White Balance interpreted incorrectly by HR

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yorkshirechap
Posts: 4
Joined: 19.07.2015 12:18

White Balance interpreted incorrectly by HR

Post by yorkshirechap »

I'm shooting high key macro isolation shots inside a 90cm lastolite cubelite. Setup is as follows: D800, Sigma 105 macro, 1/125, f11, 4x 300W flash heads with no modifiers set up as two as background, one key and one fill. I am using a made for purpose lastolite white seamless vinyl sheet for a background inside the tent.

Camera white balance is set to 5560k (I've also tried the flash setting). Color space is sRGB and there are no tints or other in camera processing applied. Images are shot in RAW, anyway.

The flash heads meter at between 5450k and 5550k, consistently.

Helicon is set to use the cameras white balance setting.

The problem I'm having is a red cast across the images. It is a pink, I suppose.

Interestingly, if I set Helicon Remote to use "Auto" white balance the red cast disappears.

It appears as though Helicon is having issues interpreting the camera white balance setting. I have performed test shots with the camera to verify this and the red cast only appears if the images are captured via tethering and Helicon Remote.

Can anyone help? Obviously I cant get around the problem by setting HF to use Auto WB, but this should not really be happening in the first place.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Edit: Thanks to whoever moved this. I've now changed the product name to Helicon Remote.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: White Balance interpreted incorrectly by HR

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

I don't really what to say because HR doesn't interpret anything. The closest I have to an idea is that some camera body setting doesn't work (has no effect) in remote control mode. That would explain the difference in behavior with and without HR.
Also, when you change white balance temperature in HR, the live view image should reflect the changes immediately. Does it?
yorkshirechap
Posts: 4
Joined: 19.07.2015 12:18

Re: White Balance interpreted incorrectly by HR

Post by yorkshirechap »

Stas,

Yes, changes to white balance settings in HR are reflected in the live view.

The thing is, I know that the equipment I am using has accurate white balance because I've metered the setup and also checked in lightroom and photoshop. The issue is specific to HR.

So you think HR is unable to read the white balance setting from the camera? Thats very strange indeed.

I guess I can leave it in Auto, but its not ideal as it removes a level of control.

Do you perhaps have a D800 you can test with to try and replicate the issue? Someone else must have noticed this as the D800 is a popular body.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: White Balance interpreted incorrectly by HR

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

No, it doesn't read anything, it only tells the camera to take a picture. Everything else is done by the camera itself according to its settings. HR literally does nothing else so it can't be the cause of the issue. We have a D800, and it is a popular body. What you're describing was never reported or noticed.

So what's the issue, exactly? When we test our D800, what are we looking for? When user-defined color is selected the images differ when shot from HR and shot regularly with no remote control, is that what it is?
Either way, there's not much point in experiementing because it can't be an error in our software so we can't fix it.
yorkshirechap
Posts: 4
Joined: 19.07.2015 12:18

Re: White Balance interpreted incorrectly by HR

Post by yorkshirechap »

Stas,

To quote your post and answer your question: "When user-defined color is selected the images differ when shot from HR and shot regularly with no remote control, is that what it is?"

Yes, that is true. When I set white balance on the d800 manually to 5560k and I use HR to capture the image with its white balance setting as "from camera" then I get the red cast.

If I shoot the exact same image without HR, there is no red cast to the images.

Also, if I set HR to Auto white balance, there is no red cast to the images.

HR must be able to control white balance at some level as it has the ability to specify a white balance level in the software and it does make a difference to the final image.

Many thanks
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: White Balance interpreted incorrectly by HR

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

It just tells the camera what value to set the color temp. to. As long as you see that the camera has accepted this value, HR's job is done.

I've plugged D800 in and tried to reproduce the problem. I set white balance to "Color temperature" and the temperature to 5880K, which gives me a distinct yellow tint under luminescent light. I did some shooting via HR as well as without it, and was unable to see any difference.
Perhaps, the red cast you're referring to is caused by flash settings (sync etc.) rather than color temperature setting?
yorkshirechap
Posts: 4
Joined: 19.07.2015 12:18

Re: White Balance interpreted incorrectly by HR

Post by yorkshirechap »

Hi Stas,

I considered it might be an issue with the flashes but the thing is, its corrected by setting HR white balance to Auto.

Plus, I've metered it all to within 75k either side of 5560k.

I'm not sure what to do at this point except use Auto. If you can't replicate it then theres not much we can do.

I've got a couple of different strobes arriving this week. I'll substitute those for the current ones and see if that makes any difference, then report back.

Cheers.
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