White Balance Safe in your digital camera
With all the high-tech gadgets that the digital world has brought to photography, a low-tech way to get a perfect white balance is as close as your pantry. This is a little tip I use every time you shoot and never fails me. The trick is to set the custom white balance settings of your digital camera, by placing a white coffee filter in front of the lens and shoot the shot test custom white balance adjustment mode.
Since I shoot with a Nikon D1X, I'll show you how to do it in that chamber. Follow the instructions from your camera to get exact instructions if does not fire with a D1X.
First I set the focus in manual mode moving the focus lever on the left side of the camera to try to master the camera and can not focus with the filter, so manual configuration is easier. Then place a single white coffee filter over the lens paper. You can keep it or use a rubber band to hold it in your lens. Just make sure that if you completely cover the front of the lens and the camera is pointing towards the subject. Then press the MONITOR button, then the button MENU.
Make sure the cursor is to the left and go up to the shooting menu. Highlight White Bal cursor and move the cursor keypad on the right. Choose preset WB, and then click Set, seal press, the right of the cursor to select OK and your set. Since then, each configuration will be making a perfect white balance.
You can do this with flash as well as cloudy days sunny. The trick is to make sure that if the lighting changes drastically, to restore balance. Especially if you put your camera away and then fire to another day. Shooting in RAW mode, is at least offer a recovery plan. I've seen other online discussions for the use of plastic covers and other plastic materials opaque so experiment and see what works best for you.
I know this is a low-tech trick in a world of high technology, but this technique works every time.
About the Author
Terry Divyak has been an avid photographer for over 30 years. With publisher photos featured on two magazine covers, he was also featured in Photo District News Magazine as a winner in the Pro Division of PDN’s World in Focus Travel Contest. This work appeared in Photo District News February 2008 issue.
His current project is the photography informational site, www.piqfire.com