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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: lucas on Tue, 19 January 2010, 18:57:03

Title: white balance cards
Post by: lucas on Tue, 19 January 2010, 18:57:03: Quote from: ripster;92767
Well, to get SOMEWHAT back on track then...

One of my Ebay pet peeves is it's really hard to tell how yellowed the old IBMs are from the picture. They ALL look yellow. This guy's looks either yellow or beige or... ClickyKeyboards seems to actually know how to use the WHITE BALANCE feature on their camera.

Grey cards are cheap. Use them!!

I use a Whibal - real nice cards (http://www.rawworkflow.com/whibal/) and portable for those band school concerts in ugly fluorescent gym lighting.

i've noticed your WhiBal card in several of your photos. as i've been doing more and more product photography lately, i've finally bought one. i got the pocket kit. which size do you have?

i'm looking forward to it. i think my model m photos were fairly-well balanced. next time, though, they'll be perfect! :D
Title: white balance cards
Post by: lucas on Tue, 19 January 2010, 22:18:14: cool. which nikon do you have?
Title: white balance cards
Post by: lucas on Wed, 20 January 2010, 02:21:59: cool. i have a d90 which is currently at nikon for repair. i'd like a d200 or d300. having two cameras would be so nice in a situation like this.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: Rajagra on Wed, 20 January 2010, 06:41:04: Quote from: ripster;152215
I have the Whibal pocket and studio.

Do they yellow over time? :smile:

I only ask as I have some very old grey cards and I ought to check. I'm probably just being paranoid.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: microsoft windows on Wed, 20 January 2010, 14:41:03: I just use whatever digital camera I have access to. They all seem to take pictures OK.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: elservo on Wed, 20 January 2010, 22:28:14: How many girls have been chained up down there, do you think? I go with four, and a fifth was gonna get chained up but she escaped out the front door during the family dinner.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: Rajagra on Thu, 21 January 2010, 06:53:20: Quote from: elservo;152556
How many girls have been chained up down there, do you think? I go with four, and a fifth was gonna get chained up but she escaped out the front door during the family dinner.

You might find some clues in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG1AWVLnl48 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG1AWVLnl48)

(Jump to 6m20s)
Title: white balance cards
Post by: elservo on Sat, 23 January 2010, 13:30:28: Haha! I saw those a few weeks ago and was amazed at how he nailed Lucas so effortlessly.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: lucas on Sat, 23 January 2010, 18:20:15: i'm so confused
Title: white balance cards
Post by: Rajagra on Sun, 24 January 2010, 00:09:05: Quote from: elservo;153255
Haha! I saw those a few weeks ago and was amazed at how he nailed Lucas so effortlessly.

I don't think Lucas had much respect for the audience.
He even put a goatseviewer in the movie to insult us:
Title: white balance cards
Post by: firestorm on Mon, 25 January 2010, 11:50:38: I've just been using a "gray card" - an 18% gray microfiber towel in my case - to set the custom white balance on my DSLR. That works well as long as you don't move into different lighting. Otherwise, I use RAW partially so I can rescue poor white balance later, usually relying on white items to poke around and find a better balance.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: kishy on Mon, 25 January 2010, 12:05:20: Quote from: ripster;153603
99% of my shots are that way.

These new CFL bulbs really screw with indoor lighting - sometimes even a gray card can't save the pic. One area where incandescent are much better.

Not sure how it applies to photography, but there have been advances since the original CFLs came out. The originals had a very cold 'blue' light while the new ones are warmer, sort of orange/yellowed like incandescents. I can't even find the old ugly blueish ones anymore which is good, since they suck.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: kishy on Mon, 25 January 2010, 13:16:08: Shhhh...I've got like fifty 60W incandescent bulbs in the closet...

Pretty sure they're illegal for sale here too except specific uses (such as appliance bulbs, candelabra base bulbs and perhaps outdoor-intended bulbs). Either that or illegal for import and manufacture, and it's only old stock left to sell.

One thing that bugs me are the health and environmental issues associated with them, particularly regarding disposal. If you break one you're supposed to evacuate the building until the dust inside settles...
Title: white balance cards
Post by: itlnstln on Mon, 25 January 2010, 13:40:47: Yeah, just like "going green" somehow always forces companies to move operations overseas. I guess building new plants and hiring new workers is cheaper than modifying the plants you have. Good luck getting that emissons bill passed in CA. The reason above is the opposition's argument against the bill (and the argument the right uses against any environemental bill).
Title: white balance cards
Post by: Rajagra on Mon, 25 January 2010, 13:54:28: Environmental and human rights laws will be the end of civilization as we know it. We're seeing the start of this with the global economic recession. I'm hoping I'm old enough that I die before everything goes tits up. If I were a 20 year old today I'd be very afraid for my future. Unless I was Chinese.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: itlnstln on Mon, 25 January 2010, 13:54:49: And just think, the US just ruled last week that businesses (and labor unions, but c'mon, really?) can spend as much as they want in political contrubutions as the current caps violate their free speech.

