On Aug 15, 2011, at 5:23 PM, Bruce Walker wrote: > > > Here's another obscure one: take a shot of something neutral gray (I'm > assuming you didn't bring a gray card) and you can use that to improve your > WB later on (Lr or Ps). I find that the back covers of many keyboards > (musical ones) are gray. There's often one to be found on a stage.
I have found that microphones make excellent neutral grey references. The best to use is the grey metal screen over the mouthpiece of a bunch of them. However any light reflecting off of something black will be very close to the ambient light value. Failing that, you can use something white, though it's more susceptible to the white not being perfectly color balanced. > > -bmw > > On 11-08-15 7:39 PM, Walt Gilbert wrote: >> Thanks for all the advice, Bruce. >> >> I do most of those to one extent or the other, though I have a tough time >> making myself bump the ISO up, even though the camera is capable of it. I >> never go above 3200 unless it's just to show someone that the camera will do >> it. I should probably get over that, huh? >> >> Being prepared for the very small keeper rate, on the other hand -- that's >> my forte! >> >> I usually keep my camera in center-weighted, average metering, as I've been >> less than impressed with the matrix metering in the past. And I agree that >> does tend to produce better results to my eye. >> >> Where I have the most difficulty is in a situation like the one I was in >> most recently -- indoors during mid-day, huge windows with lots of sunlight >> under a hazy sky in a room with very high ceilings with recessed fluorescent >> bulbs, plus dropped fixtures (about 7 ft or 2.5 m high) with incandescent >> bulbs, PLUS some very, very white light spilling in from a kitchen area, >> just off to the right. All of this in a room with fairly bright yellow >> walls. >> >> I got some crazy-looking colors out of that one. The AWB just threw up its >> hands and said, "Your guess is as good as mine, dude." >> >> Thanks again! >> >> Walt >> >> >> >> On 8/15/2011 1:49 PM, Bruce Walker wrote: >>> Some quick advice, Walt. >>> >>> Switch away from matrix metering; go with center-weighted or spot. Chances >>> are the stage lights are focused on the performers, so they're the >>> brightest things in the room. >>> >>> If you go spot metering, meter off of faces. They are close enough to 18% >>> grey so the meter is about right. >>> >>> Raise the ISO higher than you think is reasonable. :) Either the camera's >>> ISO is great (eg K-5, K-x etc.) or you can use Lightroom or a >>> noise-reduction plugin, or simply go black and white and call the grain art. >>> >>> Take the fastest lens(es) you've got. Learn to like (or at least get along >>> with) their field of view. >>> >>> If the action is too fast for manual focusing, pre-focus on a point and >>> snap when the action gets to that point. Be prepared to have a very small >>> keeper rate. >>> >>> -bmw >>> > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
