White Balance?

[Reef Pilot]

I just got a new Olympus TG-2 camera and still learning how to use it. It can take underwater shots and has many different settings, incl Macro and Super Macro. I managed to get some half decent coral pics, and get the focus pretty close. But am trying to figure out the White Balance. I have LEDs, and they seem to show more purple in some pics. But with flash on, the pics come out differently, too. Here are a few examples. And am wondering what White Balance setting I need to choose to improve the pics with either flash on, or flash off.

Flash on. Colours are a little washed out.


Same coral, but with flash off. Colour is too blue/purple.


But with a naturally purple coral, colour is pretty accurate with flash off.

[Reef Supplies]

Great shot!

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Reef Supplies

Great shot!

Thanks. Yes, that one turned out OK. But as you can see the first two with the same coral need a white balance adjustment.

For White Balance adjustments, the camera allows several different settings incl Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Underwater, and then some manual settings.

Since I was shooting underwater, I used the Underwater setting. But as you can see, it did not work so well with the flash off.

So what White Balance setting is recommended for LED tank shots?

[sphelps]

Manual is the best if available, usually you set WB to manual mode then a picture of something white or grey under the lighting to set it to the right WB setting. All cameras are different so check the manual.

[Reef Pilot]

Yes, it has 2 manual WB settings that I can register by shooting a white paper or object under the light I will be using. Does that mean I have to put something in the tank under my LEDs and shoot it to register the WB manual settings? And then choose them for the coral shots?

Was hoping there was a simpler method or maybe using one of the given WB settings.

[sphelps]

Yes you have to shoot something white under the LEDs in the tank but most people have success using the sand bed for this. It's a pretty simple method and usually the only one for tank lighting if it's on the bluer side.