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d7k, whenever i use flash indoor, the white balance just does not seem right, i tried A, Flash, also manual white balance, the color just turn out to be odd.
any trick i can use when taking indoor photos? (i use regular energy saving bulbs at home, so kinda yellowrish by default, but no matter how i tune up the WB, i just cannot get the correct WB)
Try using a grey card (or anything white) and balancing it out manually.
Yellow casts can be caused by the CFL lights (especially if you are running at max sync speed), but you can limit this by using higher power flash and stopping down more.
Try using white walls :D
There's several variables involved, such as how much ambient you have, and also what you're bouncing your flash against.
First thing's first. I usually just shoot RAW with auto WB and adjust in post so I can tweak it visually to find the best balance for what my subject is. As long as you're shooting RAW, adjusting white balance later doesn't affect image quality.
But...
When I'm shooting in dark clubs and such where there's very little ambient, I find that the flash settings works awesome, because that's by far the primary light source. Also when shooting outdoors I find that flash works just fine.
But if tungsten (2850k) is your primary ambient and there's plenty of it, you need to put a tungsten gel on your flash.
since your flash is one temperature and the ambient light is alot warmer... whatever white balance you use is going to be wrong in either the background or the foreground.
I agree if your fighting ambient light you need to gel your flash to correct it.
Hi Fedorafans,
Try setting Picture Control to Neutral instead of Standard (in the Shooting Menu). I guess Standard is the default setting but the color of my first several photos didn't seem right either. Now I just keep it on Neutral and get more accurate color rendition.
Your problem is that you have described light sources of (at least) two different temperatures.
One needs to either shoot at high enough shutter speeds to effectively kill ambient light (which Nikon will fight you tooth and nail over in anything but full manual mode (as the CLS default is "balanced fill" (as in a balanced mix of flash and ambient))) or gel your strobe so the light it emits matches ambient.
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-using-gels-to-correct.html
Buy an A4 ish sized sheet of 1/4 through 1/1 CTO and you're pretty much set for life for most incandescent situations.
Open windows will add a third variable, as the color of the light which comes through will likely change throughout the course of the day.
I use ExpoDisc Neutral white balance filter. Sometimes the multi lighting makes the photo look odd but having the correct WB makes it tons easier to edit in PS or Lightroom.
CTOs can be the solution I'll use if I'm setting a shot up, but I get into this situation with friends more often and rarely have my big bag with me. The filter is easy enough to throw in and works even better without flash.
There is no "correct" white balance in a mixed light situation. 1/4 to 1/2 CTO over the speedlight can greatly reduce problems, as even if it isn't a perfect match it is likely to be far closer. (Indoors). It is also far cheaper and packs far smaller than an expodisc. (Indoors).
If your flash(es) are not overpowering the ambient light, I certainly agree that the best way to go is to gel the flash to the ambient light source and shoot RAW. Use NX2 or Lightroom, whatever, to tweek light balance for your final image. Trying to chase white balance when background is light with tungsten or flourescent and your foreground is lite by flash, you'll waste too much time trying to balance things out - unless you're jason o'dell or scott kelby - who seemingly live for making software corrections.
I use the set by kelvin mode set to either 3200ish while using an orange gel on my sb900, or 5560k with no gels as the xenon gas in flashes burns at 5600k... Sometimes if I'm not lazy Ill find a white wall (or grey card) and manually set my WB.
The best results I've found are when you correct your flash to the color temperature of your interior practical/ambient sources (e.g., if your interior sources are tungsten, then use the tungsten preset white balance). Throw some 3400-degree Kelvin correction gel or CTO (a slightly warmer type of correction gel) on your flash, then dial down your slow-shuttered, matrix-balanced TTL exposure correction anywhere from -0.7 to -2.0 EV, and voila!
Oh, I see others have already suggested correcting your flash with CTO. Correction gel is typically sold in 21" x 24" sheets for about $6.00/sheet (large rolls are also available at about $120/roll). As Drab mentioned, one sheet would last a lifetime. You can find theatrical gel at any expendable supply store (a store which specializes in supplies for the movie industry). Most suppliers (at least in L.A.) tend to stock Lee-brand gel more than Rosco-brand gel. If you contact Lee, you can request a swatch book (given out free, at retailers that stock Lee and Rosco products). The swatch book gels are just about big enough to cover most on-camera flash heads.
I'm trying to think of any other ways - we are up to 5 different ways or variances, there has to be at least a couple more! :)
TaoTeJared said:
I'm trying to think of any other ways - we are up to 5 different ways or variances, there has to be at least a couple more! :)
Recently, I've actually been shooting tungsten interiors of holiday snapshots with an uncorrected, daylight-balanced, LED LitePanel Micro, and letting the practicals go warm (mainly, because I just haven't gotten around to ordering the hard gel from LitePanel yet!):
LitePanel Micro
It's a bit more convenient than using a flash in dark interiors, and with the Micro's built-in dimmer, it's a snap to manually balance my LitePanel's output to match the ambient exposure.
