Strobist White Balance

[JacobGriz]

Ok, I know I have been asking a lot of questions on here lately but they are mainly questions that I can't find the answer to anywhere else. So, sorry if they are out there and I just couldn't find them.

I'm getting into strobist photography, specifically outdoors. I am confused on what to set the white balance to. If I do a custom white balance with a big card, then wouldn't the white balance be set to the flash and not the background, because the flash is what is hitting the card? Therefore, my background would have the wrong white balance. So, how do I solve this. Should I just set the white balance to sunny, to flash, set it in editing, or do custom white balance. If I should do custom white balance should I set the custom wb with the flash firing or not firing?
Jacob Griz

 

[themedicine]

The WB to create a normal tone across the subject should be set custom to match the flash, because flashes have different color temperatures than ambient light sources as well as other flashes. We'll stop there. Just don't forget to play around with Custom white balances and such and just wait till you start playing with gels....Then you will white balance the camera to the ambient and be gelling the strobes to match the wb, and then maybe even intentionally warming the flash temperature only to bring it down with camera WB but now, your background is all cool toned...

 

[tirediron]

Shoot an index shot with a known colour (white/grey) in the shot and correct in post, OR shoot in 'Auto WB' and correct to what looks right in post.

 

[themedicine]

Hah! I just re-read my almost illegible post, and then read the following post. I sound like an idiot up there. Must be the pesticides or something.

 

[kundalini]

You can do a custom WB with grey card shot at the light your subject will be exposed to.

You can use Auto WB and adjust in post.

You can set your WB to Flash (5500K), since you are using flash.

You can set your WB to Cloudy for that warm feeling.

You can set your WB to tungsten and gel your subject with CTOs.

You can....... do pretty much anything you want.

 

[dnr_photography]

from what i understand, that if you use a grey card. you have to fill the frame with the card. using custom take a picture of the card under the lighting that you are using....now using that setting all your photos should be based off that white balance.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

That's how I do it.