80B Filter on a DSLR

Hi Folks!

Started fooling around with white balance on my K110D. I was getting tired of the yellow cast created by tungsten bulbs. Setting balance to Tungsten helped - but not as much as leaving the setting on AWB, and putting on my trusty 80B filter I used for spot-lit macro work in my film days.

Then I ran around taking all kinds of shots with the filter in place.

I LIKE IT! Indoors, outdoors in snow, Christmas tree, no flash, with flash. Sometimes, especially with snow, there is a "slight" blue cast, but I find it quite pleasant.

Only downside is the two f stops it costs me. I don't have an 80A to try, so I don't know if that combination would be even better.

Now, the dumb question - why do I think the AWB / 80B combination is better than AWB alone. Obviously the AWB is correcting the heavy blue from the filter, but the result's are great to my eye.

Has anyone else played with this?

Have a super day everyone.

curious, I have an 80A so I'll give it a try tomorrow. I also have an 85B!!! So I'll try that too.

Mac,
I have never owned a K110D But on the AWB setting can't you adjust the setting + or -: to do the same thing.

Regards

Yeah Mac I've played around with all my filters.
Do try this:
look up custom white balance in your manual....
use a sheet of white (or even light orange colored) paper or cloth, under your incandescent lights and set a custom white balance.

now you got the effect of a filter without losing 2 stops or having another peice of glass infront of your lens.

I still use my cokin varicolor polarizers alot. but most color correction filters get used on the flash units, more than the cameras, I'm afraid.

Yes and dont forget AWB has limits of what colour temperature it will calibrate correctly.

I am pretty sure tungsten light is outide the limit , so manual WB adjustment is the way to go.

This is a great tool for accurately setting white balance. If you go for it, don't make the same mistake I did by buying a small one. Buy the 77mm (it'll fit most lenses currently available) and use cheap step down rings for lenses with smaller than 77mm filter threads.

It's a good idea, but.....

You have to admire the nerve of people who can charge half the price of a camera for a piece of plastic. I'm sticking to my trusty piece of A4 paper.

G

I can get both exposure and white balance off my kodak grey card.

Getting white balance right is fine if you want "correct" colours, but creative photography doesn't always need such neutrality. Some very dramatic images do not have accurate white balance.

The only point I'm making is although it's necessary to understand how to achieve a correct result, we shouldn't let it be a straightjacket. Don't be afraid to think outside the box.

I once had an assistant who turned up and the only thing he had brought for white balncing was a bus ticket

He didn't last long

Absolutely true, I would probably never use 'correct' balance in a mixed lighting situation and would use 1/4 or 1/2 CT orange or blue rather than the full thing.

Ken, Terry, John, Don, Peters and George.

Thanks to you all for the quick replies!

Dug out the manual (again) and sho'nuf, there on page 115 was something I didn't understand the first few times around - that I could adjust white balance in manual by shooting something like a grey card under the lighting conditions in question. I've watched studio pros shooting grey cards and never quite got what was going on.

OK, time to learn and stow my filter away for a macro day.

Cheers to everyone!

Tried it and it works! The camera is quite fussy about what it will handle, and I got a lot of NG (No Good - try again). I think on the older models like the k110D, the Kelvin temperature range (2000 to 12,000) may not be wide enough to handle ALL lighting situations, resulting in the NG results. But then again, what do I know?

Bottom line - well worth the effort, fun to explore, and adds more creative control. (Or in my case, more opportunity for disaster )

Thanks again to everyone.

Glad to hear it worked for you. Although if 2000 - 12000 K is not enough,, then you can't be on Earth!

John wrote: you can't be on Earth!

Aw, c'mon, John! You've known THAT for years now!

You're right of course, 2000K to 12,000K spans the whole spectrum of light. My NG results must be from another failure in the test. Neither my camera nor I do well on tests