Overcoming Ambient or Mixed Lighting Settings

[bwolford]

I recently took some photos in a mixed lighting environment (Incandeecent overhead and natural light coming from large picture windows). Based on the results of my images (http://thewolfords.com/EdandSonya/index_2.htm) it's clear my theory of coming the incandescent lighting by shooting in front of the large picture windows was seriously flawed. I need some help with the trickly lighting challenge.

Side bar: before anyone asks; I was not the wedding photographer. I was merely a family member taking some shots at their request. Purely voluntary with the understanding I had no idea what I was doing. If you look at the images, that will be clear. There is no money changing hands or expectations of either party. So any comments such as "you ruined their wedding!" or "why would you represent yourself as a professional and then do this to them?" aren't necessary. :rolleyes: CC on the poses, focus, or anything else about the photos isn't being requested. I'm only looking for information about the lighting challenge.

So, back to the point of this post. What's the best way of overcoming this kind of environmental challenge? I know moving the shoot to a better venue would be the FIRST thing I should do:), but if one is constrained and handed this environment, what's the best alternative to resolving the challenges presented?

Thanks for any help or suggestion you can provide.

[StewartR]

Brice, the main problem I see with these pictures is not necessarily the mixed incandescent/natural lighting. That can cause problems with white balance, but I don't see any major problems there. (Do you?)

The issue as I see it is about the directionality of the lighting. You've got people sat in front of windows with bright daylight behind them, so their faces are in shadow. You'd get that whether or not there was incandescent lighting indoors. The usual way of dealing with it is by using a reflector or fill-flash, I would suggest.

[bwolford]

Excellent point Stewart. The link is to a batch of pictures and I was more interested in those of the wedding party. Unfortunately, the link I provided was to the home page with some at lunch that do indeed have backlighting problems that I know how to address.

I'll correct the link (http://thewolfords.com/EdandSonya/index_2.htm). Thanks for catching that.

[StewartR]

OK, now I see. I hope you don't mind me linking to one of your pctures in the hope that other POTN members might chip in more readily... I think this one just about sums up the white balance problem. Her right arm is orange and her left arm is blue.

http://thewolfords.com/EdandSonya/images/EdandSonya025.jpg

I remembered seeing a thread about mixed lighting problems some while ago, and a bit of searching turned it up. Here it is. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=207331) The basic solution was to create two images from the same RAW file, one balanced for each style of lighting, and them blend them together using layer masks. That's way out of my depth as far as Photoshop is concerned, but I would be willing to bet that the people responsible - jfrancho and In2Photos - would be willing to offer more detailed guidance if you need it.

[bwolford]

Yeah Stewart I created a separate post about PP methods to fix it and my intent here is to learn how I can avoid this kind of problem in the future. What can I do with supplementary lighting, reflectors, white balance, etc to minimize the problem so I have less post processing to do.

I appreciate you finding that link. I'll go check it out now. What a great memory to remember that from 2006...

[E-K]

To avoid it you would need to make the lighting colour consistent. You could use a flash to dominate the lighting so that ambient didn't contribute very much. Maybe some large coloured gels over the windows ;).

e-k

[PhotosGuy]

I'd use a cheap, manual flash to kick in some of the "right" light. See post #4 for a way to standardize exposure. For fill, just dial down the amount of flash.
Settings?? Help Needed! (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=2953374)

[bwolford]

Frank, Nice link. Thanks. Brice

[bwolford]

Just so you can see, I did a tad better in natural light. (http://thewolfords.com/EdandSonya2/index_2.htm)

What do you think?

[StewartR]

I think you did a tad better in natural light.

[jdouglas003]

You could also use gels with flash to balance the light

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-using-gels-to-correct.html

[bwolford]

Jdouglas, that strobist link is exactly what I was looking for!!! Thanks. VERY MUCH.