foto feedback

Britt says …

Light is light, right? Nope. Florescent, tungsten, daylight, and the perfect white coming from my SB-800. They’re all fun to use in their own way, but when combined… uh oh.

To the naked eye, a nicely lit college swimming pool. To me- oh shit, tons of green florescent lights. I wanted to light this swimming coach, but my flash was going to give a total different color temperature than the ambient. I wanted to be able to see the pool in the background, so I couldn’t shoot too fast of a shutter speed. When I white balanced to the fluorescent, the coach’s skin was blue as the sky. I decided to white balance to the flash, and it still screwed me in the end. What to do in this situation?

Another example..

Not only was there daylight from a large window, florescent lights overhead, and my white light flash on one side, his white shirt picked up the rainbow of temperatures.

Scott says …

Ah, mixed light. Well, what you need to do, see, is you replace every one of those fluorescent lights above the pool with a nice daylight-balanced bulb, should only cost you a few grand …

OK, there are a variety of approaches to this unavoidable situation. I’ll lay some of them out and then give some recommendations on what you could’ve used in the example photos.

* Mixed light solution #1: Gel your flash. Many photographers carry around color-correction gels that will fit over their strobes. Here’s a set of gels that should cover most everything and won’t break the bank.

Using gels, you change the color of your flash to match the ambient light. In the case of your pool photo, that “Tough Plus Green” gel on your flash, with your camera set to fluorescent white balance, should do the trick. And if it doesn’t, try another green gel.

In my experience, this solution is still more art than science. Within the world of fluorescent bulbs, there are many greens. Getting a gelled flash to totally match the ambient is a tough one.

Still, this is probably the best practice approach for most every situation. Want to make it even better? Make a custom white balance from the output of your gelled flash, and use that instead of the camera’s fluorescent setting. Then shoot raw to take advantage of the color temperature tool.

* Mixed light solution #2: Light your background. Which basically means, “Screw the ambient, I’ll light this whole place!” Not practical for something like an indoor swimming pool, but will work for many portraits.

* Mixed light solution #3: Fix it in Photoshop. The lazy solution, but sometimes we have two minutes total to make a picture and you have to do what you have to do. Here’s another place where raw shooting will help you.

* Mixed light solution #4: Find a new location. Or change your location in ways that help you. Open the blinds, turn off the lights, choose a window as the background. When you’re scouting a location and sizing up an angle, think about light temperature and quality — along with all the other things you’re trying to think about.

So, which approaches to use in the example photos? The pool shot has got to be gelled. Great photo, just needs great color.

The second shot, of the staring guy — this one needs a new location. Not only because this is a dull composition, but also because trying to balance flash against a daylight-fluorescent mix is the kind of torture we don’t have to choose to subject ourselves to. Or our subjects.