White balance or colour correction? Sorry it's dumb question time...

[Noel Johnson]

Sorry, I know it's probably been done a thousand times before, but I have done a search and have got too many results to sift through.

In short, is it better to fit a colour correction filter or adjust the white balance on the camera? I've had a look at the white balance setting on my little box o'tricks and there does not appear to me a manual input. I have one for bright sunny conditions, overcast conditions, 3 types of flourescent and night (I think, please forgive me I'm at work and the camera is at home) and it's a Fuji F410.

Cameras underwater did not appear to stock a colour correction filter for the camera - where else could I get one?

I'll try and post some images from the 2 week extravaganza tonight, if I get chance illustrating what I mean.

[recurve]

Only problem with using any kind of correction filter is that you are going to reduce the available light level further than your depth has already done and you will need to compensate with longer exposures or faster film speed (ISO/DIN) setting.

I don't know if your camera will allow a custom white balance setting, all I can suggest there is RTFM

Remember you only really need to alter the colour balance if you are using available light, or a mix of available and artificial (although in the second case, ONE of the light sources won't be the right colour). If you use flash/strobe then there is no problem, and if you are using a dive light, set the lighting to 'tungsten' and it will be pretty close (unless you use HID in which case set to daylight)

I may try setting my camera to fluorescent on a dive, as that may be a bit closer than 'daylight' at depth as fluoro lights are pretty green/blue.

[peter lamb]

for filters you could try here!
http://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/page462.htm

The fuji f410 does not have a manual white balance option re: the manual
http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/technical/...ad/F410-OM.pdf

[recurve]

Ahh, thanks for the link to the manual.

P63 gives all the settings available, auto may be an ok bet but would still be tempted to try the 'cool' fluro setting.

I also note you can disable the 'flash' setting even when using flash, that could be usefull too.

I still think a filter of sufficient density to colour correct at depth is going to knock at least a couple of stops of your shutter speed, and if things are a bit marginal you could do without it.

Remember though that you are NOT going to be able to put in the missing red light unless you use artificial of some kind.

[vid]

Originally Posted by Noel Johnson

is it better to fit a colour correction filter

there's links on the photography forum to sites such as wetpixel and splashdown - reading these, you'll see that the "expert" opinion in general is to forget the filter - (1) they can be difficult to attach and you may have to fix the filter at the surface and (2) have limited use to say 10m-15m . But saying that, i don't know what housing you have.
My advice, play with white balance

vid

[richarddbarker]

I'm new to underwater photography myself but for what's it's worth...I didn't fancy setting the white balance manually for each shot at a given depth. Particularly when I'm diving with "none camera people", I felt like I'd be holding them up while I faffed with my camera. The solution I've found is to take the shots in RAW mode. I then use a Raw editor to set the white balance. All you have to do is point at something white in the picture click a button and hey presto. I'd say it gets it right 99% of the time but you can make further adjustments to suit. Once your happy you can then convert to TIFF or JPEG and do further editing if required.

I use Rawshooter Essentials by Pixmantec which was free on the front of a magazine.

Hope this is useful.