Now, I want Texas to seceed from the US.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: itlnstln on Mon, 25 January 2010, 13:58:08: Quote from: itlnstln;153643
Now, I want Texas to seceed from the US.

Oh wait, I forgot. There was a shooting at the Capital buiding in Austin last week, because Texas made it legal to carry a concealed handgun in the buiding (let alone the capital grounds).
Title: white balance cards
Post by: SCTony on Mon, 25 January 2010, 15:18:34: Lol from white balance cards to corrupt global corporations- that's what makes Geekhack so interesting! Is Google #2 evil company ever?
Title: white balance cards
Post by: ak_nala on Mon, 25 January 2010, 18:17:05: Quote from: kishy;153617
One thing that bugs me are the health and environmental issues associated with them, particularly regarding disposal. If you break one you're supposed to evacuate the building until the dust inside settles...

Mmmmm... Mercury! Gotta have more Mercury running around the environment.

It really cracks me up (or is that make me want to scream) that the EU, and by extension (for economic reasons) much of the rest of the world, dictates no lead in electronics, leading to tin whiskers and other unintended consequences, yet in the same breath mandate something that is arguably worse be foisted on the public. It is far more likely people will be exposed to mercury from mishandled CFLs than they ever would have been lead from electronics, and mercury is actually a bit worse than lead when it gets into your system. Don't we have enough problems with mercury in fish?

CFLs as they are were never a good idea for household lighting, they were just a quick fix of questionable efficacy (I have yet to see an honest assessment of their environmental impact beyond the simplistic energy-use comparison while in service). Instead of waiting for the technology to mature, whether CFL or LED, they jumped the gun as a way of saying, "look, we're doing something about Global Warming."

Global warming is a serious issue that should be addressed by serious people, not politicians.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: kishy on Mon, 25 January 2010, 18:29:35: Quote from: ak_nala;153709
Mmmmm... Mercury! Gotta have more Mercury running around the environment.

It really cracks me up (or is that make me want to scream) that the EU, and by extension (for economic reasons) much of the rest of the world, dictates no lead in electronics, leading to tin whiskers and other unintended consequences, yet in the same breath mandate something that is arguably worse be foisted on the public. It is far more likely people will be exposed to mercury from mishandled CFLs than they ever would have been lead from electronics, and mercury is actually a bit worse than lead when it gets into your system. Don't we have enough problems with mercury in fish?

CFLs as they are were never a good idea for household lighting, they were just a quick fix of questionable efficacy (I have yet to see an honest assessment of their environmental impact beyond the simplistic energy-use comparison while in service). Instead of waiting for the technology to mature, whether CFL or LED, they jumped the gun as a way of saying, "look, we're doing something about Global Warming."

Global warming is a serious issue that should be addressed by serious people, not politicians.

Bingo.

I'm interested in seeing what happens with LED lighting for homes. One thing I hate though is they're almost always very 'cold' and I find the light from LEDs, direct or indirect, tends to hurt my eyes.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: firestorm on Mon, 25 January 2010, 20:10:28: I've been lightly boycotting CFLs for years, mostly because of the mercury content. More than anything, I don't like the light they put out. Warm up times aren't good either. We have installed more and more of them recently, mostly for the increased light output. It has really thrown off my photos of the kids. If I use a gray card, it seems OK, but the problem is the inconsistency from one room to the next.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: microsoft windows on Mon, 25 January 2010, 20:13:33: Quote from: ripster;152425
Well, your White Balance HAS gotten a bit better.

Show Image
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=4622&d=1253302513)

Now that's what l call being a professional photographer.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: itlnstln on Tue, 26 January 2010, 07:56:44: I got a (nice) foosball table off Craigslist awhile back. We have only used a handful of times. Fail. We usually end up playing darts instead.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: microsoft windows on Tue, 26 January 2010, 13:25:42: My foosball table has a big old doll-house sitting on top of it.
Title: white balance cards
Post by: Rajagra on Tue, 26 January 2010, 14:31:58: Quote from: microsoft windows;153865
My foosball table has a big old doll-house sitting on top of it.

There has to be a joke about gender confusion in there, but I'm far to classy to mention it. Wait ... oops! :doh: