A useful trick is to take a couple of pictures that include your white balance card as part of the captured image, as versus just using the card when you're setting up. It's useful to do this, as it gives you a known value of white in your post processing. Rick
I have struggled to understand white ballance. Your video has helped me to understand this subject within the settings of my camera. I thank you very much.
In film days we used colour balancing filters. Bit like using jpeg; you have to get it right in camera or all can be lost . Print film was more forgiving
Thank you Peter! I use a pop-up white-balance target (18% grey) for video -- had not thought about doing it for still photos. Have just used the camera auto-white-balance in my G85 -- and I'd say that 90% of the time it is fine -- sometimes when there are mixed light sources, this camera tends to set the AWB on the background and not foreground subjects -- so then I have to correct that in my post-processing.
Sometimes lazy = efficient! I'm binge watching your videos by the way, so much good information. Thank you very much for taking the time to make so many helpful videos!
I find using a foldable white balance target from Impact, give me the best results with my E-300. The GH4 and the EPL-7 do a good job on auto white balance with sunlight, but I will use the target with tungsten, fluorescent and LED sources as well. Targets can produce a blueish result.
From 6:41 The incandescent setting can also be a bit blue compared to almost any Kelvin setting on the custom option even say 2900K or even 2800 or 2700. It removes that brownish yellow cast really hardcore! Something like 2900K gives substantially less yellows than auto colour balance under artificial lights I find. That's under light bulbs or LEDs. I find that Auto always gives quite a lot of excess yellows under incandescent or LED light bulbs. I understand of course that the colour balance of lightbulb is GROSSLY different from daylight and it's a bit of a stretch to expect auto WB to cover everything especially when some light sources like fluorescent ones have discrete spectral lines and not a smoother broad band colour spectrum centered on one wavelength.
One fun thig was photographing a music gig that had a good lightshow. I used mostly Auto WB but also tried a couple of custom colour temperatures. The lighting looked good in oth situarions but this particular concert lightshow did have some very extreme colour casts on occasions.
Nicely explained, Peter. Just one additional point on why it's useful to get your white balance as close as possible when shooting in raw with the intention of doing final tweaking in post. Those in-camera white balance settings have no effect whatsoever to your raw files. However, those settings are recorded in the raw file as metadata. Your post processing software will read and apply those metadata values to your post editing, thereby saving you having to manually dial them in for each and every image. Let's say, the metadata gives your final post processing white balance a kick start that will save you a lot of work. But, unlike in jpeg, the actual raw image is not affected, so all adjustments are still possible. There is no data loss in raw. Another great video, Peter. Although, as a professional photographer with a lot of product photography experience, I already know this stuff, your videos are always helpful in clarifying my thinking and suggesting new things to try. Keep them coming. Rick
Peter, You might also want to mention that the default white balance setting in Olympus OM-D series cameras is "warm". I always set it to Off, but it's worth your commenting on how it affects the other presets. Rick
Hi Peter! Very helpful and useful explanation of how adjusting white balance in both in camera and in post will affect a mixed lighting situation. I use a pair of small and large plastic WB cards. When I DO use the card, I take a photo with that target, and then use that to select neutral gray in LR and apply that setting as a baseline/starting point across all photos with the same lighting.
I am used jpeg with manual White Balance it's the best in my images and i have many options day and night And it's mistake if used White Balance auto, thanks alot mr Peter
I have used the small white or gray "formica" cards in the past and keep them in my bag, I would use them in the lab too. If you are shooting portraits and have a white foam core board that you use for reflected light you are set. I like that little collapsible -- I think the tip on night shots, same thing for shooting stars, set the temperature manually and you are set.
I usually get creative with the WB, camera is set to Auto WB and then I tweak it if it's not to my liking. I will also sometimes use different WB with gradient filters
Well done, Peter. Useful info about what can be a tricky subject, especially degrees kelvin. Good tips - like the creative use of wb. I use white paper rated at 100 brightness for a target. 100 bright is the highest value available - more costly but worth it. BTW, what ever happened to the “things you didn’t know about Helsinki” segments?
Hello Peter, Awesome content. Always follow your videos and work. Will it be possible to make in-depth EM1x tutorial? Because it is some times difficult for new users to set up advanced features successfully.
