mean?
Dave

[sandman]

Dave
have'nt a clue what that means , i thought it might mean that the S2 defaults after the batteries have been taken out , but it does'nt, the manuals japanese, don't want to be offensive, but after reading many instuction manuals in japanese , the're grasp of english is sometimes ,to put it mildly, odd. someone is bound to know.

Yes kent, medway towns, yes shepard neame, yes spitfire, sometimes bishops finger, mostly at home now , can't drink and drive.

Glad it's an old post, on sunday i'm going to one of my favorite essex towns, maldon. it's good to know i won't need snow shoes or a snow plough, there's a couple of good pubs down by the harbour.

Happy shooting
Sandman

[dhphy]

Sandman
Maldon on Sunday- sould be nice -will be busy!

Still like to know what "ignored" means anyone
Dave

[Wichita Wayne]

Wish I had been there too.

[sandman]

Wayne
Swap you , maldon on sunday, for a lunch with that beef in kansas. LOL

[Wichita Wayne]

Originally posted by sandman
Wayne
Swap you , maldon on sunday, for a lunch with that beef in kansas. LOL

Spent the night in a B&B in Pusey. Ate supper in a wonderful little pub their. The white horses were really something else. Here is the B&B:

[Wichita Wayne]

Both of these pictures were shot with a Fuji 4900. We didn't get an S2 until we got back from Ireland and the UK. I can't wait to get back and continue touring your area of the world.

[sandman]

Hi Wayne
While i'm looking on the map to find pusey. I really think we need a thread for a chat room , swampy mentioned it in his FAQ post. i like to talk ,but feel guilty sometimes talking about general things in the middle of a serious thread(just like this).
So how about it? any like minded folks out there feel the same, should i put a thread in,under general topics? and how would it get started,maybe one of the moderators could help?.Or do you all think it would be a waste of time and this forum is for serious photographic talk only, just like to know.

[easternherp]

A general chat forum sounds good to me. Photography is serious but we are humans behind the camera and its good to chat

[sandman]

2nd reply to you today easternherp, you are a month behind ,the ''anything goes'' forum's up and running, feel free to post , like to hear from you canaries .