Custom white-balance 7D

Hi everyone!

I am a little confused about the custom white-balance setting on the 7D.

On my old camera, the G11, I would simply take a reading off my hand or a white slate, and the white-balance was sorted.

Now, with the 7D you have to choose a photo taken previously and I guess the camera will then take the color-reading from that photo.

What I do not really understand is how to practically apply this underwater with the Tokina 10-17.

I guess that I would have to take a picture at depth of a white slate (which has to be pretty darn big to fill the frame of the fisheye), then go in to the menu, find the custom white-balance, select the photo of the slate, select it, and thats it?

My main concern is that this is quite a long process, is there not an easier way to do this?

My second concern is the size of the slate required, I guess it has to be at least A4 size for the Tokina at 17mm. Any suggestions?

The second question is, how do you guys normally set your white-balance for silhouettes of wrecks, turtles, divers etc?

Thanks for all your advice, Morten Hansen.

Hi Morten,

I too migrated from a 'G' series with it's convenient 1 button white balance to a 5D. I searched around and couldn't find any other way of doing it, I even looked to see if there was different firmware, but I didn't find anything.

But regarding the slate, you'll have to check the manual, but I don't believe the camera uses the whole image.

I haven't dived with a white slate for quite a while, I've found that as long as you shoot something neutral, you'll get a reasonable white balance, I assume you're shooting in RAW?

Finally a tip I've heard is buy white fins and use these.

G

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=35013

Might be some help.

Otara

Thanks for the replies, it always surprises me how fast you guys are to answer! <img src="http://images.wetpixel.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> <br /><br />Too bad that there is no "one-button" solution, but I will try out the "my menu" option! <br /><br />Does anyone out there know which part of the frame the 7D use to measure the white-balance? Being a fool I have left my manual back in Denmark, and I live in Bali :/<br /><br />Also, any advise on white-balance for silhouettes with nice blues?<br /><br />Happy bubbles, Morten<br />

Ps. White fins is probably gonna be hard, been using the same mares quattro fins for a long time now and I love them to death, but they don't come in white

I shot a 5D mark 2 and I just shoot the sand or something else neutral and this worked pretty well for me. That being said, I probably be investing in some white fins for my next trip.

I just bought a set of white palmed gloves and am hoping to try that to obviate the need for slate.....

If you shoot in RAW you can white-balance after in Adobe Camera Raw.

You don't really need white gloves or white fins. You just need a neutral color. Your hand with no gloves will work fine. When we were on Alex Mustard's workshop in Grand Cayman, we were using the Kittiwake to WB - not the first year she was sunk when it was all nice and white but the second year when it had turned brown.