Get better white balance with WarmCards

[spectr17]

Anybody ever use these?

http://www.warmcards.com/digital_camera.html

 

[Marty]

For $45, wouldn't a good selection of card-stock be better?

 

[WildBird]

Not needed IMO if you are using a digital still cam. Auto WB works fine for most use. Color correction to warm up people shots very easy to do with any SW edit program.

 

[Lan-Lord]

I think manually setting the white balance is a good thing. I dont know if you need to spend $45 on those warm cards though. I have struggled with obtaining proper colors because of my cams inability to achieve good white balance through the auto-wb. Plus, manually setting the white balance decreases the shutter lag. (actually, manually setting as many settings as possible greatly decreases the shutter lag) I agree that post processing can fix up the image too, but I think post processing has an even greater effect when the photo has better colors to begin with.

 

[TxCowboy]

The only time white balance has been an issue for me is indoor photography or when I am photographing objects in a light box. To solve this problem with my Olympus E-10, I use the custom white balance setting. I use a trick that I learned over at the Olympus SLR forum at DPreview.com. I take the opaque plastic lid of a Pringles can and put it over the lens of the camera. I then point the camera at the light scource and take a custom WB reading. I then manually set the camera to this WB setting and re-take my photo. 99% of the time this has worked wonders for me in the situations I named above.

Just a little trick to try for people who have a camera that will allow custom WB settings.

 

[spectr17]

I've been having trouble with the incandescent lighting looks yellow and fluorescent lighting looks green in my pics. Same with my camcorder. Photoshop can edit out some of this but as lan-lord said, it's better to get the best pic to start with.

The minus green card is what I'm after for shooting under flourescent lights. Pros recommend putting gel on the lights to warm them but this is not practical for me.

 

[TxCowboy]

Jesse you are right, taking out the yellow is not always easy in post editing and it is definatly not near as good as not having it in the first place. Alot of harsh editing just intensifies digital noise. I'd do whatever neccessary to keep it from occuring, those cards might be your ticket?

 

[spectr17]

A pringles lid eh? Might be cheaper and easier to lug around. Gonna try it, thanks Txcowboy.