White Balance:
Wing it with Live View

This one comes from DTown TV but works equally well on Canon bodes.

If you’re ever in a situation where you want to set the white balance in camera but you don’t have an appropriate target, there’s hope. If your camera has Live View it will show you in real time the affect changing the color balance has on your image. Of course this isn’t as accurate as creating a custom white balance. Fortunately, like most things in photography being close is more often than not close enough.

On an EOS 1D Mark 3 or EOS 1Ds Mark 3 you cycle though the preset white balance modes using the rear dial, and change the kelvin value (K) or switch between the 5 custom settings with the front dial while previewing the image. All all other dual dial cameras (40D, 50D, 5D-II), you can change though the preset modes using the rear dial.

Also if you’re a Nikon user with a dual dial camera with live view (D90, D300, D700, D3, D3x) you can use the front dial to fine tune your white balance in the amber/blue axis (in all but K and Pre modes) or change the kelvin value (in K mode) as well.

Of course, if you shoot RAW you can just as easily leave your camera in Auto WB and make any fixes in post production.