Auto white balance.

[witchieblackcat]

Originally Posted by infernalzen

i think the grey slates, are for exposure compensation.
with a range of grey slates that will be say 1.0-1.6? equivelent when cal'd on.

White balance is measured with a White Balance Reference Card. They are grey. A man goes on about them in a video here. Basically they are grey because they are neutral. That's the important bit... neutrality.

Above water I generally calibrate using the presets on the camera. Mainly because they're pretty accurate for what I'm doing. Below water I point the camera at the sky (from the appropriate depth) which gives me a fair result as the sky is vaguely neutral. This means I don't have to bother with a card of any flavour. You could use a patch of sand too.

[infernalzen]

nice idea on the sky cal.
does that work if you cant see to the surface, due to depth or overcast day?

my oly 5050 used to take so long on auto wb on occasions, was the main reason i went for cals
my avatar was from an oly 5050 pict. couldnt believe the detail

like your use of the word flavour.
some divers dont like it if theyve heard me talking about the flavour of fish, instead of using its subspecies

[witchieblackcat]

I like inappropriate words .

My Olympus SP-350 didn't have any problem getting a white balance wherever I was. However my Nikon D70 doesn't like setting a manual white balance when it's dark which is a bit of a pain in the UK. I have wondered about saving a setting from a bright day somehow but haven't found a way yet.

It doesn't really matter if it is cloudy or not being as you're hoping for neutrality rather than bright.

[up 4 it]

Excuse my ignorance as a novice to U/W photography but 've just bought a Fuji F50fd, how do I white balance it for stills and also for video.

Thanks

Steve

[witchieblackcat]

Steve,

I think that it ought to be the same for both stills and video.

HTH

[up 4 it]

Hi Alistair, i don't know how to do it for either video or stills??

[Beerdiver]

Since cameras underwater sugested it on their road show use the palm of my hand seems to work fine.

[infernalzen]

from what i can see these are your wb modes.
CUSTOM might be the wb calibration

Fujifilm FinePix F50fd Review: 5. Photographic tests: Digital Photography Review

White balance• Automatic scene recognition
• Fine
• Shade
• Fluorescent light (Daylight)
• Fluorescent light (Warm White)
• Fluorescent light (Cool White)
• Incandescent light
• Custom

[infernalzen]

Originally Posted by Beerdiver

Since cameras underwater sugested it on their road show use the palm of my hand seems to work fine.

i wear gloves +dont want to be wacko jacko, wearing one white glove

[Jules]

I point it at the surface, I think Timing or Cussy or someone else on digigreen suggested it to me, works fine, or alaternatively point it at a patch of rock or whatever aslong as it's neutral coloured.

Jules