Custom White Balance in the Studio with LUMIX Cameras: Guest post by Rob Knight

Intro by Skip Cohen

We don't normally have very many "how to" posts, but I've been shooting mirrorless with the LUMIX GH3 for a couple of months now and I'm blown away by what this camera can do. I've also been pleasantly surprised over the comments and questions that come up, not only via the various forums and email, but in the Panasonic booth as well. If you haven't checked out the full LUMIX line, it's definitely time.

Panasonic will be at WPPI in booth 611 in the Grand Ballroom. Check out the complete LUMIX line and meet the Luminary team March 3-5.

In this short video post this morning my buddy, Rob Knight, takes you through one more feature of the GH3 and how to custom white balance in the studio environment. Find out more at us.panasonic.com/lumixlounge or robknightphotography.com and check out Rob's guest post from a few weeks ago. He's got some great tips on indoor flash.
 

 
Any camera you would actually use with off-camera flash or studio strobes has the ability to set a custom white balance. Using a custom white balance eliminates a lot of guess-work when you’re color correcting images, even if you’re shooting RAW. Your RAW files will have the correct white balance when you open them in Lightroom, Camera RAW, and so on.

Since you know that all of the files are starting with the same settings, if you decide to make changes to the white balance you can easily correct multiple files at once. If you are shooting JPEG’s it is even more important to start with the correct white balance.

The process for setting a custom white balance varies from camera to camera. Some are rather complicated, and some (like the LUMIX cameras I use) are quite simple. All you really need is a good grey card or some other white balance target.

I like the X-rite Color Checker Passport because it has a WB target and a full color-checker chart in a small durable package. Check out the video to see how easy it is to set a custom white balance with your LUMIX camera. The video shows how to set the custom WB with strobes, but the process is the same whether you’re using flash or not.