6:41. I've tried using a piece of paper inside under artificial light using the EM10 Mark ii. Also I tried setting 3 capture white balace settings on 3 different white ibjects in the kitchen: thexrefrigerator door, the combi gas bouler and the white ceiling. I found they each gave a different colour cast to the image and were all too blue for my taste. The incandescent setting can also be a bit blue compared to almost any Kelvin setting on the custom option even say 2900K. Something like 2900K gives substantially less yellows than auto under artificial lights I find. Light bulbs or LEDs
peter peter your doing a great job... not scary to give out trade secret "sharing is caring" and few people in the industry are willing to pull people close to them,,, level wise in fear of losing there status... Or photographer individuality. Peter forsgard with olympus moving as one team pull everyone up to the same level... A real asset to Olympus, lifting everyone base level.. UA-cam needs more people like you. You have grown over the last few months in big way. I can see it your going well, you need to do more live video "peter on fly is best benefit you. great job bud. (haha we are all lazy)
Great video Peter. Very interesting. I would like to see some comments on the Olympus Colour Wheel, you know, the round thing that you can tweak colour balance, and how and under what conditions you would use it. Cheers
@@ForsgardPeter Yes, that colour wheel is useful in so many scenarios. Not just white balance, but more so in creativity. Peter, please do make that video, as it'll spark new ideas in all of us. Rick
The olympus camera strap has black and white colours/tones. I have used black camera camera straps in the past . Thread tape used by plumbers is a good white balance target --- I have used thread tape wrapped around a pencil eraser. Small, cheap, and easy . But generally; auto white balance + raw files is good enough for me these days . I think Jpeg users need to be far better photographers than those using raw . Raw has made me a lazy happy snapper . Thankyou again, great tips to consider, or re-consider . Off topic hack for a small light reflector --- the inside of cardboard drink containers (milk / juices and the likes) are a dull silver ;) . Folded up they are easy to carry in the camera bag.. Tape a few together for a larger reflector .
Someone I know photographs at jazz clubs where the light is very tricky. He's been successful by targeting the piano keyboard and setting a custom WB accordingly.
Thanks for the information. I normally shoot in RAW format and adjust the WB in computer. I am lazy in bring a grey card. Normally I look for white shirts when taking group photos in formal events.
Thanks Peter for this review of WB. I would like to take advantage of the bracketing option for WB. It would have been nice if Olympus had added the option of choosing specific colour temperature options instead of the the A/G option. Do any of your viewers/subscribers know of any other references for this feature and how to tweak the A/G settings?
Did you take the photo at 4:15? Such a nice photo of the library and you made it stand out by ghosting the people with a longer shutter speed. Can you do a video to explain the camera settings on how to get that effect. Your shutter speed would have to be long but I wonder what you did with your ISO to make the photo keep its 3000K colour temperature indoors? Very cool.
In Super Control Panel. Press Ok to go to SCP. Top row second from left is WB. Choose that and the Kelvin setting is the last opinion. Press info and choose the kelvin you want.
One thing I found out when capturing white balances is that there are a lot of different whites!🤣😂😅 Strangely as a physics major I should know about this kind of thing but I was kind of aware of it at age 10 because Nancy Kominsky had an oil painting TV show in the mid 70s and I teied oil painting and found tgat there were several white oil colours. Flake white, titanium white and .. I forgot the other one! Oh yes, zinc white.
Øyrind, of course you knew about white balance already. You simply select Auto WB 😉. But, yes, understanding how to use white balance correctly will enable you to get the colour you want in your photographs. And Peter's video is a great starting point. Experiment and enjoy. Rick
AWB .. works 90% ... the 9% I tweak with on1 software... but for that 1% that there is just too many different types of light sources indoors- I pull out my WB foldable card
I once photographed a church ceremony in Latvia that had mostly candlelight and some daylight, but through colored church windows - what a white-balance mess! If this happens again, how do I set my OM-D EM 10 ii?
Peter, why wory about WB during exposure in RAW wen you can color picker it all on spot in post? Why is important to get WB right in camera? Does it at all make meaning shooting RAW?
Tip #6: make it monochrome! If light conditions are difficult or really bad, I prefer to transform my RAW files to good old black&white. In some cases of sub-optimal light, monochrome just looks better.
I almost always leave my camera on auto white balance (AWB) and, if I don't like the result, I can always warm or cool the (jpeg) photo in post processing (PSP X).
If you need to adjust the WB in post. JPG is very limited, with raw files no limitations. JpG is only 8bit and Olympus Raw is 12bit. That is a huge difference.
Okay, for the targets, they usually have black, gray (18%) and white. I can never find someone who can tell me which color to use for white balance. Some people say you MUST use the white to get correct balance and that the gray is for exposure only, but others say you MUST you the 18% gray color to get correct white balance...and I have never actually heard what the black is for! So confusing!
