White Balancing Problems

Hey All,

Been awhile since I've been round but in the throws of upgrading my fiance's DSLR rig and thought I'd pop my head in here again.

I've been shooting now for about 3yrs with a Sony HDRSR8 in an Ike housing and have been, well to say the least quite dissapointed with the performance of the cam underwater.

Did a livaboard to the Great Barrier Reef 2 years ago and pretty much deleted all my footage due to colour issues (or lack of colour). The diving there was great but the camera was not.

Followed this trip with a trip to Fiji a few months later and again was let down with the same issue.

It just doesnt seems to White Balance.

The camera doesnt have an external WB button to start with. (Classic Newbie mistake) I have to go through 2 sub menus with the manual slide rods on the touchscreen to get to the MWB. Click on the WB and it thinks bout things (I'd love to know what, cause I dont think it's really got its mind on the task at hand) and then fail. It doesnt seem to give me the true colour for the subject. Just still quite green.

In playing with this for the last couple of years I've figured out that what it needs is more red, so instead of trying to WB on a white or grey slate I give it a red base point (which was a total accident at first, out of pure frustration in Fiji on the last dive at the safety stop ontop of a large coral pinnicle) by WB'ing on an apricot colour. I found a certain peice of sponge coral in Fiji gave me close to the right colour which I would have expected normally with a WB. Problem is it's still in Fiji and I'm in Sydney.

Since then I've tryed WB on pretty much most sponges and seaweed and have gotten mixed results, but am still without doubt quite depressed with the situation.

Does anyone else shoot with a Sony HDRSR8 or HDRSR11 as I think the 11 is pretty much the same Cam and may have these same issues.

Or does anyone have any suggestions on how I cam get the Cam to at lest give me a decent WB.

I do prefer to shoot WA and overexposed green everywhere is just useless and depressing.

I have lights and shooting at night I leave the WB on auto and get great colour but day diving is no good.

Peter.

Amphibico sells a white balance slate - IDK if it will solve your problem. But at least it gives you more options to try. It's $150US.

http://www.amphibico.com/store/carry-cases...nce-charts.html

There are several threads on white balancing using the sun, your hand etc. Do a search in this sub forum and see if that helps.

Do you have red filter on your camera? That could be the issue.

In my experience you need a red filter firstly, followed by the manual white balance.

Use the light source that is illuminating your subject as the reference for the manual adjustment, ie the sun shining down through the water. Point the camera up at the sky and tell it to adjust. Don't use coloured corals as a reference, that will just confuse the camera.

Remember that it's the light source shining down through the water column that gives you the spectrum you are seeing, basically less red and oranges. The camera will "see" that they are missing from the spectrum and add them up to a certain degree.

In my experience you need a red filter firstly, followed by the manual white balance.

 

Don't use coloured corals as a reference, that will just confuse the camera.

I beg to differ.

My CX550 hates the red filter. Much better to leave off the filter and do MWB.

Also, my CX550 loves to MWB off corals, especially the mid-brown corals.

My point is that white balancing is very camera-specific so generic rules don't always apply. Best approach is to experiment with your own camera until you find it's sweet-spot.

Regards

Peter

In my experience you need a red filter firstly, followed by the manual white balance.

 

UThe camera will "see" that they are missing from the spectrum and add them up to a certain degree.

Ive tried the red filter ages ago but it was so long ago now I cant remember if I MWB with it on and if I did it would have been to a white slate. I'll give that another go.

As for MWB up the light column.. Here in Sydney I'm lucky to ever see the light column under 5m. Its green water here.. Boo ho

Adding the red up to a certian degree is the problem I think the camera has. As Peter said MWB on a mid-brown coral/color seems to yeild better results than your standard white. As it seems to give the camera a redder base point to start from with its calulations on WB.

Drew, Yeah dude read them all and tried pretty much everything thats been suggested on here.

Alas still no luck.

Peter.

hi Probie,

if you have the option to make a preset before entering the water, white balance on a blue background on land. The result will be a very red screen which is useless on land but get's the job done underwater at a certain depth. On my gates housing I have 2 manual white balance buttons, one I will always use to whitebalance according to the situation and the other one I leave on my 'red setting' whichI get by white balancing on land against a blue door. This setting compensates for the red filter, which I never use. As said already it all depends on the camera but hopefully this trick works for you to a certain degree.

Good luck Klemens.

Hi Peter, Really excellent question. This is my tuppence worth.

1) Whatever you do, in ambient light videography, be consistent. Mostly it is easier to get colour cast dead right on your computer at the end of an edit that in the water. So whatever it is you do make sure you do it the same every day and every dive. It will make the final "Grade" of your videos much easier if there all roughly the same.

2) You need something to white balance off. There are loads of commercial options but I use a piece of neutral grey plastic painted matt white on one side. Sometimes it seems easier to balance of neutral grey and sometimes of white - can't fathom it but I guess its a mixture of ambient light on the surface and water quality. Tilt the card about 45 degrees towards the surface - sort of so it's not in shadow but not taking the full whack of the sun. If it WB's brilliant! - if not go a little shallower and try again. Once you get one try and keep it unless you completely change working depth or location.

3) Film you card for reference as often as you can - it will really help you play with colour on the computer in the edit.

4) Have a play with filters. The nicest ones are the colour correction gels. You can cut them up and put them over back optics on the lens or across drop down filters on the housing depending on what you have. They usually help getting successful WB deeper but it will depend on the rig you use. There are a couple of commercial ones - There is one called the "Magic Filter". These seem really nice but I use simple Colour Correction Filters from LEE. A CCM50 (magenta) for green water and CCR50 (red) are probably all you need but LEE do a lovely book of tester camera gels (for about £8) that have everything in with the spectral info which can be quite fun to play with.

Have Fun!

D