i think this turned out pretty good.

[Scatterbrained]

what if you shoot the card but what you are shooting is far away, will that throw it off.

i rarely change my white balance in lightroom, i just played with it on a few of those landscape shots i took and warming it up a little does seem to make things look better.

there is also a dropper on lightroom to change the white balance, i assume you need to click that on something that is white for it to work correctly? not all shots have something pure white in them.

i shoot raw.. that export to jpeg.

White, grey or black will work. You could actually use the lamppost itself to set WB in your image.

 

[dannylightning]

i mainly do the bird/wildlife photos, i never know if i will be pointing the lens into the light, shade, a dark tree, a hole in a log, and when i do snap a shot often its a need to shoot now before its gone situation so i am not sure a card is going to be helpful for what i usually shoot. most wildlife guys i have talked to seem to use auto white balance and that is probably why.

for landscapes i might try to start using one, ill see if i can find some laying around , i guess my main concern at the moment is just getting a well composed photo when it comes to landscapes.

Direction doesn't change the light color so into the light or not doesn't matter. Assume you're out on a sunny day looking for wildlife. You have two basic options at that time: the wildlife is in the sun or in the shade. Take two card shots: sun and shade.

Joe

the problem is sometimes i see something and its gone before the camera can focus on it, or i get off one shot and there it goes. there is not always time for that, i mean you got the shoot the card and than shoot the subject and that is going to waist time when there is not always time to waist.

 

[Scatterbrained]

i mainly do the bird/wildlife photos, i never know if i will be pointing the lens into the light, shade, a dark tree, a hole in a log, and when i do snap a shot often its a need to shoot now before its gone situation so i am not sure a card is going to be helpful for what i usually shoot. most wildlife guys i have talked to seem to use auto white balance and that is probably why.

for landscapes i might try to start using one, ill see if i can find some laying around , i guess my main concern at the moment is just getting a well composed photo when it comes to landscapes.

Direction doesn't change the light color so into the light or not doesn't matter. Assume you're out on a sunny day looking for wildlife. You have two basic options at that time: the wildlife is in the sun or in the shade. Take two card shots: sun and shade.

Joe

the problem is sometimes i see something and its gone before the camera can focus on it, or i get off one shot and there it goes. there is not always time for that, i mean you got the shoot the card and than shoot the subject and that is going to waist time when there is not always time to waist.

You don't have to shoot the card first.

 

[Ysarex]

i mainly do the bird/wildlife photos, i never know if i will be pointing the lens into the light, shade, a dark tree, a hole in a log, and when i do snap a shot often its a need to shoot now before its gone situation so i am not sure a card is going to be helpful for what i usually shoot. most wildlife guys i have talked to seem to use auto white balance and that is probably why.

for landscapes i might try to start using one, ill see if i can find some laying around , i guess my main concern at the moment is just getting a well composed photo when it comes to landscapes.

Direction doesn't change the light color so into the light or not doesn't matter. Assume you're out on a sunny day looking for wildlife. You have two basic options at that time: the wildlife is in the sun or in the shade. Take two card shots: sun and shade.

Joe

the problem is sometimes i see something and its gone before the camera can focus on it, or i get off one shot and there it goes. there is not always time for that, i mean you got the shoot the card and than shoot the subject and that is going to waist time when there is not always time to waist.

You're heading out to take some photos. It's 11:00 am and "sunny." Shoot the card at 11:05 and the values you get will be good for "sunny" till at least 2:00 pm. You don't shoot the card before every photo. You shoot the card once for a session in that lighting and if you take 1000 photos in the next 2 hours in the same basic lighting condition the one card shot is good for all.

Joe

 

[Ysarex]

what if you shoot the card but what you are shooting is far away, will that throw it off.

i rarely change my white balance in lightroom, i just played with it on a few of those landscape shots i took and warming it up a little does seem to make things look better.

there is also a dropper on lightroom to change the white balance, i assume you need to click that on something that is white for it to work correctly? not all shots have something pure white in them.

i shoot raw.. that export to jpeg.

White, grey or black will work. You could actually use the lamppost itself to set WB in your image.

That's what I did to adjust it earlier -- then I double checked that with the white numbers and the difference was slight and I went for the middle.

Joe

 

[dannylightning]

i thought you had to make a custom white balance setting in the camera by shooting the card.

so i shoot the card, see where the white balance is on that, and change the rest of the photos to that white balance in lightroom ?

 

[Ysarex]

i thought you had to make a custom white balance setting in the camera by shooting the card.

No. That's actually not much value if you're processing raw files. That camera WB setting only applies to the JPEGs the camera generates and not to raw files.

so i shoot the card, see where the white balance is on that, and change the rest of the photos to that white balance in lightroom ?

Right, you just need a quick reference shot of the card. Scaterbrained nailed that one -- shoot the card after you shoot the wildlife! You transfer the card values during raw processing. Put the camera on whatever white balance you want it it doesn't matter. I often shoot with a white balance setting on my camera that makes my JPEGs look like this:

Has no effect on the raw file whatsoever and I still just read a card shot and transfer the values. For the above photo even though the JPEG was green I transferred card values of temp = 5600, tint = 7 to the raw file and got this:

Joe

 

[tecboy]

In Lightroom, you can sync all the photos you selected to the same WB.

 

[dannylightning]

thanks for the the info on the white balance, i did not realize it was that easy.

 

[killerseaguls]

As a new guy, the leaves on the light seem to be something to focus on. You said you liked the leaves, but they aren't blowing my mind in the picture.


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