colour casts with flash

[martcol]

Hi all

Canon 10 with 520 and 420 EX flashes off camera.

I keep getting either yellow or red casts with my flash photography especially with portrait work. I use the AWB setting because there's usually a mix of flash and ambient light.

Any advice?

Thanks

Martin

[Jim_T]

I haven't had that problem...

Have you tried setting the white balance to 'flash'..

Also.. If the predominant light in the room is tungsten, I'd try setting the white balance to 'tungsten' That might avoid the cast..

If you have some unusual lighting situations, you might want to try custom white balance, or, setting the white balance to Kelvin and adjusting the colour temperature..

Shooting in RAW will let you experiment with these settings... You can choose a custom white point, or you can adjust the colour temperature in K..

[G3]

You can also bracket the white balance.

[robertwgross]

Canon 10 with 520 and 420 EX flashes off camera.


What in the hell is a 520?

What in the hell is a Canon 10? Is it anything like a 10D?

---Bob Gross---

[maderito]

Hi all

Canon 10 with 520 and 420 EX flashes off camera.

I keep getting either yellow or red casts with my flash photography especially with portrait work. I use the AWB setting because there's usually a mix of flash and ambient light.


In my limited experience with this type of setting, you can't get the white balance correct if the main subject is primarily exposed by the flash (as it should be) and the ambient light provides substantial lighting for the rest of the image.

Depending on which camera mode you're shooting in, the shutter speed and aperture will be determined (up to a point) by the ambient light. You could wind up with a correctly exposed subject (@ flash temperature) and correctly exposed background (@ ambient light temperature). You can't set a single WB to make the entire image look right.

Sounds like you'll need another flash to fill in the non-subject areas of your shots to create more uniform flash-type temperature (about 5500K).

Clearly - shooting in RAW and working with a white/gray card or color chart would help.

See http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/ for more info.

[cloudless]

I have a similar problem with my G3 and 420EX. Whenever I use slow sync with flash I get red color cast on the skin. Using the flash WB will only make it worse. Can anybody help please?

[martcol]

Canon 10 with 520 and 420 EX flashes off camera.


What in the hell is a 520?

What in the hell is a Canon 10? Is it anything like a 10D?

---Bob Gross---

Wow Bob, you never fail to impress me with your incisive thought and comment. Your contribution to discussion is probably the thing that keeps it going. What are all these fools doing, seeing past a typo and trying to understand the thread. Yours is a far superior approach!

Well done

Martin.

Oh, all you fools - I appreciate your comments.

[mpoole]

This seems to be a common problem with digital imaging. If you set the wb to flash, use a higher sync speed like 1/125 or 1/200, so that the flash is the dominant colur. If you use a slower sync speed to get background detail use a setting based on ambient lighting such as flourescent etc. If you have time, shoot a white piece of paper and create a custom setting. I've started using the kelvin setting for mixed lighting to take back control.
Most of all, practice practice! You will develop a sense about wb eventually

[martcol]

Very helpful stuff everyone. I love the 10D but she's a demanding mistress! :lol:

[robertwgross]

Wow Bob, you never fail to impress me with your incisive thought and comment. Your contribution to discussion is probably the thing that keeps it going. What are all these fools doing, seeing past a typo and trying to understand the thread. Yours is a far superior approach!


We don't know that either was a typo. If they had been, they could have been corrected in the original posting. Maybe these are new numbers in the Canon family.

---Bob Gross---

[Tom W]

This seems to be a common problem with digital imaging. If you set the wb to flash, use a higher sync speed like 1/125 or 1/200, so that the flash is the dominant colur. If you use a slower sync speed to get background detail use a setting based on ambient lighting such as flourescent etc. If you have time, shoot a white piece of paper and create a custom setting. I've started using the kelvin setting for mixed lighting to take back control.
Most of all, practice practice! You will develop a sense about wb eventually

I don't know if this is a problem with digital, or if its an issue that we just never had to deal with in film. I mean, with film, you take the pictures and then send the roll to the lab. They process them and send them back. Kodak advertizes "color-corrected" and they may do some adjustments between the negative and the print that we consumers never saw.

But now, the issue is before us - we are the lab.

There have been some good suggestions here, but the point as I see it is that we are mixing two or more different colors of light - very white with the flash vs. yellow (tungsten) with the interior lighting. The ultimate balance falls according to the ratio of each that hits the subject. And if they hit the subject from two different angles, there will be two distinct color casts to deal with.

One other idea (and it may have already been suggested) is to shoot in RAW and play with the custom color balance on each picture or a series of pictures to see if you can't get the look you desire.

[Yance]

I would recommend buying a sheet of Rosco tungsten-balanced gel. Cut it to fit over your flash head and use it whenever you are shooting in a setting with mixed tungsten lighting. Then just use the tungsten balance on the digital camera. You will remove any guesswork and also get better pictures.

[debaser]

i dont think this is a tungsten problem, but a problem of optical printers printing digi pictures.

it will happen outside as well, and sometimes without flash.

matt

[PacAce]

Hi all

Canon 10 with 520 and 420 EX flashes off camera.

I keep getting either yellow or red casts with my flash photography especially with portrait work. I use the AWB setting because there's usually a mix of flash and ambient light.

Any advice?

Thanks

Martin

If would really be helpful if you told us what aperture and shutter speed you were shooting with. And whether you were bouncing the flash off the wall or ceiling.

As was mentioned earlier, AWB doesn't do squat with mixtures of lights of different temps. Unless you really want the "special effects" colors, you should really stick with one type of lighting, either all flash or all tungsten. This could very well explain your red and yellow casts on the images.

The other possibility, if bounching the flash, is the cast could be coming from a wall that isn't perfectly white.