Custom white balance help

slowngreen

New member
I just bought a d3200 with kit lens. I am primarily going to use it for reef aquarium pics. My previous camera was a Nikon P600 which I loved but I want to use an actual macro lens for coral close ups.

On reef tank lighting, which mine or led, the white balance has to be custom set because of the actinic lights. This was always easy with the p600, just use a white plastic lid or pvc in the tank under the lighting and it would measure it correctly.

This d3200 however, always says "unable to measure" when I try. Ive tried changing aperture and shutter speed but nothing has made a difference.

Was hoping some of you Nikon pro's might have some ideas for me.
 

Moab Man

Senior Member
Do this. Put your camera on a tripod and set the camera to aperture priority. Zoom in filling your lens with the white disc. Set the camera to auto ISO. This should do the trick. You're running into trouble because the camera is not exposing long enough to get what it needs for a good reading.
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

Moab Man's suggestion is a good one.
 

slowngreen

New member
I've tried exactly that, over and over. I did some searching on some reef aquarium forums and it looks like no one is able to get a custom white balance set under the actinic lighting. Looks like it cant read above 8000k and might lights are closer to 20,000k.
Thanks for the help though, I'll just look into getting Photoshop to adjust kelvin post picture.

Gonna miss my p600, just wanted the ability to add macro lens for further back coral close up pics.
This is a tank shot with my p600 which was pretty good.

DSCN2622.thumb.JPG.1a6e9c1be28251885171c853286df872.JPG
 
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Moab Man

Senior Member
OK, lets try this for curiosity. Take the light off the tank and try it. Theoretically the water is clear so you should be able to get a reading that way.

Let us know.
 

slowngreen

New member
[MENTION=11881]Moab Man[/MENTION], I gave it a try and no go. I did try turning my Royal Blue led's all the way off and shot it with just whites on and it recorded it, which after I take a picture now, its pretty close to what the tank looks like with the Royal blues on.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Why not look and see what the P600 set your white balance for, and transfer that number to the D3200 and just set the Kelvin to that number?

Or set the white balance to an image in Photoshop or Lightroom, and then transfer THAT number to your camera.

OR better yet, shoot in RAW and don't worry about what the camera does, and make all your adjustments in post-processing...
 

slowngreen

New member
Why not look and see what the P600 set your white balance for, and transfer that number to the D3200 and just set the Kelvin to that number?

Or set the white balance to an image in Photoshop or Lightroom, and then transfer THAT number to your camera.

OR better yet, shoot in RAW and don't worry about what the camera does, and make all your adjustments in post-processing...

The Kelvin isnt adjustable on the d3200...atleast not that I've seen?

I've been shooting in RAW too by the way, just haven't messed with post processing yet. I was just hoping to have a good white balance to start and hopefully not have to post process but I might as well start learning now.
 
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