WB question

[Lwisher]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Hello All,

 

Today is day one with my M9 (with a RF altogether actually) and my question is this:

 

Being that people seem to think the m9's Auto WB is sub par, what is the best way to get used to setting my WB manually?

 

Is there good tool for learning how to accurately set my WB for the shooting conditions?

 

Thanks in advance for your help,

 

 

Andy

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[jaapv]

It is in the manual. And it is really an unimportant thing, as you will set white balance in RAW conversion anyway.

If you are doing a product-shoot in the studio where color matching is important ( which is not the same as a correct white-balance btw), you can put a grey card or a Greta-Macbeth card in the first shot.

I would say, if you have to ask this question, just set the camera to AWB which is pretty good. Or set it to daylight and pretend you are shooting Kodachrome

[ianspector]

Dear Andy,

 

Setting a manual white balance is so quick and easy on the M9 I do it every time and the results are excellent. I use a sheet of white paper. Press the set button, press the set button again with White balance set, scroll down to manual and press set. It will tell you to point the camera at a white surface and release the shutter. That is it. Perfect white balance.

 

Enjoy your M9, many of us are also new to rangefinders and the M9 is our first taste.

 

Ian

[Lwisher]

Thanks Ian and Jaap. Now on to getting comfortable with focusing.

[Jamie Roberts]

You can also just memorize these settings and dial them in degrees K (on the menu). Chimping helps I find the manual WB setting too much hassle, and it's usually too cold anyway.

 

If you want a "daylight" rendering of things, just dial in 5600K. No, that won't compensate for actual light temperature, but it gives you an overall approach to how your eyes might perceive the light.

 

If you like something a little warmer or are always shooting in the shade, try something closer to 6600K.

 

For Tungsten, try 2900K. For Halogens, try around 3900K.

 

As Jaap said, this is really to make the LCD look ok; if you're shooting RAW you can get this right (and copy it) in post.