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White Balance

cupcake09

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I recently bought strobes and can't get the white balance right.

I've been using them in a room also lit with tungten bulbs which I guess is a big no no as i get a weird colorcast.

i usually shoot at night so doing it during the day is not really an option. Is there any way to correct this in camera or even post production??
 
The color cast is from "mixed source lighting". Yes, one way to correct this is to filter ONE of the light sources, so the light emanating from that source is made closer to the other source in degrees Kelvin. The thing is though, the light created by non-flash sources is typically very low in intensity, necessitating slow shutter speeds to "build up" enough to register. SO, basically...the light gained from tungsten sources is often very minimal, and acts more as an accent, than as a real "source" of lighting.

Your question is not complete enough to make me want to spend more time on this. Maybe some more specifics would get the info you need.
 
Studio strobes or hot shoe flash units?

CTO (orange) gels on the strobes would make them the same color temperature as tungsten lighting and would eliminate the mixed light source color temperature color cast you are getting.
The tungsten light is likely much less intense than your strobes so a 1/2 CTO gel may be sufficient. You can stack 2 1/2 CTO gels to get a full CTO.

Then set your camera's white balance to tungsten so it will record the light color at the same color temperature as sunlight.

Honl Photo Professional Color Effects Gel Filter Kit (CTO Warming)
Rosco The Strobist Collection, Strobist 55 Piece Cinegel Filter Kit, 1.5x3.25" to fit most Shoe Mount Strobes.

Bigger sheets you can cut to size for studio strobes - ROSCO 3407 SHEET ROSCOSUN CTO CONVERTS 5500K TO 2900K SHEET Gel-Sheets

Scroll down to Mixed Lighting - Understanding White Balance
 
Studio strobes or hot shoe flash units?

CTO (orange) gels on the strobes would make them the same color temperature as tungsten lighting and would eliminate the mixed light source color temperature color cast you are getting.
The tungsten light is likely much less intense than your strobes so a 1/2 CTO gel may be sufficient. You can stack 2 1/2 CTO gels to get a full CTO.

Then set your camera's white balance to tungsten so it will record the light color at the same color temperature as sunlight.

Honl Photo Professional Color Effects Gel Filter Kit (CTO Warming)
Rosco The Strobist Collection, Strobist 55 Piece Cinegel Filter Kit, 1.5x3.25" to fit most Shoe Mount Strobes.

Bigger sheets you can cut to size for studio strobes - ROSCO 3407 SHEET ROSCOSUN CTO CONVERTS 5500K TO 2900K SHEET Gel-Sheets


Or:

Just turn the lights off.
fiufiu.gif
 
Studio strobes or hot shoe flash units?

CTO (orange) gels on the strobes would make them the same color temperature as tungsten lighting and would eliminate the mixed light source color temperature color cast you are getting.
The tungsten light is likely much less intense than your strobes so a 1/2 CTO gel may be sufficient. You can stack 2 1/2 CTO gels to get a full CTO.

Then set your camera's white balance to tungsten so it will record the light color at the same color temperature as sunlight.

Honl Photo Professional Color Effects Gel Filter Kit (CTO Warming)
Rosco The Strobist Collection, Strobist 55 Piece Cinegel Filter Kit, 1.5x3.25" to fit most Shoe Mount Strobes.

Bigger sheets you can cut to size for studio strobes - ROSCO 3407 SHEET ROSCOSUN CTO CONVERTS 5500K TO 2900K SHEET Gel-Sheets


Or:

Just turn the lights off.
fiufiu.gif

Indeed. Or just set your shutter speed fast enough to eliminate any ambient light. Then your only light source is the strobes.
 
Studio strobes or hot shoe flash units?

CTO (orange) gels on the strobes would make them the same color temperature as tungsten lighting and would eliminate the mixed light source color temperature color cast you are getting.

Incidentally... CTO = "Color Temperature Orange" -- it's a gel specifically designed to give flash roughly the same color temperature as incandescent (tungsten filament) light bulbs. And once all the lights in the room are the same color temperature, it's much easier to deal with white balance correction.

In Lee filters, it's filter #204 (Full C.T. Orange). They also sell "filter packs": Packs of Various LEE Lighting Filters - Includes Colour Magic and Music Packs (you would look at the Daylight to Tungsten pack).
 
Ambient light should have no effect if you're shooting indoors. You can use a shutter speed, aperture and low ISO combination to eliminate ambient light and paint with the strobes. This requires skill in lighting. To get WB perfect, buy the ColorChecker Passport and take a shot of it in RAW in the same light as the subject. Use the WB tool in post (Lightroom) to select the exact WB. You can also use the white card side of the Passport to create a custom WB in camera. You can also create color profiles with the CC to correct color automatically for a given spectrum of light, such as strobe. This works only with RAW files converted to DNG, which the software does automatically. For more on white balance, see this article.
 

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