You covered a lot of ground in a short time. Good job. But there are subtleties which need more time to talk about and digest.... My tip: For creative WB and more with JPEG, use Olympus Color Creator in-camera - easy, quick and lots of flexibility
@@ForsgardPeter the PEN-F CC is more powerful than my E-M1 CC. For JPEG in-camera it is very useful. For raw, you can estimate the look with CC and then do a better job at the computer
![Mastering Exposure - [5 Tips to Get the Right EXPOSURE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/33LPaj2rYhw/mqdefault.jpg)
I use an expo disk for quite a while now, and it improved my workflow significantly. It works very well, and reduces time I spend post significantly.
A useful trick is to take a couple of pictures that include your white balance card as part of the captured image, as versus just using the card when you're setting up. It's useful to do this, as it gives you a known value of white in your post processing.
Rick
Thanks for taking us up from just using the Auto WB and now using a target white or grey to get the PERFECT BALANCE: You are much appreciated...
Awesome! Thank you!
This is a great instructional video on WB. I enjoy your teaching videos very much.
Thank you.
I have struggled to understand white ballance. Your video has helped me to understand this subject within the settings of my camera. I thank you very much.
In film days we used colour balancing filters. Bit like using jpeg; you have to get it right in camera or all can be lost . Print film was more forgiving
Thank you Peter! I use a pop-up white-balance target (18% grey) for video -- had not thought about doing it for still photos. Have just used the camera auto-white-balance in my G85 -- and I'd say that 90% of the time it is fine -- sometimes when there are mixed light sources, this camera tends to set the AWB on the background and not foreground subjects -- so then I have to correct that in my post-processing.
Very useful and comprehensive presentation of the topic. Thank you 😊
Thanks.
Thanks for all your brilliant videos and ideas.
I learn plenty of both, technique and suggestions.
Great to hear!
Sometimes lazy = efficient! I'm binge watching your videos by the way, so much good information. Thank you very much for taking the time to make so many helpful videos!
Thank you.
I loved the "sometimes I am lazy"
I use a credit card size target that fits on my wallet and always auto WB.
That is a good one. Need to get one. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks a lot for this useful tutorial. It really contains a lot of great tips for a newbie like me..
Glad you found it helpful!
Really helpful tutorial as always thank you!
I find using a foldable white balance target from Impact, give me the best results with my E-300. The GH4 and the EPL-7 do a good job on auto white balance with sunlight, but I will use the target with tungsten, fluorescent and LED sources as well. Targets can produce a blueish result.
From 6:41 The incandescent setting can also be a bit blue compared to almost any Kelvin setting on the custom option even say 2900K or even 2800 or 2700. It removes that brownish yellow cast really hardcore! Something like 2900K gives substantially less yellows than auto colour balance under artificial lights I find. That's under light bulbs or LEDs. I find that Auto always gives quite a lot of excess yellows under incandescent or LED light bulbs.
I understand of course that the colour balance of lightbulb is GROSSLY different from daylight and it's a bit of a stretch to expect auto WB to cover everything especially when some light sources like fluorescent ones have discrete spectral lines and not a smoother broad band colour spectrum centered on one wavelength.
One fun thig was photographing a music gig that had a good lightshow. I used mostly Auto WB but also tried a couple of custom colour temperatures. The lighting looked good in oth situarions but this particular concert lightshow did have some very extreme colour casts on occasions.
Nicely explained, Peter.
Just one additional point on why it's useful to get your white balance as close as possible when shooting in raw with the intention of doing final tweaking in post.
Those in-camera white balance settings have no effect whatsoever to your raw files. However, those settings are recorded in the raw file as metadata. Your post processing software will read and apply those metadata values to your post editing, thereby saving you having to manually dial them in for each and every image. Let's say, the metadata gives your final post processing white balance a kick start that will save you a lot of work. But, unlike in jpeg, the actual raw image is not affected, so all adjustments are still possible. There is no data loss in raw.
Another great video, Peter. Although, as a professional photographer with a lot of product photography experience, I already know this stuff, your videos are always helpful in clarifying my thinking and suggesting new things to try. Keep them coming.
Rick
Peter,
You might also want to mention that the default white balance setting in Olympus OM-D series cameras is "warm". I always set it to Off, but it's worth your commenting on how it affects the other presets.
Rick
Yes and I always suggest in my Best Settings videos it to be turned off.
