Got the blues!

[Jean Kelly]

Me too Mike, I found early that specific settings don't guarantee the right lighting and have some very blue and very orange yellow photos to prove it.

Jean

[Tom Edgerton]

Mike--

You're intuitively a way better photographer than I, based on previous posts of yours. But when you think about it, it makes sense that the one thing that digital cameras can't do better than film is deal with mixed-temperature light. Any device that's going to average the predominant color temperature in a situation is still going to show whatever off-color light is lurking around. Our brains can compensate readily, but optical devices can't.

When I was an advertising art director, we used to jump through all kinds of hoops to either change the off-color light to whatever temp was predominating, block the off-color sources, or pick a film--daylight or tungsten--that would give us most of what we wanted, and then we would live with the rest.

While this may seem like a real pain, the beauty was that it really sensitized me to evaluating the temperature of different light sources as soon as we'd walk into a situation. Later, I actually began to use such disparities creatively for effect, such as your realizing that a little extra warmth was good for your red-headed subject--even though this seemed like a problem at the time.

Thanks for a useful post.

Best--TE

[Marvin Mattelson]

Mike, when you use an auto white balance you are compromising the varying light sources. You need to take a custom reading with only the main light source on and not allow the other sources to effect it's integrity. This is the equivilent of matching the film to the lightsource. In cooking, additional ingredients should enhance the taste of the main ingredient, not overwhelm it.

[Holly Snyder]

Hi Mike,

Forgive me if you've done this before, but you'll get the best color temperature results if you use a gray card (as Marvin implied), particularly with mixed temperature light sources. Using the PRE setting on your camera, have someone hold a gray card around 6" in front of whatever you're photographing. Then get close enough so that the gray card is the only thing in your viewfinder and take a picture. (The manual explains the detailed steps). This will store to memory the white balance for your particular lighting setup. Then you can use this setting for the rest of your photoshoot. However if you change the angle you're photographing from, or change the position of the lights, you'll need to do the procedure again.

You can get gray cards from most camera shops. Ritz Camera has them for around $12. They're worth every penny, and more, when you see the color difference in your photos.

Regards,

Holly

[Mike McCarty]

Thanks guys and gals,

This white balance is all new to me. I am going to get one of those gray cards, I can handle $12 dollars.

I went back and found an example still loaded in my camera. The first is with the white balance set on incandescent and the second is using auto white balance and a reflector board just off camera to our right.

In these two examples there are two 24x60 windows flanking the head board of the bed, all on the wall to our left. In front of each, on a night stand, is a lamp, which shows as a golden light in our left corner of the second.

What is really amazing is just how smart this camera got when it was allowed to figure it out for itself. I'm still going to get the card.

[Garth Herrick]

Some gray cards are too warm in tone for color balancing purposes. The specific hue of the gray will make a huge difference. I don't trust my gray cards for the PRE custom color balance setting on my Nikon D100. What I use and works great is an ultra-white variety of regular bond paper. The whiter the better. The cleaner the white, the better the warm flesh tones will be captured. If a gray card is already a warm gray, it will weaken and add blue to the flesh tones.

By the way Mike, you are an incredible photographer with a fantastic eye for capturing the perfect moment. I love to see what is new from your camera.

Garth
Nikon D100, 67,500+ shots so far.

[Holly Snyder]

That's really interesting Garth. I wouldn't have guessed that the gray hue would vary between manufacturer's, as that would seem to negate their purpose? My first gray card was probably 20 years old (it was my Dad's, who was a smoker), and it had yellowed over time. The new one is much grayer (blue gray). I keep it stored face-down, so it doesn't fade from sunlight.

What brand/style of white paper do you use? Have you tried taking a picture of a painting, and including in the picture a gray card and the white sheet of paper you did your PRE balance with (just sitting them on top of the canvas or taping them to whatever the canvas is resting on). Then in Photoshop Elements, using the Enhance/Adjust Color/Color Balance and clicking on the gray card and the white sheet. Does the color of your painting change significantly with the gray card vs. the white sheet? Ideally the color of the painting won't change at all when you click on whatever you used to set your white balance, but I'd be curious to see how much it differs (or doesn't) between the gray card and white sheet.

Holly