Custom white balance - how to tell what it actually is

[billium99]

HI - 5D newb here.

I'm shooting in RAW and I want to confirm/determine what my actual custom white balance temperature is set to on my 5D MK III when I take a sample with my light disc and use it to customize white balance.

The thing is, I have photos I'm needing to take in a procession, moving from light source to light source, and auto wb isn't cutting it. What I want to do instead, is match the temperature on the light sources in two of the locations to the original light source, so the shots can be shot "live" with custom white balance that works all the way through.

But when I set it to custom, while it looks great in-camera, I'm not seeing anywhere in the camera that will tell me the actual WB temperature that was detected and compensated for.

Any suggestions?

Thank you

Bill

[billium99]

Thanks for the time all. I guess we're not addressing the need when we're talking about color temp in post.

And a grey card in the scene is interesting as a solution, and could possibly help in certain situations, but what I still really need is a way to learn the temperature of the lights, before I shoot, because I may not be able to have a grey card (exit from a house onto a beach), and without knowing even approximate values, I'm struggling to eyeball this stuff in post.

My camera measures the value I seek, but doesn't show the darn numeric value haha, so if I want to try and apply gels to filter the lighting and achieve a needed temperature, for example, I'm not sure of any way to do it without buying a really expensive meter.

(I was hoping someone would know "Oh you just need to Enable Temp Values. Click here and here and boom - there you go!" Sounds like such a solution doesn't exist hehe...at least on the 5D)

Thanks anyway

Bill

[Skirball]

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@billium99 wrote:

My camera measures the value I seek, but doesn't show the darn numeric value haha, so if I want to try and apply gels to filter the lighting and achieve a needed temperature, for example, I'm not sure of any way to do it without buying a really expensive meter.

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Sorry to not have the solution you were looking for, but if you want to gel lights and measure incident light, that's what light meters are for.  I don't use them, because I can do what I want in post, with stills.  But you can't do it in camera as far as I know.

[billium99]

Thanks - yeah. I do have a nice light meter, but light meters dont typically measure color temp.

At any rate, I love my camera! It's taking great footage despite my best efforts!

Bill

[Skirball]

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@billium99 wrote:

Thanks - yeah. I do have a nice light meter, but light meters dont typically measure color temp.

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Sorry, yes, color meter, of course.

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@billium99 wrote:

At any rate, I love my camera! It's taking great footage despite my best efforts!

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And in the end, that's what's important.  Hopefully the journey is half the fun.  Enjoy.