Why does a persons face come out yellow with a 430ex II?

[Salma]

When I take portraits all my subjects seem to have yellow faces :/ Why is this?

[SUB1IM388]

What do you have your WB on? perhaps try a custom WB setting

[Salma]

I took a photo of a plain white paper and used that a custom WB.

[Skrim17]

you need grey to set a custom white balance.

[Salma]

Grey, so i'd have to take a picture of something grey?

[Skrim17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_card

specifically 18% gray.

[shannyD]

they have these WB cards you can buy.. or sometimes they even come in scott kelby books at the end of the book. You shoot that.. i shoot it a couple of times, just to make sure, and set WB that way.

it helps a great deal.. especially for skin tones.

shan

[Titus213]

Have you tried just setting the camera's white balance to flash?

[Salma]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_card

specifically 18% gray.
Aww thankyou :D
they have these WB cards you can buy.. or sometimes they even come in scott kelby books at the end of the book. You shoot that.. i shoot it a couple of times, just to make sure, and set WB that way.

it helps a great deal.. especially for skin tones.

shan
Do you have a photo to show what the outcome is Shan?
Have you tried just setting the camera's white balance to flash?
Yes I have and that's just not right.

[Thalagyrt]

I've set white balance perfectly fine with a pure white card. The 18% gray cards are used for metering, in which case a pure white card will not be effective as you'd be underexposing everything.

White and 18% gray are essentially the same color, so both will work the same way when it comes to setting white balance. Due to that you see people using their gray cards for white balance, as it's equally effective as a white card, and leaves you one less thing to carry around. ;)

[Titus213]

Can you post an example of what you get - say with the camera set to flash white balance?

[Curtis N]

I took a photo of a plain white paper and used that a custom WB.The possibilities are endless here.
1. The white paper you used has bluing in it (this is common). The camera adjusted for this, making things yellow.
2. Did you fire the flash when you took the reference shot of the white paper to set your custom WB?
3. Are you bouncing the flash?
4. Is ambient light contributing to the exposure?

Traditional 18% grey cards are sometimes, but not always, better than plain white paper. These cards are designed to have a specific luminance but are not designed to be a white balance reference.

Useful tools designed for this purpose include the WhiBal card and the PhotoVision calibration target. Both are available in a variety of sizes.

My hunch is your choice of reference is not the cause of your problem here, but we'll need a few sample images to provide more useful advice.

[colourblindphotographer]

I generally use this rule, despite my colourblindness I've get 98% good results.

1.) Outdoor: Use AWB
2.) Indoor: Use the presets
3.) Dramatic Landscape: I noticed majority of the awesome landscapes uses Cloudy ;)
4.) Serious shot: Just use a grey cards or a custom WB.

I use 1 & 2 often

[Thalagyrt]

I generally use this rule, despite my colourblindness I've get 98% good results.

1.) Outdoor: Use AWB
2.) Indoor: Use the presets
3.) Dramatic Landscape: I noticed majority of the awesome landscapes uses Cloudy ;)
4.) Serious shot: Just use a grey cards or a custom WB.

I use 1 & 2 often

This is off topic, but kudos to you for going after something you're passionate about despite having a pretty big hurdle in your way. :D

[colourblindphotographer]

This is off topic, but kudos to you for going after something you're passionate about despite having a pretty big hurdle in your way. :D

Cheers mate.. but its not actually off topic... This are my suggestions so he doesn't have to go through all the trouble with white balance... I had the same issues before but in my case brown skin turns red which is caused by white balance. In his case its yellowish using a custom white balance. I'd use that in a shoot that would be at the same spot and at the same lighting (including ambient).. Though if he use RAW, adjusting the temperature would quickly fix it.

[Salma]

Cheers mate.. but its not actually off topic... This are my suggestions so he doesn't have to go through all the trouble with white balance... I had the same issues before but in my case brown skin turns red which is caused by white balance. In his case its yellowish using a custom white balance. I'd use that in a shoot that would be at the same spot and at the same lighting (including ambient).. Though if he use RAW, adjusting the temperature would quickly fix it.
I'm a girl :|

[apersson850]

And he (?) probably isn't colo(u)r blind either.

[Salma]

And he (?) probably isn't colo(u)r blind either.
Sorry? :confused:

[Tareq]

And what happened now? did you solve the problem?

[CliveyBoy]

There is also (at least on the 30D and later cameras with Picture Style custom settings) the ability to set the camera to interpret skin tones as red through to yellow. This affects only jpegs.

