One more step on the learning curve
April 30, 2008
Ok, forget about stuff like focus, camera shake (hmm… must remember to tell you the fascinating story about my shaky hands one day), exposure, and all the rest of that super “proper photographer” type stuff.
This little batch is all about white balance. Again.
Further to a previous post where I was experimenting with manually adjusting the white balance using a white card, well, I had another read of my camera’s manual the other day (and before anyone comments, yep, I do know how to read and yep, shameful though it is to admit, I do occasionally refer to the manual!), and was a bit irritated to discover that whilst it explains how to manually tweak the white balance using a white card and various obscure camera settings, it actually suggests that using an 18% grey card will achieve better (presumably that means more accurate) results.
So, in town today, wander into the local Jessops and enquire whether they have any grey card in stock.
Well, at this point I have to observe that I’ve suddenly become deeply unimpressed by certain members of the Jessops crew (at least in my local branch).
For I’m met with a blank stare. Clearly some explanation’s in order. So, helpful little soul that I am, I explain that I want it to adjust my white balance (hmm… bit of a “side thought” here… I’m surprised none of the “politically correct advocates” - or, in my language, “bloody interfering do-gooders” haven’t yet picked up on that term as being racially offensive).
See light dawning in eyes of shop assistant. “Ah, that’s laboratory equipment isn’t it? We don’t stock that any longer.”
“That’s strange”, sez I, “cos its listed in your catalogue!” (I’m not 100% sure of this but took a gamble cos I’m fairly certain I’d seen it in the latest Jessops catalogue).
A look of “Dammit, he’s got me” flashed across the assistant’s face, whereupon he suddenly dived toward the front of the shop and started rummaging through an “end of line” bin.
And hey, triumphantly produced a grey card. A bit more expensive than I thought it was gonna be (dammit, I come from a printing/graphics background and I simply know these things aren’t that expensive to produce) but a grey card nonetheless.
Hastily shoving hand into pocket for the required dosh, I happily parted therewith. The actual card was a bit creased but as it was the very last one they had in stock, and as it had been reduced by a quid… hey, I’m not complaining. It’ll still do the trick (maybe).
Have to say though that some of the Jessops staff are in dire need of a bit of training. I took great delight in telling the lad “Look, this isn’t laboratory-type stuff. If you’ve got any customers who’re serious about using dSLRs then this is an almost mandatory bit of kit.”
But to return to the whole point of this post… this present small batch of pics were shot (in my favourite location of course, where the lighting’s really “challenging”… my few regular visitors will know exactly where I mean) having manually adjusted the white balance using the grey card. First impressions are that its even more spot-on than with the white card.
And another lesson I was reminded of (for the umpteenth time!)… the camera’s own LCD gives a totally different (and inaccurate) rendition than does a colour-calibrated monitor. Be warned!
7 Responses to “One more step on the learning curve”
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May 1, 2008 at 2:23 15
[I posted a comment, but it has not appeared]
Clearly your local shop’s salesforce is clueless. 18% gray card is SOP for white-balance adjustment. How they could claim to not know anything about it is beyond me. You better hope you don’t need something complicated, like a lens cloth! That may send them right over the edge.
These LCD screens on the cameras are awful. Well, some more so than others, but typically none are very good. I almost wish they would be just in B&W so we can only check framing and composition.
May 1, 2008 at 2:38 47
Odd about the missing comment… You posted one on another entry here and I had to approve it before it appeared (which I’ve now done). Strange that, cos I’ve set the option for comments to appear straight away once someone’s had their first one approved.
Were you posting from a different IP address, or using a different email/login id?
Or maybe its something to do with my having changed domains, but I don’t think so cos you’re other comments (before and after) have appeared ok.
Strange.
Re the Jessops guy. Yeah, unfortunately they all seem to be pretty much about the same in that particular branch.
Alas its the only photo supplies shop there is in the town.
May 1, 2008 at 2:56 30
Nope - nothing has changed at my end. Must be YOUR end.
Curious, I just went to the Jessops web site. I must say I don’t quite understand the pricing structure of English goods. The price listed for the Canon 70-200mm f/4L USM IS lens is UKP 759.99, which would roughly translate into USD 1520.00 at today’s exchange rate.
However, I paid USD 1059.00 for the lens.
Weird.
May 1, 2008 at 3:14 58
Yeah, prob’ly something to do with that domain name change… or just one of the numerous gremlins that seem to follow me around!
Re pricing, makes perfect sense to me. Just means we pay through the nose for stuff over here. And, it has to be said, Jessops aren’t amongst the cheapest of retailers.
May 1, 2008 at 14:39 30
Sounds like you should buy kit from over here, especially with the exchange rate the way it is.
May 1, 2008 at 17:01 46
Well, just to keep the record straight, I’d forwarded the link to this post on to Jessops cos I thought they might be interested to know what goes on in their stores at grassroots level, and today received a very nice email back from their Customer Liaison Manager, saying:
That’ll do for me.
May 17, 2008 at 7:07 04
[...] had a bit of fun tinkering with the manual adjustment of white balance on the GX10 (see this post), was feeling a bit adventurous so thought I’d see if anything similar were possible with my [...]