The M8's Wacky Auto White Balance

[hankg]

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When we shot color film you had 2 choices: daylight or tungsten. Commercial photographers would measure color temperature and correct with filters but documentary photgraphers and photojournalists basically had what the film gave them for every shot. You could leave the M8 WB set to daylight and have the same results you got with film. The color temperature in the shadow will be 2K or 3K cooler then the parts of the image in sunlight. If you have a mix of window and artificial light color temperature in various parts of the shot could vary from 3800K to 6800K so working with an average is not much of a compromise.

 

Shoot a whibal card before or after shots in a new lighting setting and you have a record of what the actual color temperature was for the main parts of the image. You may or may not want to set the color balance as it actually was in post but it will give you that option. No need to set or measure before hand and miss a shot.

[lars_bergquist]

I presume those days predated the invention of the flourescent bulb or the sodium streetlight?scott

 

Well, the fluorescent light was invented more or less at the same time I was. Those that didn't like what they got, got themselves an FL-D filter. I have not had any reason to shoot under fluorescents with the M8 yet, but you know? There is a setting marked 'Fluorescent'. Sooner or later I will try it, and then maybe I'll have four settings ...

 

Sodium is of course basically impossible because it is one very narrow single wavelength band, essentially. You cannot very well correct for it because the rest simply isn't there. The only way out is B&W.

 

The old man from the Age of the Kerosene Lamp

[Guest guy_mancuso]

And Flourescent there are at least 4 types. Like cool white, white, daylight etc etc. When i shot film i used to check which ones were at a shoot to compensate for. Normal i used a 40 magenta , Cool White i would drop to a 30 magenta

[woodda]

Yes it can be a pain but just take raw and adjust white point yourself. Thats what I do if I really do not like the effect. I haev the same problem with Nikon never trust it

[scott kirkpatrick]

I experimented this evening using my new 28mm Elmarit-M f/2.8 ASPH. Using a B+W 486 IR cut filter, shooting with Tungsten lighting, I set 3000K for white balance, which looked pretty good on the LCD. However, on opening the file in ACR 3.6 the white balance setting shows up as 3300K. The same shift occurs at other settings too.

 

The question is, how did they look when you opened them? If they looked at least as good on the computer preview as they looked on the LCD, don't worry about the "temperature" numbers.

 

Each post processing package (C1, ACR, Aperture, RawDeveloper, younameit) does its own calculation of the "as shot" color temperature and warm/cool shift. They use some data stored in the EXIF, not the number that you put into the camera or that the camera estimated doing white balance. And the results vary widely, so these things are apparently not absolute physical measurements at all.

 

scott

[Tim B]

 

Each post processing package (C1, ACR, Aperture, RawDeveloper, younameit) does its own calculation of the "as shot" color temperature and warm/cool shift. They use some data stored in the EXIF, not the number that you put into the camera or that the camera estimated doing white balance. And the results vary widely, so these things are apparently not absolute physical measurements at all.

 

scott

 

Thanks Scott, the settings looked OK on screen - I just wondered about the numbers. Your explanation is crystal clear.

 

Tim

[Jamie Roberts]

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And Flourescent there are at least 4 types. Like cool white, white, daylight etc etc. When i shot film i used to check which ones were at a shoot to compensate for. Normal i used a 40 magenta , Cool White i would drop to a 30 magenta

 

And the new energy efficient fluourescents are fine with the M8--virtually no IR, no need for a filter.

 

The older ones cycle too much; their WB actually changes per cycle. Yay. Bracketing is your only way out.

 

For sodium lights, use a WhiBal or ExpoDisc or something like that. Yes, they have a narrow bandwidth, but if they're your key light, the ExpoDisc pro is the one you want.