White Balance Problem?

Question

I have a monthly "job" that I shoot for our local art gallery. All I have to do is document the scene with a few general shots. I also choose a few pieces to be featured in the newspaper for publicity.

The problem is... There are fluorescent tubes running the length of the room. There are halogen floodlights aimed at most pieces. For an overall view, I still need to use flash to light the room.

What would you do for this setting? How would you set the whtie balance?

Generally, if you use flash, it overpowers anything else and it's okay, but in this setting, I don't know how to take a custom white balance. You'd have to take the flash into account when you set it and I don't know how to do that.

I've placed a few quick shots on Flickr as examples of where I am ending up.

Before: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/2089652502/
After: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/2089652622/

Before: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/2089652622/
After: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/2089652542/

OOPS! MAKE THAT:

Before: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/2088864349/
After: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/2089652542/

Answer 1

Shoot in RAW and worry about it later. That's my idea.

As I understand an ExpoDisc, it takes a custom white balance from the ambient light, so introducing flash would not be taken into consideration.

The best solution would be to try and get all the lighting the same or as close to the same as possible.

I have a martial arts tournament that I shoot every year and the lighting is horrible. They have a mix of halogen, tungsten, and daylight...plus I need to use flash. Luckily for me, thw main subject is of more interest to me than the backgrounds, so I don't care if they are a little off.

Answer 2

Brian basically go it right that you want to filter your flash, but you don't want to filter for the halo's. You would filter for the flourescents.

I don't think turning off the flourescents is a real option here. You would have to replace that volume of light with your flash(es) and with approximately the same quality. I don't think you have the equipment to do that, or much practice in that type of location lighting.

Aside: If you did replace the flourescent lighting with flash, then you would filter for the halogens.

Done right, this will allow you to shoot all of your shots using Auto WB. The only caveat is if there is a window letting in sunlight that lights the room. In that case, wait until sundown to shoot.

There is a little more to it than the above, but that is basically it. There is some misunderstanding generally about what you can and cannot accomplish with white balancing in mixed lighting situations.

I can lay it all out to you in TFSH, in detail, if you want.

Vance

Answer 3

Is there any chance you could turn off the florescent and use halogen's instead of a strobe so that the light will balance ? The only other way I know (not really an architectural photographer) would be to combine 3 image in PS.

Answer 4

Do what Perki says (turn off the fluros) and also, take a shot of a graycard and use that to set the WB in the remaining images using PS. If you don't want to 'cheat' with photoshop, then use a white piece of paper and set the WB on camera with preset.

Answer 5

I'm relatively new to digital photography,so take my suggestion for what it's worth, but couldn't you set the white balance for the halogens and put a amber filter that came with the flash on the flash.

Answer 6

with something like this because there are so many different light sources in this place you are not going to be able to white balance everything, its just not possible ( well it is but you would have to do a lot of brushing in photo shop and have several layers and its just not worth it) what you have there is fine- i did notice that in your adjustment you have way too much blue on the back wall, and it kind of throws off the colors.

in this situation I would say auto white balance it, and then when in photoshop make minor adjustments to the temperature but with mixed lighting you kind of just work with it as it is

Answer 7

Check out www.whibal.com. It's a $30 investment in a white balance reference card, but will garuntee you the most accurate white balancing. They have tutorials and everthing on the site. It's really just like 3 clicks in a RAW editor and your WB will be perfect (since you reference it to your whibal reference card).

Answer 8

I have no answer for the white balance but the shadow images you show are much better with the close up view.
What i see is a perfect picture... before and after so leave it be.

Answer 9

Perhaps you should look into buying an expodisc for your lens. It's a really good way to set the preset white balance when lighting conditions are so varied.

Answer 10

if you use manual flash just make sure you are in range and use flash and 5600k, brians idea is the next one i would try

you have 2 flashes? - if so use them, bounce of white board is the way i would do it, or maybe off the ceiling

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