Hi Peter! Very helpful and useful explanation of how adjusting white balance in both in camera and in post will affect a mixed lighting situation. I use a pair of small and large plastic WB cards. When I DO use the card, I take a photo with that target, and then use that to select neutral gray in LR and apply that setting as a baseline/starting point across all photos with the same lighting.
❤❤❤
❤❤
I am used jpeg with manual White Balance it's the best in my images and i have many options day and night And it's mistake if used White Balance auto, thanks alot mr Peter
I have used the small white or gray "formica" cards in the past and keep them in my bag, I would use them in the lab too. If you are shooting portraits and have a white foam core board that you use for reflected light you are set. I like that little collapsible -- I think the tip on night shots, same thing for shooting stars, set the temperature manually and you are set.
I usually get creative with the WB, camera is set to Auto WB and then I tweak it if it's not to my liking. I will also sometimes use different WB with gradient filters
Gradient filters are great in Lr and changing the WB with those is a good way.
Great video. Solved the confusion
Glad it helped!
Well done, Peter. Useful info about what can be a tricky subject, especially degrees kelvin. Good tips - like the creative use of wb. I use white paper rated at 100 brightness for a target. 100 bright is the highest value available - more costly but worth it. BTW, what ever happened to the “things you didn’t know about Helsinki” segments?
Fun Fact will be back, when I go out and do videos.
Hello Peter, Awesome content. Always follow your videos and work. Will it be possible to make in-depth EM1x tutorial? Because it is some times difficult for new users to set up advanced features successfully.
I have playlist about the E-M1X: ua-cam.com/play/PLDi4hF9-cy6iOdQ8lprcbCCHjzkZPFusZ.html
But I do not have, not yet, a in-depth video about the X.
6:41. I've tried using a piece of paper inside under artificial light using the EM10 Mark ii. Also I tried setting 3 capture white balace settings on 3 different white ibjects in the kitchen: thexrefrigerator door, the combi gas bouler and the white ceiling. I found they each gave a different colour cast to the image and were all too blue for my taste. The incandescent setting can also be a bit blue compared to almost any Kelvin setting on the custom option even say 2900K. Something like 2900K gives substantially less yellows than auto under artificial lights I find. Light bulbs or LEDs
peter peter your doing a great job... not scary to give out trade secret "sharing is caring" and few people in the industry are willing to pull people close to them,,, level wise in fear of losing there status... Or photographer individuality. Peter forsgard with olympus moving as one team pull everyone up to the same level... A real asset to Olympus, lifting everyone base level.. UA-cam needs more people like you. You have grown over the last few months in big way. I can see it your going well, you need to do more live video "peter on fly is best benefit you. great job bud. (haha we are all lazy)
Thank you!
Great video Peter. Very interesting. I would like to see some comments on the Olympus Colour Wheel, you know, the round thing that you can tweak colour balance, and how and under what conditions you would use it. Cheers
The color wheel is something that I really need to make a video about. It is an interesting feature.
@@ForsgardPeter Yes, that colour wheel is useful in so many scenarios. Not just white balance, but more so in creativity. Peter, please do make that video, as it'll spark new ideas in all of us.
Rick
Very informative Peter
Hello sir, can you make for video auto focus continuing Olympus omd 5 Mark 2
That is a good idea. I see what I can do.
The olympus camera strap has black and white colours/tones.
I have used black camera camera straps in the past .
Thread tape used by plumbers is a good white balance target --- I have used thread tape wrapped around a pencil eraser. Small, cheap, and easy .
But generally; auto white balance + raw files is good enough for me these days .
I think Jpeg users need to be far better photographers than those using raw . Raw has made me a lazy happy snapper .
Thankyou again, great tips to consider, or re-consider .
Off topic hack for a small light reflector --- the inside of cardboard drink containers (milk / juices and the likes) are a dull silver ;) . Folded up they are easy to carry in the camera bag.. Tape a few together for a larger reflector .
Thanks for the great tips!
Someone I know photographs at jazz clubs where the light is very tricky. He's been successful by targeting the piano keyboard and setting a custom WB accordingly.
Clever.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Random paper and white lettering = lifesaver for me! I always wing it with my WB. ;D
Thanks for the information. I normally shoot in RAW format and adjust the WB in computer. I am lazy in bring a grey card. Normally I look for white shirts when taking group photos in formal events.
White shirt works good as reference when determine the white balance in post.
