Hi all,

I'm using an S2Pro with Ikelite's first housing and there are no controls on the back of the housing for setting custom white balance. Their newer back with controls won't work on this housing. (Umm, perhaps a Subal is in my future... no doubt some of you will soon be abandoning your housings and moving on to the D200!)

I would like to take some pics with available light in some of the more shallow water, and would like to know if anyone has any ideas of a generic white balance that would be worth trying. Or perhaps a controlled situation (umm, put the camera in a light blue grocery bag and try a custom white balance?? or maybe cover the porthole in the tiny little liveaboard bathroom with a blue film and try for white balance?) above water, where I could set a custom white balance, which may give me conditions which would be similar to what the camera would see under water. Or maybe if I set the wb to 'shade'??

If any one has any ideas, I'm up for hearing them.

Thanks,
Margaret

btw, I see the forum layout has changed... should this post go into the 'tips and techniques' area??

Best solution is shoot raw and set WB later.

I agree with William, I always shoot my S2pro in raw, even if I have access to WB, that is unless I'm shooting through filter in ambient light, then I tend to white balance once in a while. in your case I suggest leave it on auto, shoot raw and deal with on the computer.

Cheers

I agree about shooting in RAW... which is what I always shoot.

HOWEVER, I'm curious about Alex Mustard's Magic filters and want to give them a try. He says it's pretty important to use white balance, so I figure there must be a way to simulate the 'look' of underwater while still above water.

Of course this will all be moot when I get a diff housing.

There is no difference between setting WB in camera and in photoshop even with Alex's Magic Filter.

If there is are no neutral colours in the scene it can be difficult to find the optimal WB setting. This is when using a white card is the most beneficial.

But you can still set the WB with a white card in RAW. Take the picture of the white card, then take the picture. You can then tell the raw converter to use the WB from the other file.

Soooo, do you think if I cannot set WB underwater it's kind of pointless to use the Magic filter?

No exactly the opposite. So long as you shoot raw it makes no difference if you set WB in the water.

I used the Magic Filter with the S2, and even though I had access to the white balance controls, it was a bit difficult to "get right" during the dive.

I also was shooting RAW, and found little difference between the shots where I had white balanced "properly" and the shots where I had not white balanced at all.

I think this might just be one more area where RAW saves the day...

Actually, the 'look of underwater' varies with depth, water clarity, whether you're diving in temperate or tropical water, etc.

Notwithstanding this, if you wanted to get a WB that simulates some sort of underwater condition on land (e.g. compensates for a bluish tint), you can try this trick: get a white slate or piece of paper, place it under a fluorescent light (the bluish kind, not the pinkish one) at night, and set your custom white balance on the piece of paper. This will partially compensate for the bluish cast you get in tropical waters.

Cheers,
Mat

Umm, well this is all very interesting. It gives me some 'tests' to try out to help me better understand raw and white balance.

Thanks for the info.

From memory, I think that the S2 actually has quite wide gaps between values of the manual white balance that can be set by the user in camera. So there is a real advantage in shooting RAW where you can set much more precise WB settings after shooting.

For shooting with flash I would just leave the camera on AUTO WB and shoot RAW. Regarding shooting with filters you may find this webpage useful:
http://www.magic-filters.com/wb.html

Alex