Below, is an uncorrected still image I shot at our recent company Xmas party of my friend Rick, using the LitePanel Micro attached to my D90's hot shoe (it's merely a mechanical mount--there's no "synch," since it's a continuous-source light, designed primarily for video):
Nikon D90; AF Nikkor 35mm f/2.0
ISO: 2,000; f/2.2 @ 125th; daylight preset white balance.
But, this was in a club setting with lots of effects and mood lighting going on. In a home, with more noticeably warm incandescent lighting (or warm CFLs), I would be much better-served by using either LitePanel's tungsten correction hard gel (orange-ish piece of plastic), or taping a piece of Lee correction or CTO to my LitePanel.
Hi,
"I usually just shoot RAW with auto WB and adjust in post so I can tweak it visually to find the best balance for what my subject is. As long as you're shooting RAW, adjusting white balance later doesn't affect image quality."
+1
Generally that really works out very well.
And again, with Sean, if tungsten is the culprit, gel for tungsten on the flash, and WB tungsten - if that venue was what I was doing.
Nikon's speedlights' Gel packs work terrifically well on the SB800s and SB900s for that.
My best,
Mike
studio460 .. on their website it says range 2 feet at f2.8
(6 feet if i can get to f1.0 lol)
how much more distance do you get since I do not usually shoot 2 feet away from my subjects.
thanks
shot RAW and correct in PP, also get grey card as it helps a lot
studio460 - I would love to see you thoughts on the LP (probably in a new thread). I have been looking at these for a while but haven't seen many using them.
LED will be the future weather we like it or not, I just want to stay ahead of the curve.
IndyGeoff said:
studio460 .. on their website it says range 2 feet at f2.8
(6 feet if i can get to f1.0 lol)how much more distance do you get since I do not usually shoot 2 feet away from my subjects.
thanks
TaoTeJared said:
studio460 - I would love to see you thoughts on the LP (probably in a new thread). I have been looking at these for a while but haven't seen many using them.LED will be the future weather we like it or not, I just want to stay ahead of the curve.
Guys, I'll reply in more detail about the LitePanel Micro, later (in a new thread).
Short answer: Typically, both LED and KinoFlo-type (fluorescent) sources can be very bright at close distances (e.g., LitePanel 1x1, KinoFlo Barfly, etc.), but quickly fall off to nothing after several feet. However, newer, higher-Wattage LED instruments are getting increasingly brighter, but tend to be very expensive.
Short answer, you can't without using gels.
You are trying to shoot indoors, with non-white lighting, and balancing with a white lighting source? You need to make your flash the same color as your indoor lighting, or get indoor lighting the same temp as the flash. You can correct some in post processing, but shooting RAW only. Game over if you are in JPG.
Use Standard instead of Vivid colors, that will help too and turn down the saturation.
If it is your home, and you expect to take pics there often in the same, then you may want to invest in some more natural temp lighting. You will appreciate it in the long run.
It really depends on your lighting and what look you are going for. Why not just leave it on Auto and "IF" it has an issue,..fix it post through Lightroom.
*Studio460,...I like your company party. Much prettier,..oops,..I mean better than mine.
guys, this is one of the best dicussions that I have come across.....fantastic information
Hi,
One more point. While RAW is RAW, meta data is picked up in many of the raw converters and transferred to raw converters such as Adobe Camera Raw and read as a starting point to the converter will try to read a WB in the "As Shot" for color processing, which can be a blessing or a curse.
WB in RAW metadata can also affect the Raw Convert (generally speaking), so that you can have 'one of' in your RAW processing for general printing that is easy correction, but batch processing spanning a variety of color venues that could be very difficult to correct - you'd want to correct for accurate WB in those venues.
ACR needs to be 'refreshed' every so often, too. Settings tend to stagnate over time and need to be reset. It is at the bottom of dialog box.
My best.
Mike
Hello all,
I'm rehashing this thread to ask about Filters to correct and warm up skin tones. I guess you could say I'm on a quest to step up the outcome of some of my photos, particularly with flash photo and human subjects indoors and outdoors.
Was doing a little reading on K. Rockwell's site to learn about 81A filters and wondered if it's common to use this now-a-days or do most people shoot without filters and just warm up skin tones in post? He says that many people just keep an 81A on their cameras all the time because it not only warms up skin tones but also warms up outdoor scenery as well. Does this make sense if shooting RAW?
Thanks for your ideas.
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