White Balance custom setup

[mshetzer]

Thanks to everyone for all the help getting the 2.1 out into the field for wildlife.  I've taken it on my first birding shoot this week to South Texas and it's going very well.

I do feel that most of my images have a bit of a yellow cast to them.  I have been creating a custom white balance by shooting a white card in the same light as my subject.

My question for those who shoot outdoors with variable light, how do you set your custom white balance so your original images are pretty close and don't need a lot of post processing work and color correction.

Thank you in advance !
Matt Shetzer

[muringuets]

Not sure what you're seeking with the camera, but as far as I can tell, everyone does a lot of post processing to extract everything out of the DNGs.

Speaking from my experience, I tend not to do a lot of white balance adjustments, and spend some time to correct it in post, since is already in the pipeline... I'll try to adjust next time to see if there's any improvement in the results...

Anyway, I'm curious to see your footage, you said you're using primes from macro to 600mm, what aperture can you get on these tele lenses? I've been struggling with my lenses when shooting for wildlife but I've got zoom lenses only...

[mshetzer]

Thanks for the reply. 

I am looking to use the camera for wildlife.  Right now I'm shooting raptors and song birds with it.  It is doing very well, I just prefer to get my images as close to color correct in the field as possible and limit the post time (It's more fun that way !  ).

As I'm just using natural light, I've been using f2.8 to f5.6.  So far my 200mm macro at f/4 has been excellent.  I did shoot the 105mm f2.8, but the reach of the 200mm has been better.  Everything is too close with the 600mm f/4.

I'm just looking for what process others have found beneficial for outside (changing light) conditions.

Matt