3 Tips for a Perfect Custom White Balance

Setting a Custom White Balance

Setting a custom white balance is easier than you might think. It takes just a few short steps, but the key is to make sure the steps are done properly.

First, fill your frame with something white. You can use a white board, a grey card, a white wall or the actual light source. The key to doing this step correctly is to properly expose the image. You can check the proper exposure by tapping the shutter half way down until the light meter comes up. If your meter is dead center, you are perfectly exposed according to the camera. If it is to the left, you are underexposed, and if it is to the right, you are overexposed. This is a very crucial step to getting the proper custom white balance.

Now, take the picture. A lot of people I’ve taught have trouble getting the camera to actually take the picture of the full screen of white. This is because their camera is set on Auto Focus and it cannot focus on white because there is nothing to focus on. Therefore, it is attempting to focus and will not allow the picture to be captured. To fix this, simply put your camera on Manual Focus and you’ll see that with a simple click of the shutter, the image will be captured and you can apply it as your white balance.

Next, go to your menu and find the “Custom White Balance” tab. Once you select it, it will show you the image of the white you’ve just captured. You can also scroll through to select other ones if you’ve shot several white cards. Press “OK” to set it as your white balance and “OK” again.

Now that you’ve told your camera what white should look like, you need to apply it to your shots. You do this by going to your white balance selections and scrolling to the custom white balance icon. If you miss this step, your custom white balance won’t be used by the camera even if you have just set it.

Setting a custom white balance is effortless if you remember 3 very important things:

1.     Make sure your image of a full white screen is properly exposed

2.     Make sure your camera is on Manual Focus

3.     Make sure to select the “Custom White Balance” icon once you’ve set the custom white balance

One final tip: One a few occasions, I’ve seen the white balance skew to green where everything in the screen is green instead of white. To fix this, just do the custom white balance again. The white card you’ll fill the screen with will appear green, but setting the custom white balance will change that problem precisely because you are telling your camera that the green is actually white. Problem solved!

- See more at: http://blog.theassociation.tv/blog/the-association/page/2#sthash.mP5wCmNy.dpuf

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