It doesn't help much here in the south Pacific where many have brown to dark-brown skins.

[Salma]

I am so confused.

[smorter]

Cheers mate.. but its not actually off topic... This are my suggestions so he doesn't have to go through all the trouble with white balance... I had the same issues before but in my case brown skin turns red which is caused by white balance. In his case its yellowish using a custom white balance. I'd use that in a shoot that would be at the same spot and at the same lighting (including ambient).. Though if he use RAW, adjusting the temperature would quickly fix it.
He/she meant his/her post was OT, not yours

[SkipD]

I took a photo of a plain white paper and used that a custom WB.When you did that, was the paper in the SAME light as your subject? That means precisely the same combination of natural light and light from your flash unit.

Your title indicates you're using a 430EX II, but you don't say how you use the flash unit. What other lighting is there which could affect the image? Does the Speedlite completely overpower any natural light? I get the impression that it does not.

If you are using the flash to expose the reference paper and are shooting the reference paper with the camera a lot closer to it than to the subject, the ratio of natural light and light from the Speedlite could be very different between your reference shot and the shots of the subject(s).

[Salma]

I've set white balance perfectly fine with a pure white card. The 18% gray cards are used for metering, in which case a pure white card will not be effective as you'd be underexposing everything.

White and 18% gray are essentially the same color, so both will work the same way when it comes to setting white balance. Due to that you see people using their gray cards for white balance, as it's equally effective as a white card, and leaves you one less thing to carry around. ;)
What sort of cards are these??

Can you post an example of what you get - say with the camera set to flash white balance?
I will do this shortly.
The possibilities are endless here.
1. The white paper you used has bluing in it (this is common). The camera adjusted for this, making things yellow.
2. Did you fire the flash when you took the reference shot of the white paper to set your custom WB?
3. Are you bouncing the flash?
4. Is ambient light contributing to the exposure?

Traditional 18% grey cards are sometimes, but not always, better than plain white paper. These cards are designed to have a specific luminance but are not designed to be a white balance reference.

Useful tools designed for this purpose include the WhiBal card and the PhotoVision calibration target. Both are available in a variety of sizes.

My hunch is your choice of reference is not the cause of your problem here, but we'll need a few sample images to provide more useful advice.
Thanks for your response, it will help me work with this, I am going to post some photos shortly, I haven't uploaded them yet so hopefully we can find out what the problem is.

As for the questions.

I think yes the flash did fire when I took the photo of the paper, i'm not bouncing flash and ambient light is contributing :)
I generally use this rule, despite my colourblindness I've get 98% good results.

1.) Outdoor: Use AWB
2.) Indoor: Use the presets
3.) Dramatic Landscape: I noticed majority of the awesome landscapes uses Cloudy ;)
4.) Serious shot: Just use a grey cards or a custom WB.

I use 1 & 2 often
I need to get these cards.
And what happened now? did you solve the problem?
No I didn't, I am trying to.
There is also (at least on the 30D and later cameras with Picture Style custom settings) the ability to set the camera to interpret skin tones as red through to yellow. This affects only jpegs.

It doesn't help much here in the south Pacific where many have brown to dark-brown skins.
Hmmm that's interesting.

[cdifoto]

If you're shooting direct, set your white balance to 5500K. That's what the flash is manufactured to be (give or take a few insignificant degrees).

If you're bouncing, get a proper grey card an shoot a custom white balance under the exact lighting the subjects will be in.

Or just leave it on 5500K all the time and tweak in post like I do.

[apersson850]

Ifr you are shooting direct, you can very well use AWB or the flash WB setting. You'll then benefit from the flash serving the camera with color temperature information, reflecting the charge and battery status of the flash.

If the flash isn't dominant in the picture, but does illuminate the most important part, use the flash setting. Otherwise, AWB.

[Thalagyrt]

Cheers mate.. but its not actually off topic... This are my suggestions so he doesn't have to go through all the trouble with white balance... I had the same issues before but in my case brown skin turns red which is caused by white balance. In his case its yellowish using a custom white balance. I'd use that in a shoot that would be at the same spot and at the same lighting (including ambient).. Though if he use RAW, adjusting the temperature would quickly fix it.

I was just saying that my comment was off topic. :)

[Tareq]

Sorry to ask that, but i hope to see a sample of the OP shot to see the issue.
I have a shot which i like really and the face looks yellow because of Tungsten light but the result is nice, even i don't think it is a WB issue.