Set up custom white balance

[davholla]

I am thinking of doing this to make sure that my macro flash has the right white balance.
I think I know what to do but, how do I get the reference white colour? Can I use something like an envelope or should it be something else?
Or do I have to buy something?

 

[Mintchocs]

Can’t you set your white balance in camera to flash? Unless the light from your flash is very different or bounced off something with a different colour I think this should be fine. I guess it depends on how critical you require the accuracy of the colours in which case you could get a colour checker.

 

[troutfisher]

I take the first photo using one of these http://whibalhost.com/_Tutorials/WhiBal/01/ ( shooting in RAW) and then use that to set white balance in either LR or PS

Looking on Amazon the one I have appears to be unavailable (https://www.amazon.co.uk/GENUINE-WhiBal-Certified-Neutral-Balance/dp/B000ARHJPW ) but there seem to be a load of others.
Other people will suggest other , equally effective ways of doing it, this way works for me.

 

[tijuana taxi]

Couldn't you just adjust it in LR or something similar

 

[Scooter]

Couldn't you just adjust it in LR or something similar

You can, but you need to know what to adjust it to For product photography, it's not enough to just adjust it to something we like the look of - it almost always needs to be accurate. The flash colour will vary with every set up as the macro flash is almost certainly an IGBT flash, which varies its output by cutting off the flash burst, and in doing this, you lose some of the lower energy end of the flash, so as you turn the output down, there's more high energy light in the mix and the flash gets bluer. You can get close by just putting a reference grey card in the shot and sampling this in LR. You then sync those values to all the other images taken in the same light. For more accuracy, use a set of reference colours like the Color Checker Passport, that will produce a custom colour profile for Lightroom to use. You still need to set the WB as well and the passport has some grey swatches on it to do this.

 

[KIPAX]

Couldn't you just adjust it in LR or something similar

Translated... Couldn't you take a bad picture and fix it in software.. As apposed to taking a good picture like your trying to ..

 

[tijuana taxi]

Translated... Couldn't you take a bad picture and fix it in software.. As apposed to taking a good picture like your trying to ..

Translated.......Couldn't you take bad spelling and fix it with a spell checker. As opposed to writing it properly like you're trying to

No need to get lairy mate, something like I prefer to get it right in camera would be far more polite.

 

[davholla]

Can’t you set your white balance in camera to flash? Unless the light from your flash is very different or bounced off something with a different colour I think this should be fine. I guess it depends on how critical you require the accuracy of the colours in which case you could get a colour checker.

Maybe I am going to try some flash diffusers and I want to check that it is correct white balance.

 

[tijuana taxi]

You can, but you need to know what to adjust it to For product photography, it's not enough to just adjust it to something we like the look of - it almost always needs to be accurate. The flash colour will vary with every set up as the macro flash is almost certainly an IGBT flash, which varies its output by cutting off the flash burst, and in doing this, you lose some of the lower energy end of the flash, so as you turn the output down, there's more high energy light in the mix and the flash gets bluer. You can get close by just putting a reference grey card in the shot and sampling this in LR. You then sync those values to all the other images taken in the same light. For more accuracy, use a set of reference colours like the Color Checker Passport, that will produce a custom colour profile for Lightroom to use. You still need to set the WB as well and the passport has some grey swatches on it to do this.

Thanks for the comprehensive explanation, I didn't realise there was so much to it.