White Balance

[gerryr]

In our never ending quest for knowledge I have done some not inexpensive testing of white balance on my D40. We all know that white balance is critical to having photographs that truly represent what we've made, especially if you're trying to sell through a website. Someone on another thread mentioned something called "Expo Disc." I had never heard of this and did a bit of research, found the company, ExpoImaging, on the net http://www.expoimaging.net/ and read what they had to say. After checking from some fellow Nikon freaks, I ordered one and it arrived today. Both of these photos were taken with exactly the same exposure, 1/10 sec at f/20. The only difference is that the first was taken with my old white balance, done strictly in accordance with the instructions in the D40 Magic Lantern Guide. The second was taken with the white balance according to the Expo Disc. There is a noticeable difference. I will say that these things are not inexpensive, but selling through a website requires the best possible photos so for me it is just another investment in my business and one that I think will pay off in long run.

So, here is today's photographic learning opportunity.

I hope they actually look different since they're been compressed from about 550Kb to 60Kb.

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Gerry, Spike []looks better in the 1st and the []pen in the 2nd[}].
Honest I looked at them on both my lap-top and my desk top with a 21in flat screen and I guess the compressing lost something as they don't look much diff. If anything the first is crisper.

 

[wdcav1952]

I liked the fur shell better.

Now I know Roy has old eyes, but I guess mine are also. Maybe sell the disc to Frank and see if it will make hime smarter?

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Originally posted by wdcav1952
<br />I liked the fur shell better.

Now I know Roy has old eyes, but I guess mine are also. Maybe sell the disc to Frank and see if it will make hime smarter?

Thanks Cav, Not old just well used!

 

[gerryr]

I may need to try a different pen. I can see the difference on my monitor, but the bigger files are quite a bit different. And I guess I need to use the self timer. I really hate those things, and still can't understand why digitals can't have a simple cable release for the shutter.

 

[DCBluesman]

The REAL question (as far as I'm concerned) is did it help you take a picture that looks more like then pen?

 

[TellicoTurning]

Gerry,
I have to agree with Roy & Cav.. on my D..n Dell the first picture is the better pict... on your other comment, I don't know about the D40, but my son uses a D50 and D80.. he has a remote attachment to trip his shutter that he uses sometimes..

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

I asked Gerry to email me these with out compressing and I saw there is more of a difference. We must remember that Gerry is a photographic perfectionist. Would I buy the equipment he has, not likley, do I appreciate his photography, a resounding yes. To me its a matter of do I spend the money on Photo equipment or Pen turning . I needed to have special photos taken for Zapplcation and hired a photographer to me that was less expensive than me buying a DSLR and the learning curve useung it. I will keep posting pictures here useing my Fuji digital and with the help of people like Gerry hopefully learn enough so as not to be ashamed to post here[].

 

[gerryr]

Well, I went back to my setup and discovered that I had some goofy settings in the camera from playing around last night. I will redo these, but not tonight. This picture does, however exactly represent the colors of the pen, background and Spike. This one was taken with my Nikon pro glass lens, a 35-70mm f/2.8 ED macro zoom lens, the only legendary Nikon lens I own, and a really good one.

 

[gketell]

Keeping in mind that I own both the expodisk and the expodisk for portraiture so I'm not bad mouthing the expodisk, you can get Nearly the same affect by buying an $18 gray card from BHPhotovideo.com and using that to set your white balance.

The benefit of the expo disk is that it can easily handle when you have lighting coming from multiple types of light sources, day light on one side, fluorescent on the other and incandescent in front. As long as the merge nicely by the time the light hits the target/expo disk you will get a proper white balance setting.

The benefit of the gray card is that you can not only set white balance but you can use it to light meter off of and then the color of the pen and/or back ground won't affect your camera's metering. Manually set your f-stop to "optimal" and then light meter of the grey card and set your shutter speed for the correct exposure. You can't do that off the expo. Second benefit is it is CHEAP. There are some no-name ones on BH for $4. The third benefit is that it can be used as your background and neutral grey goes with everything.

GK

 

[gerryr]

I already have 2 gray cards and that was what I used to set the white balance before and I know how to use it to set the exposure. I use a Soligor 1 degree spot meter for metering. I've been using a gray card for over 20 years and made it a requirement of all my students when I taught photography in Denver. I've probably gone through a dozen of them over the years. The 2 biggest advantages of the Expo Disc are that it's a lot more portable and durable than a gray card. The Expo Disc also has distinct advantage over the gray card because you can read the light directly rather than needing to put the gray card in the same light and then read that, in short a lot more convenient.

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Miracle,miracle all of a sudden my eyes are young again thats a definite difference.

Originally posted by gerryr
<br />Well, I went back to my setup and discovered that I had some goofy settings in the camera from playing around last night. I will redo these, but not tonight. This picture does, however exactly represent the colors of the pen, background and Spike. This one was taken with my Nikon pro glass lens, a 35-70mm f/2.8 ED macro zoom lens, the only legendary Nikon lens I own, and a really good one.

 

[gketell]

Gerry,

I wasn't saying you didn't, I'm sorry if it came across that way. And, as I said, I know the benefits of the expodisk and own them. I was just letting the others on the board know that there was another, cheaper, alternative if they can't afford the $75 - $160 expodisk.

GK