G5 & Tungsten Lighting

[Glo]

Had a practice at some portrait pics last night and used one of those crude 500 watt security lights as my light source. I used manual/ tungsten setting on my G5 and omg ...the results were horrible!
Is it normal to get such a strong blue cast on the pics. Ive also taken some hand/foot shots recently and the ladies skin looked red raw with this filter.
Has anyone any advice or foolproof method in PS for bringing back healthy skin tones when using this filter?

[photodd]

Post a shot, it might help to see what you're doing.

[superkully]

I stay away from the Tungsten white balance setting - it's never worked for me.

I either keep the setting on Auto and then use 'Auto Colours' option in PS or change the white balance slider manually.

[gardenstate]

for difficult lighting situations, I use the following on my G6...not sure if it is on your camera...

Set the White Balance to CUSTOM
Set the White balance using a white card (zoom in to fill up the screen) that is lit up by the diffiuclt lighting situation

[dbump]

If you find that using a white card & Custom WB, as gardenstate suggests, works for you, you might consider getting a white card like this:
http://www.rawworkflow.com/products/whibal/index.html
These are tested to make sure they're spectrally neutral. A plain 3x5 index card is probably sufficient for non-demanding purposes.
Have you ever thought about shooting in RAW format? One of the major advantages is the ability to non-destructively alter the white balance of the image file, long after you've shot it. Lots of good info on these forums about RAW, but a good primer:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-raw-files.shtml
It can be a bit daunting to adopt a raw workflow, but it's not much work, once you're used to it. You may find you only shoot in raw mode for specific shoots like the one you had lighting issues with, and shoot in jpeg mode otherwise.

[superkully]

Glo, I see you in the UK, Amateur Photographer were giving away free foldable WB circles last week. The new edition comes out today, but you may find the previous one today before they're sent back.

Be careful though, the magazine has either a WB or a silver reflector.

[Glo]

Thanx for all your advice.
I had recently taken some shots in RAW & loved how easy it was to alter the exposure etc.
Last week I had some probs downloading my G5/RAW pics and ended up formatting my whole card as I couldnt read them on my PC (Im a bit of a newb to photography, Photoshop & PC's, so feeling my way in the dark, lol!)
The pics were for a client for her website so I was a bit miffed that I had to reshoot them this time using Superfine JPEGS.
I admit Sunday was rather rushed so I just played safe & shot JPEGS.
The sad thing is I used both my G5 & my new 5D while my bro used his £200 Fuji ...his skintones came out so much better! :evil:
Ill try again next weekend after putting into practice the advice offered here.
SuperKully ...can you believe I bought the mag last week....and got the silver reflector!!! :rolleyes:

[Robert_Lay]

There seems to be some minor controvery about whether to use Gray cards or White cards for Custom White Balance.

BTW, I have never had any serious problem with the Tungsten setting on my G5 when using ordinary household lamps and ceiling fixtures. Seems to be a pretty good match. However, good or bad, none of the pre-defined settings are as good as a well done Custom White Balance.

I have used both white and 18% Gray cards for doing the Custom White Balance with no problem. It's worth noting that although the User's Manual for the camera says to use a White Card, notice that in the footnote it says that the Gray Card is better.:D