How is WhiBal used?

[mjordan]

I've been taking a look at the WhiBal product for setting white balance in digital cameras and was wondering how they work. Well, I know how getting a white balance image and setting it works, but I wonder how these cards work since they are so small. I saw the one picture where the person was holding the 4 cards out at arms length and then you have the models holding the cards when you take a picture. This would be good for setting white balance within Photoshop, but to set white balance in my camera you need to have the full sensor area filled with white or gray for it to work. How do you do that with the pocket size cards without getting real close to the dark gray card? Or is that why it is held at arms length, so you can get a full view of it in the image?

I'm sure it works but I'd like to hear how it's used by those that are using one of them, either the pocket size one or the studio size one. I shoot with both a D30 and 10D and usually with a 70-200 2.8L IS or 100-400 4.5-5.6L and when indoors maybe the 24-70 2.8L. So if others with those size lenses use it, your experience would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

[MichaelT]

Mike,

The Whibal is not designed for setting custom WB within the camera. As you know I and this site are advocates of RAW technology. One of the big advantages of RAW is that you do not have to shoot custom WB to achive perfecrt WB as good as the custom (and you can tweak it). I will be showing lots of examples in the FAQ section.

So in the case of the model holding the card. Jack took this as the first shot, and then could shoot the rest of this setup without regard to the WB. When he move location or the light changes, he just has to take another WhiBal shot, not set a new custom WB which takes time, is subject to error, and takes your attention away from the subjects.

Like in my session with Jeb Bush. From time to time as we moved around I took shots like this.
http://www.Rawwf.com/products/whibal/images/WhiBal_MT01_250w.jpg
So I have WB reference shots from through out the 2 hours. That is the magic of WhiBal. It is fast and easy. Obviously Gray cards are all over the place, but a Gray card in your camera bag will not help you. So I wear a WhiBal around my neck or keep it in my shirt pocket. In this case Gov Bush was cooperative, so he actually held the card for me and I took a shot (the other photographers cheered with delight). Obviously I will not publish that photograph, but it will be used as the best WB because the card was at the subject position which is best. And because the card is a cool looking thing, it generates some conversation. Gov. Bush asked me what it was and what it did, so it allowed me to further my relationship with him during the shoot. Me rushing to set a custom WB in the camera would not have been the same.

Anyway you get the gist.

If you shoot JPEG, Custom WB is the best way to go, and the Gretag CC White Balance Card is the best for that. But I do not have time to set Custom WB in the fast moving events that I shoot, so even if I shot JPEG (which I never do) I would still use the WhiBal to establish WB even though the quality of doing it to a JPEG is not as good as using the WhiBal. This is one of the main reasons to shoot RAW. You will see the differences easily in the FAQ.

I hope that this gives you some insight into the use of WhiBal and the advantages in fast moving situations over custom WB. And shooting RAW is the best of all. better than Custom WB as well.

[rdavis01]

The WhiBal FAQ says that when processing RAW, one should use the light grey card to set the white balance. This makes sense to me.

What do I use the other 3 (dark gray, white, and black) cards for?

[MichaelT]

Dark gray in case your exposure is too bright. Also if reflections on light gray card.

Black and white are to set Black and White points in RAW or JPEG, but you must be careful of relfections (more onblack then white) and also, many times there are black details darker than the Black card in deep shadows. So Black is more for controlled situation like studio, than out in the field.

Also, White card can be used for a White balance if it is not exposed too bright. it is not as accurate as the Gray, but sometime different is more pleasing than accurate. Just some options...

[ken_wyatt]

Michael, it appears you were using flash in the photo of Jeb Bush above. This brings up the point of dealing with mixed lighting - something I deal with often, especially when shooting indoors. Worst case, I might be using flash under fluorescent lights, with sunlight streaming in through a window. Now, I have gels I can velcro over the flash head to handle the fluorescent or incandescent lights. But in many cases, I don't have the time to figure this out when shooting PJ events.

While the cards seem lit normally (flash), the background is underexposed and yellowish. I would think that color-balancing the cards (which seem well exposed) would not help color-balance the background (which seems underexposed). Even if using Raw mode. Thoughts?

(feel free to move this to a separate subject line, if desired)

Regards, Ken

[MichaelT]

I had Gov Bush hold the card for me at one point. The shot above was somewhat promotional (always thinking), but I always shoot some WhiBal shot whwnever I think of it when we move to a new location. While the shot above will NOT balance properly as you say. I was shooting with a wide angle lens (16-35) and when I was shooting the Govenor, I would be in more the same situation of the Whibal shot.

So you are right in that the shot will not balance itself, but that was not the purpose. it was to balance the real shot where the Gov would mostly be lit by flash just like the Whibal is in this shot. I also found the oppotrunity to have him hold one for me so I have the real WB shot in that. Using the WhiBal always promotes discussion and questions becauseit looks so cool, so it is an ice breaker. Not the the govenor needed it. He was a really nice guy and easy to work with.

[mjordan]

Thanks for the explanation, Michael. It makes sense and answers my question. I shoot almost 99% in raw, both indoors and out and have been for the last couple of years. I'm going to have to give this a try... although I see you are out of them, so somebody must have had the same idea. LOL!

Thanks again.

Mike

[MichaelT]

Please support the site and wait for WhiBal. it is the best set of features and performance.

My cats are depending on you :>)

[BkDr72]

For starters, all I can say before you start worrying about white bal settings & color corrections is CALIBRATE THE MONITOR, all your color adjustments are useless unless of course that is all your going to do is view your pics on the monitor & not print. Next you need a real camera (Nikon), and purchase Nikon Capture 4.0, update it to 4.1.2, then you can easily, especially if your using the WhiBal cards, fine tune your white balance, color correct, sharpen, correct your exposure, and many other things to your image, (which I find are easier to do then Photosop, but Photoshop does have a lot more fine tuning capabilities in it especially CS), AND if all of your images in the folder all have the same basic problem you can batch process them using the 1st image as the start file, and save all the files with there same file name,(and if your not satisfied with the images, you can revert right back to the exact way the file was shot). You can also change it to a jpeg or a tiff format in the batch process if you want, then open it in Photoshop CS and have a lot more control for your fine tuning and layer use.
I have not tryed this C1 software yet, because my Capture software is so easy to use and works with the 16bit RAW files that the camera creates & you can also resize them !!

[MichaelT]

The c1 software can also 'resize" them and do similar things that Nikon Capture can do, except with a much better workflow which makes more time for you or more money for you. Try them both. Nikon Capture is strong, but with no where the speed of workflow of C1. Both will work great with WhiBal.

And yes, you must calirate your monitor, although with WhiBal you could acutally get by better on an uncalibrated and profiled monitor than without, because the color will be right. Just ignore the monitor :>)