omd:wb
managing white balance on the Olympus cameras
introduction
unlike film cameras, digital cameras can alter the colour balances to deal with different coloured light sources
this is called the “white balance” setting
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blue sky (ie. shade outdoors on a sunny day) = 8000K
cloudy day = 6000K
flash = 5500K
midday sun = 5300K
early morning or late afternoon sun = 4500K
sun 1hr after dawn or 1hr before sunset = 3500K
tungsten light = 3000-3300K
sunrise or sunset = 2000K
whilst your WB settings do not directly affect your RAW files, they do affect the way the camera's light metering assesses the scene which could create erroneous exposures
Olympus cameras also have other settings that affect WB:
allocating a WB setting on Olympus cameras
you must be in a PASM mode or Movie mode (iAUTO, SCENE modes and some ART Filters will disable WB changes)
you must not be using Color Creator mode as this will disable WB changes
then you need to access the WB settings either via:
autoWB
in order for the camera to determine the autoWB measurement, there needs to be neutral or near-neutral tones in the scene that are within the exposure range (ie. not blown out from severe over-exposure or blocked out from underexposure).
the camera then rapidly determines the best WB setting to make these as neutral as possible
when NOT to use autoWB
when you want consistent WB between exposures
when there are no truly neutral tones in the scene and colour accuracy is important:
when you want the light source to give colour to your image
factory preset WB settings
sunny = 5300K
shade = 7500K
cloudy = 6000K
incandescent = 3000K
flourescent = 4000K
underwater
flash = 5500K
CWB setting
you need a white piece of paper (or preferably a true neutral target) which is lit by your light source without reflective glare bouncing towards the camera
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if you use normal white paper, it is actually a little blue due to optical enhancement agents which convert UV light into blue light to make it brighter, so your custom WB will render the scene a touch warm
set your exposure to ensure the paper is not blown out or severely under-exposed
perform a autofocus lock or use manual focus to avoid the next steps struggling as it can't lock AF on a plain sheet of paper
if you get error message NG Retry with the following, it means that either:
your target was severely over-exposed, or,
your target was severely under-exposed, or,
your target was not suitable as a WB target (eg. no near-neutral tones)
if using a flash, ensure Menu:Cogs G:flash+WB = OFF otherwise the custom WB will not be used (unless using a non-compliant flash)
via the WB settings
fixing WB issues in post-processing
most RAW connversion programs (eg. Adobe Lightroom) and jpeg editing software tools, allow you to change the WB setting
this can be changed to a preset value (eg. As Shot, Daylight, etc)
alternatively you can use the eye dropper to select a neutral tone in the image and the software will determine the best WB for that tone
it is handy if you have taken a shot with a neutral WB target in the scene, and then the WB setting for that image can be used on other images taken in the same lighting
omd/wb.txt · Last modified: 2014/10/14 21:24 by gary1