Digital Compacts - Magic Filters White Balance and Strobes

[meathead_dave]

I have just purchased a new compact setup (DX-1G plus strobe and wide angle lens - couldnt afford SLR) and am starting on the very steep learning curve. I have read lots of articles about strobes and white balance and these so called magic filters. I have a couple of unanswered questions....

1. Do you still need to set your white balance manually if you're using a strobe?

2. Is there any benefit to using a green magic filter with a strobe ?

So many questions so few dives to get it right.............

[Pigpen]

As I understand it, it's either strobe or filter. I've tried filters and never got on with them, but some people swear by them. I stick to my strobe.

Someone more qualified will be be along shortly, with a more comprehensive answer.

[Jules]

You would use a magic filter and/ or custom white balance is you are using available light.

With a strobe the light is supplied with a full spectrum of colour so you don't need the magic filter or the custom white balance

Jules

[witchieblackcat]

I agree with Jules.

Using a manual white balance tells the camera what colour white is and therefore it can process it correctly. A filter adds red back which does lead to a loss of light through the lens but you do get a good colour balance.

I used to use a Sea & Sea Aquapix which had a built in red filter which was great for colour but really dark. I also tried a filter on an Olypus mju which I wasn't impressed with at all (it was the filter sold by Cameras Underwater). Recently I have been using manual white balance using an Olympus SP-350 and just recently a Nikon D70s and I'm really pleased with the colours.

I tend to avoid flash of all kinds as it isn't natural, can give backscatter and a strobe is only really useful for for macro stuff. However if you use flash of any kind don't use the filter or the manual white balance or the picture looks really red.

[Cussy]

Yes, but........

Tim Ingmire posted a load of photos on here and Digigreen of balanced light with strobe and filter (somewhere in the Caribbean). Basically, it's bloody difficult. I'd suggest learn the bits one by one (natural light, then strobe, then filter, then.....). Doesn't the DX-1G shoot RAW? If so you can do all the white balancing in post processing (if you're really lazy like me). With the strobe the light will be almost there and only a small tweak is needed to get the whites perfectly white.
Rob

[Jules]

yes perhaps i should have added that if you have the magic filter AND add light then your pictures are really red, but at this point you can of course white balance and it all comes good. I have done that quite a lot.

Jules

[Cussy]

Shall we keep it simple and just say;

Is there any benefit in green water filter and strobe? No
Do you still need to WB when using a strobe? No
Rob

[StuartC]

Originally Posted by witchieblackcat

A filter adds red back which does lead to a loss of light through the lens but you do get a good colour balance.

sorry to be a pedant, but whilst the filter has the effect of adding red back into the image, it is really filtering out all other light frequencies in favour of red.

The result is an image that looks balanced in most cases.

Downsides of using a filter:

1) you will be working with lower levels of available light, so you need to use wider apertures or longer shutter opening times.

2) The filter is fixed and will always filter out the same proportion of colour, regardless of the actual proportions within the available light, which will vary with depth/distance from subject and water/light quality. The effect of the filter is therefore variable and another factor you'll need to consider.

I used a post-processing filter for a while in Photoshop (red colour correct), which would enhance the proportions of red spectra in the image and the result was usually pretty good, if a little grainy.

Manual adjustment using levels gives more fine control and if you can shoot in RAW using your DX-1 then I'd recommend trying that first.

Once I started using a strobe I find I could use a combination of strobe power, shutter speed and aperture to play around and get the right effect for the image. The strobe provides a normal light spectrum close to the subject so very little red is filtered out and your resulting image looks natural.

Works best for macro stuff, but in UK waters the backscatter problems mean this is the most likely subject anyway.

It also gives you a static subject to work on!