Thanks Peter for this review of WB. I would like to take advantage of the bracketing option for WB. It would have been nice if Olympus had added the option of choosing specific colour temperature options instead of the the A/G option. Do any of your viewers/subscribers know of any other references for this feature and how to tweak the A/G settings?
Not sure if it is possible, most likely not.
Did you take the photo at 4:15? Such a nice photo of the library and you made it stand out by ghosting the people with a longer shutter speed. Can you do a video to explain the camera settings on how to get that effect. Your shutter speed would have to be long but I wonder what you did with your ISO to make the photo keep its 3000K colour temperature indoors? Very cool.
Yes, I did. There is a video about the image: ua-cam.com/video/N_dSAMmp_Z0/v-deo.html
Congrats great work.
Regards from Italy
Thank you.
Hi Peter - where can I set Kalvin WB on. The OM-D1. MIII exactly to what number I want - K 6300 for example- ? Thanks
In Super Control Panel. Press Ok to go to SCP. Top row second from left is WB. Choose that and the Kelvin setting is the last opinion. Press info and choose the kelvin you want.
One thing I found out when capturing white balances is that there are a lot of different whites!🤣😂😅 Strangely as a physics major I should know about this kind of thing but I was kind of aware of it at age 10 because Nancy Kominsky had an oil painting TV show in the mid 70s and I teied oil painting and found tgat there were several white oil colours. Flake white, titanium white and .. I forgot the other one! Oh yes, zinc white.
Yes there area lot of white colors. The "right" white balance is a start for the final adjustments.
I realize I knew nothing about WB. Thanks!
I hope you know now.
Øyrind, of course you knew about white balance already. You simply select Auto WB 😉. But, yes, understanding how to use white balance correctly will enable you to get the colour you want in your photographs. And Peter's video is a great starting point. Experiment and enjoy.
Rick
AWB .. works 90% ... the 9% I tweak with on1 software... but for that 1% that there is just too many different types of light sources indoors- I pull out my WB foldable card
...Technical stuff.. I like it thanks
You are welcome!
I once photographed a church ceremony in Latvia that had mostly candlelight and some daylight, but through colored church windows - what a white-balance mess! If this happens again, how do I set my OM-D EM 10 ii?
I would experiment the presets. The one that gives the closest result to the way it looks to your eye is the one to use.
do you have a link for the pop out gray scale you showed?
amzn.to/2LnvwqI (Amazon Affliate link)
Peter, why wory about WB during exposure in RAW wen you can color picker it all on spot in post? Why is important to get WB right in camera? Does it at all make meaning shooting RAW?
It helps to understand the concept of WB. Also it makes it easier in post if you have a lot of images to edit. One thing less to worry about.
In underwater photography, I used white target, when I did not use a flash
Tip #6: make it monochrome! If light conditions are difficult or really bad, I prefer to transform my RAW files to good old black&white. In some cases of sub-optimal light, monochrome just looks better.
That is also a very good tip.
I almost always leave my camera on auto white balance (AWB) and, if I don't like the result, I can always warm or cool the (jpeg) photo in post processing (PSP X).
If you need to adjust the WB in post. JPG is very limited, with raw files no limitations. JpG is only 8bit and Olympus Raw is 12bit. That is a huge difference.
Okay, for the targets, they usually have black, gray (18%) and white. I can never find someone who can tell me which color to use for white balance. Some people say you MUST use the white to get correct balance and that the gray is for exposure only, but others say you MUST you the 18% gray color to get correct white balance...and I have never actually heard what the black is for! So confusing!
he black is for determing the black point, but I have never really used it. The grey should be used for white balance. It is also called gray balance.
your video suggestion aren't coming up...at the end for some reason well not in Australia
Ou really. Any other have problems in Australia?
@@ForsgardPeter sorry i need to read my comment over, sorry for my poor level of write. never been my strong suit
You covered a lot of ground in a short time. Good job. But there are subtleties which need more time to talk about and digest....
My tip: For creative WB and more with JPEG, use Olympus Color Creator in-camera - easy, quick and lots of flexibility
The Color Creator is something that I tried in Pen-F (it has more options in pen-F), but other that that I have not used it. Maybe I should.
@@ForsgardPeter the PEN-F CC is more powerful than my E-M1 CC. For JPEG in-camera it is very useful. For raw, you can estimate the look with CC and then do a better job at the computer
Do you ever use the WB button on the front of the EM cameras (just by the DOF preview button)?
I dont use the WB button at all.
👍👍
First?
Yes!
Expodisc.
One way of doing it.