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 - 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.

[billium99]

And I was thinking if I can read the temperature that the camera is reading, and compare readings in different rooms, I would stand a chance at being able to make adjustments. But otherwise it seems like there are $1000 color temp meters.

I have seen raw software that captured in-camera temp readings, and you can read them there, but that's a long process to go through to get a numeric value for color temp.

It sounds like Canon doesn't reveal this, in-camera, unless I'm mistaken.

Thanks for your time

Bill

[TCampbell]

White balance is all about the color temperature of the light source. If you move to new lighting, then the light source changed and you have to re-sample the light for new white balance.

I don't like the white balance caps ... I MUCH prefer a real gray card. Reflected light sources can taint the accuracy when using cap type white balance disk, but that can't happen if you use a gray card.

I would use a gray card, pop it into the scene each time the lighting changes, and pop it out for your photography. Now you have real neutral gray sources captured so you can accurately adjust white balance in post and be bang-on accurate every time.