White Balance Lens Cap

I ran across this website the other day about having a Len Cap use as a White Balance setup.

Has anyone tried this.

Here is the Website:
link

I have heard they work, but so does a piece of white paper which is quite a bit cheaper.

Since changing to shooting RAW I worry less about white balance apart from artefact photographs where I use a custom white balance.

Best wishes, Kris.

I bought a 10 quid plastic grey card on teh grounds that white paper generally isn't the right type of white having added stuff to make it look whiter.

When I remember to use it I find the difference is startling.

Mike

Once upon a time I had real Kodak grey cards. They cost me a fortune at the time but I found them invaluable for getting the exposure right with artefact photographs. I wish I had a clue where they went...

Cheers, Kris.

I've used the ExpoDisc quite a bit - it's nice in that it can be used for both incident light metering as well as WB.

On the *ist-D I used it ALL the time - even with RAW. It was so quick to grab a custom WB on the *ist-D. Unfortunately Pentax changed that with the K10D, and it's now a real faff capturing the custom WB (several button pushes ) that I don't normally bother.

Silkypix has a nice skin tone WB tool that works pretty well

There is also the Lee filter cap (about £2) which works pretty well!

Matt

Thanks for your comments in regards to the White Balance Lens Cap.

Will look at the Lee filter cap too, thanks MattMatic

did you notice that translucent body cap that came with your camera?????

Thank God I'm not the only one Paid £50 for an ExpoDisc and could'nt use it on a K10D.... too messy. It can be a good idea though to include part of a Grey Card in the first shot. I also have a Kodak grey scale card with 10 shades of grey on it (bought for film testing), handy to see if there are any casts. I've just used it to test some Tesco blue daylight bulbs, which looked too blue to me, but they aren't too bad.

shim

shim

LOL @ Shim.
I've badgered Pentax to change the "RAW" button to work like the *ist-D, but they haven't done anything . I NEVER use the Raw button. The *ist-D you could just hold down the button (where the RAW button is) and press the shutter release to get a manual WB.

It was blindingly simple and exceedingly fast. Shame they couldn't bring it back for the K20D/K10D etc!

Matt

Maybe on the K30D Matt. Hopefully we shall know more after the PMA preview on Monday

I was recently shooting a show jumping event where the lighting was a mix of high pressure sodium (orange) and varying degrees of daylight.

I did try to use my Expodisc (yes I bought one as well, 2 actually, different sizes) and it worked great . . . for one shot. The lighting changed for virtually every shot, it was a lighting nightmare. Good event though. I shot ISO2500-3500, 1/320th, f2.8 all day. Got some pretty good images too.

Mannesty - any chance of seeing some of your horse show shots?

Mike

Sure. Visit my son's web site at www.rsphotographics.com and look through the TVRC Novice Indoor Showjumping Qualifier pics.

I was shooting with my K20D and DA* 50-135mm for the most part. I did use the 77mm Ltd towards the end when the daylight was fading but I'm not sure if any of those made it to the web site. My son was shooting a Canon 30D and Canon 70-200 L IS USM lens.

My shots are numbered _K20????, the rest are from the Canon.

These shots are not finished, they are essentially proofs that have had some exposure comp, straightening and cropping, and WB adjustment. It's not worth finishing 1200+ shots when only 20 or so might sell.

If you want to see finished versions of any in particular, let me have the image number and I'll post them here without the watermark.

I bought a 18% grey card the other day after hearing how you can use it set white balance and I was surprised that I can't use it to set custom WB in camera - I know about using it as a 'white' reference in PP (I still don't understand that) but all attempts to set in camera WB off it resulted in being told 'NG'.
This is where you all roll your eyes and groan at the clueless newbie...

You need a white reference to set white balance in camera, and a grey/gray card for exposure. Most grey cards are double-sided, white/grey.

In PP, you can use an 18% grey card for white balance, but not in camera as far as I know.

If your lighting is a more or less constant temperature, for PP white balance, just take an image of the grey card in the prevailing lighting, then take the rest of your shots. In PP, set the WB for the grey ard image, then copy it to the remainder.

The problem I had in the show jumping arena was that the temperature of the light constantly changed from shot to shot so it became necessary to adjust each image.