Nikon Rumors Forum

where there’s smoke there’s forum fire

1. 

   msmoto
   

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   Joined: Mar '10
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   Visible light from our Sun is a continuous spectrum from about 400 to 700 nm wavelength and we all remember the ROYGBIV mnemonic for the rainbow. Our eyes see red, blue and green light and when these are combined, eg., red + green, we see yellow light. Red + blue + green gives us white light. This is represented in my color wheel and can be helpful when are dealing with light and not pigments, to keep things simple.

   

   So, the problem for photographers comes when instead of a continuos line spectrum source we are faced with shooting under one of the very prevalent sources in our world such as mercury vapor lamps, sodium vapor lamps, or fluorescent lights. These produce a wide variety of colors and they are missing some of the basic colors which creates a nightmare in the post processing attempting to reproduce what our brain tells us is there.

   The question for this thread is.....How do the members here handle the struggle in their post processing of shots taken under difficult shooting conditions?

   And here is one I took which has my son and daughter-in-law leaving for their honeymoon and the mixed light sources included mercury vapor, sodium vapor and florescent lamps.

   

   Posted 6 months ago #
2. 

   sevencrossing
   

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   I cheat
   I convert to Black and white

   Posted 6 months ago #
3. 

   donaldejose
   

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   I use a product like this http://www.adorama.com/LNCRPWBF.html to make a custom white balance before I take the shot. The custom white balance isn't always perfect but I find it averages contributions from all the different light sources and gives me something better than I get with AUTO white balance. There are other similar products http://colorright.com/colorright_flashright_store/

   Posted 6 months ago #
4. 

   msmoto
   

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   The big problem is in that aprt of the scene is lit with one form a line spectrum source, another with a different line spectrum source and third....

   So, the color balance gimmick will tend to average all this and give one a strange effect in that they may drop all skin tones. In the scene above, the color balance changed as they went from out front, then through the doors and inside a completely different color. Thus, I had to shoot all the shots within a period of maybe 10 seconds...typical news/paparazzi photography. One shoots as the scene progresses.....

   I actually put this thread up so some folks could see what is happening in the post processing when we try to get the skin tones the way we want them... and skin is the only color in a scene which we know what it looks like, unless we are given color samples as in product shots.

   Posted 6 months ago #
5. 

   donaldejose
   

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   I have had a similar problem when shooting High School Basketball in a gymnasium which contains all sorts of different bulbs overhead. As the players move from area to area on the court they fall under a different bulb giving the dominant light to the scene and the color balance changes. I found the best solution was to take a custom color balance to get me into the right ball park for the whole area but then I had to adjust each exposure one at a time for skin tones and whites. Sometimes, it couldn't be done very well because one light dominated part of the player and another light source dominated another part of the player. In your example of your son and his bride walking through different light sources the best may be to rely upon the most current Auto WB settings in camera to "balance" the light sources and then just do your best with skin tones post processing. Some shots may be impossible to balance properly.

   Posted 6 months ago #
6. 

   DutchNikon
   

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   I just leave it as it is mostly, i like to have immages the way they are taken mostly representing the circumstances as they are / where.....

   Posted 6 months ago #
7. 

   greybagel
   

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   Joined: May '12
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   When it comes to white balance and shooting people my goal is to always make the skin tones as natural as possible in the dominating light source while maintaining accurate whites in the same lighting. Now, this is just my personal style of editing.

   You could get into crazy layering with different white balances, layers masks, etc. but as long as you keep skin tones in a shot like yours as natural as possible I'd say that's the best bet.

   Posted 6 months ago #
8. 

   safyre
   

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   Joined: Dec '09
   Posts: 52

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   1. Shoot film :)

   2. Mask out the florescent blue and color balance it to match accordingly. Then white balance the entire picture.

   Posted 6 months ago #
9. 

   golf007sd
   

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   Joined: Nov '10
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   sevencrossing said:
   I cheat
   I convert to Black and white

   +1

   Posted 6 months ago #
10. 

    spraynpray
    

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    Joined: Feb '10
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    My three step solution for impossible light temps:

    1/ Nikon auto white balance does a great job.

    2/ Then I play with the temp and tint sliders in LR4 until best compromise based on skin tones is found.

    3/ Forget about it and move on.

    Posted 6 months ago #
11. 

    proudgeek
    

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    Joined: Oct '10
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    Sometimes I find a neutral gray in the image and create proper color temperature using that and the histogram. Sometimes if I'm really motivated I shoot with an ExpoDisk to get a custom white balance. Sometimes I follow sevencrossing's lead and convert to b&w.
    When you're dealing with so many different types of lights it's probably hard to get everything calibrated just right. I guess you'd want to default to skin tone and let the chips fall where they may with everything else.

    Posted 6 months ago #

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