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Re: Advice re: Canon 20d Digital SLR
Old 08-17-2007, 07:46 PM   #4 (permalink)
Stecyk
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Quote:
Originally Posted by R_Fredrick_Smith View Post
Here are some basic thoughts on how to proceed:

1. White balance is straight forward. You must choose the white balance that is appropriate for the lighting of the scene you are shooting. When in doubt, use the Custom White Balance settings (CWB). I use a black/gray/white calibration target from Photovision to set my CWB, but you can use just a gray card or a white card. Put the card or target in the scene and shoot a photo of it more or less full frame. Now in the menu choose that photo as the CWB reference photo, and then on the top LCD of the camera select the CWB setting. This is very clear in the manual.
No it isn't. The manual is virtually impossible to understand for white balance.

On page 51 of the manual, it states the following:

1) Press the AF-WB button (understood)

2) Select the custom white balance.

Look at the LCD panel and turn the dial to select custom white balance symbol (understood)

3) Photograph a white object

* The plain white object should fill the partial metering circle (easy enough)
* Set the lens focus mode to MF and focus manually (easy enough)
* Set any white balance setting (Then why did I do step 2? If I am moving to any white balance setting, what did I accomplish with Step 2? Can I choose AWB?)
* Shoot the white object so that a standard exposure is obtained (easy enough)

4) Select Custom WB via the camera menu

* Turn the dial to select Custom WB, then press set (easy enough)
* The custom white balance screen will appear (easy enough)

5) Select the image

* Turn the dial to select the image captured in step 3, then press set (easy enough)
* The image's white balance data will be imported and the menu will reappear (easy enough)

My confusion is steps 2 & 3. As I understand the written instructions (not very well), it doesn't seem we do anything with the custom white balance symbol in step 2. We select it, and we change it again before snapping a picture.


I later learned that...

1. Take a picture of a white object.
2. Select Custom White Balance on the back panel and press Set.
3. Choose the picture from step 1 and press Set. This stores a white balance setting.
4. Select Custom White Balance from the top panel when you want to use this stored white balance.

Aren't these latter four steps much easier?

Best regards,
Kevin
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