White balance issues with continuous lighting studio

[luvmyfamily]

I hope you don't mind, your tag says 'OK' to edit your photos:


I dont know how accurate this is since I wasn't there, but this is why I suggest using a grey card (or white card). If your camera doesn't support custom WB by shooting a card, what you can do is take one photo with your reference card large in the frame under the light you'll be shooting. Then shoot as you normally would. Then when you get back to the computer, you open your photo with reference white/grey card and remove the color cast in PS (or whatever PP tool you use). You can usually save this adjustment and apply to all other photos in the shoot. For this photo, I just used the white block on the rubix cube as the white reference.

I was reading Cgibsons links, grey & white card...new to me. I think I like tiredirons idea better, just use auto white balance, however I really would like to perfect manual WB for indoor studio photo's. I do manual WB outdoors with ease, but indoors....ugg. The color is still off with the edit. The hat is white with light pink ribbon, the backdrop is black and still looks a little blue-ish. Maybe auto WB for indoor, manual for outdoor, solved! LOL!

And if you run into a situation that AUTO WB won't handle? What are you going to do then.. just not shoot? And you will... trust me! Buy a grey card.. learn to use it..

You speak true words.......yep, cheap enough, sounds easy to learn.

 

[mjhoward]

Your onboard flash is firing for one, thats a different color temp than your continuous lights are.

And even after I warned her about that!

keep in mind that any other ambient lights in the room may be of different color than your 'studio lights' and can cause real white balance issues since you can only adjust to one color temp.

 

[KmH]

Not all cameras are good at doing auto white balance.

What is the type and color temperature of the bulbs in your constant studio lights? That is what you need to manually set your camera white balance to.

If you don't have the same bulbs in all the lights you're hosed.

 

[luvmyfamily]

Your onboard flash is firing for one, thats a different color temp than your continuous lights are.

Yes, I need to get brighter bulbs for the studio, so I did use a flash. Expodisc?? I'll google that after I'm done with my homework cgibson gave me on understanding WB....

 

[Bossy]

How to Set Your White Balance Indoors

You can't use flash (blue) and continuous (orange) together. When you use a flash, your continuous are nothing more than ambient lighting, out to ruin your WB. By setting your WB to match the continuous, you're completely ignoring the fact that thats not what is lighting your subject, and your subjects are turning blue.

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[MTVision]

Yes, I need to get brighter bulbs for the studio, so I did use a flash. Expodisc?? I'll google that after I'm done with my homework cgibson gave me on understanding WB....

You need to buy a speedlight!! It's great for inside photos (bouncing it - not straight on) and for outdoors as fill light!

But yeah your WB is going to be off if you have 2 light sources.

 

[MTVision]

This was playing around with the white balance in my studio under continuous tungsten light. This is WHY I switched to auto white balance...it didn't do this anymore. I had it set to manual white balance tungsten light because that is what light I was using.

Exposure time, sec: 1/60
Aperture (F): 19.00
ISO speed rating: 800
Lens focal length, mm: 34.0
Aperture (APEX): 19.0
Shutter speed (APEX): 0.0156 (1/64)
Exposure mode: Manual exposure
White balance: Manual white balance

If your lights aren't strong enough - use a larger aperture instead of the flash if you can. F/19 is a pretty small opening. I think I'm the one who told you about using smaller apertures for studio shots - but if your lights aren't strong enough then try something a little bigger like f/5.6....

 

[luvmyfamily]

Duh, just figured out my problem. This is the lighting studio I have...it's fluorescent bulbs, not tungsten, where the hell I got that. Megan, Speedlite on my wish list
CowboyStudio Photography Lighting | Studio Equipment | Studio Accessories

 

[luvmyfamily]

I am going to try again setting the WB to fluorescent....

 

[mjhoward]

Yea BTW, what is the power of the bulbs you're using? (60W, 100W) and how many are you using? A 1/60 shutter speed, you'd have to have about (50) 60W bulbs (1Ws @ 1/60s) to get the same power output as a single speedlight (~50Ws).

EDIT: Just checked your link and you're using 30W CFL's which are equivalent to about 120W bulb... so basically you'd need about 25 of those to get the same power output as a speedlight @ 1/60s. Ideally, you should shoot higher shutter speeds than that in a studio.

 

[Scuba]

I hate it when that happens. Hopefully that will fix the problem. A grey card would have fixed it too

 

[Derrel]

Auto WB will not work right when a pop-up or shoe-mount flash fires and there's a heavy mix of continuous tungsten/halogen/incandescent/sodium vapor/fluorescent light making up a substantial part of the exposure...

 

[Bossy]

Wow, you're trying to shoot with 90 watts?? "Three (3) 30 Watt 5000K Compact Fluorescent Daylight Light Bulbs"
Thats not enough for pretty much anything. Go to the store and buy as high as wattage as your sockets can stand. I use 1000 watts for my still lifes and my shutter speeds are still about 1/40 at 5.6. And they're hell to work under. But thats continuous for you.

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[luvmyfamily]

Yea BTW, what is the power of the bulbs you're using? (60W, 100W) and how many are you using? A 1/60 shutter speed, you'd have to have about (50) 60W bulbs (1Ws @ 1/60s) to get the same power output as a single speedlight (~50Ws).

EDIT: Just checked your link and you're using 30W CFL's which are equivalent to about 120W bulb... so basically you'd need about 25 of those to get the same power output as a speedlight @ 1/60s. Ideally, you should shoot higher shutter speeds than that in a studio.

I posted the link to the exact studio I have, however I have one of the bulb boxes right in front of me, says: Photography Lighting, 45W......they blind me...I can't imagine higher. Not sure why the link is saying 30W....I have 45W, but really want a speedlite...any sales going on??

 

[luvmyfamily]

Wow, you're trying to shoot with 90 watts?? "Three (3) 30 Watt 5000K Compact Fluorescent Daylight Light Bulbs"
Thats not enough for pretty much anything. Go to the store and buy as high as wattage as your sockets can stand. I use 1000 watts for my still lifes and my shutter speeds are still about 1/40 at 5.6. And they're hell to work under. But thats continuous for you.

No, I just posted that for some reason....maybe Cowboy studio changed my studio a bit since I purchased one, but I have three 45W. Like I just said, I want a speedlite.