White Balance

I just noticed that in the Canon G11 there is an underwater setting for the white balance, should I put it in this setting everytime I dive or should I just leave it on automatic?

I haven't used the G11, but if it works anything like the S90 you'd be better off using the P mode and setting the white balance to cloudy. The underwater mode takes away a lot of the settings possible in the advanced modes, like exposure bias or selection of the focus mode. Maybe the G11 has a couple more tricks than my S90. Regardless, the best option is to forego the in-camera white balance altogether and shot in RAW. That way you can correct the white balance during post-processing topside.

When I shoot in Raw with my D300, I almost always adjust the white balance to "cloudy" when doing post processing for underwater shots. So, if you prefer to set the white balance in advance, "cloudy" may indeed be a good option.

I personally don't like to use Automatic as I'm often not very happy with the results and prefer to adjust the white balance myself.

I am not familiar with your camera, but if you are able to shoot in Raw and adjust the white balance later, that is the best option.

Ellen

I just noticed that in the Canon G11 there is an underwater setting for the white balance, should I put it in this setting everytime I dive or should I just leave it on automatic?

Depends on if you use or do not use flash, and also if you use or do not use RAW format and finally how much post-processing you can or want to do.

- if shooting at available light (no flash), then definitely set custom-WB all the time

- if shooting with flash, then better use auto-WB

- if shooting in JPG only, custom-WB is very important

- if shooting in RAW, then you can fix the WB at post-processing, however: this may take a lot of time and effort, and for a large number of pictures becomes impossible almost, also if you have no good white reference, fixing WB in post-processing can be seriously difficult

For setting custom-WB you need something white, like a white writing slate. I think on G11 you can configure custom-WB to take place with a single button (the print button?), at least on most Canon compacts you can do it like this.

thanks guys! i'll try it all this weekend see if i get it right

I just noticed that in the Canon G11 there is an underwater setting for the white balance, should I put it in this setting everytime I dive or should I just leave it on automatic?

For available light video and still set Custom White Balance, aiming at a buddy's white or gray tank works great! RAW is only for still unless you have a pro camcorder capable of video RAW so learn to use CWB for video.

This is how well CWB works: