Dealing with LED Stage Lights

I was the official photographer for an international magicians convention. I was offered the job because of my long experience in photography (35 years) and because I am a full-time magician and know what to look for in photos. At the convention, I dealt with something new. They were using LED stage lights in some of the performing venues. This caused me a lot of extra work!

Initially, I was excited at how bright the lighting was. I didn't have to crank the ISO too high on my 7D. Then, I started noticing the color balance changing from shot to shot. I hadn't paid attention to the lights themselves so I took a look and confirmed that they were using LED lights.

Here's what I ran into. If I shot at a shutter speed of greater than 1/200 of second, the color balance was all over the place. If I shot at 1/200 of second or below, it was much more consistent - mostly daylight balanced. Unfortunately, I had to drop to 1/160 the of a second to get the most consistency but then I had problems with motion. The performers do move!

The real killer was when they dimmed the lights. Then, the color balance went crazy. Really deep blue/magenta. (Fortunately, not too many acts when with dim lights.)

Now, I basically know what causes the irregular color balance so here's my question: how do I deal with this next year so it's not so much work? I shot all of this in RAW but there was no way to adjust a group of photos all at once because of the differences so I had to work on each photo individually. I had over 1,100 final images and about 20% of those were under the LEDs.

The worst part was that some of the images had three different color balances in a single photo. See the samples below.

If you have dealt with this and have some answers on how to avoid the problems, please post them! (I will be doing this convention again in 2013 and they'll be using the same production company!)

Please keep in mind that the light appeared white on all the performers, even the really dark one was white light just dimmed. These are uncorrected to show you where I started. All of them, except the last one, have at least two different color balances. The last one is the one that was with dim light and you should have seen what using the white balance tool did when you clicked on his black jacket: the temperature slider went all the way to the left and the tint slider went all the way to the right in Adobe Camera Raw.

Sorry about the pixelation on these. Apparently, Photobucket compresses photos when you upload them.

Hey don't worry about the pixelation because if you have watermarks in the middle of your photos, no one wants to review them with their sarcastic attitude

Though they are good

Wait. All of this light appeared to be white IRL?
Wow.

Guess it must be cycling (like CFL). In that case, the only solution might be to drop your shutterspeed below 1/160s (apparently) (or use flash to overpower ambient)

A tripod, monopod, or IS might help. But not for moving subjects obviously.

I'd try to test it out when you get the chance, on a quiet occasion. A rehearsal maybe.
Never ran across it, since where I shoot, LED lighting is only used for effects, not neutral front.

René Damkot wrote in post #15040794
Wait. All of this light appeared to be white IRL?
Wow.

Guess it must be cycling (like CFL). In that case, the only solution might be to drop your shutterspeed below 1/160s (apparently) (or use flash to overpower ambient)

A tripod, monopod, or IS might help. But not for moving subjects obviously.

I'd try to test it out when you get the chance, on a quiet occasion. A rehearsal maybe.
Never ran across it, since where I shoot, LED lighting is only used for effects, not neutral front.

Yes, it all was white light. They definitely are cycling but the worst part is the different colored LEDs didn't cycle at the same time. Looking at the light, it had an array of blue LEDs, red LEDs, and green LEDs.

RichSoansPhotos wrote in post #15038656
Hey don't worry about the pixelation because if you have watermarks in the middle of your photos, no one wants to review them with their sarcastic attitude

Though they are good

I have to use the watermarks because I don't own the copyright. I did this as work for hire and the International Brotherhood of Magicians owns the copyright, although I have permission to use the photos in my own promotion.

I have some much better photos I'll post later.

Have you tried using auto white balance? Or maybe shoot in RAW and correct the white balance in PP

I did shoot in RAW and auto white balance but AWB won't help when when you have different color balances in the same photo. If you look at the photos I posted, you'll see as many as three different colors in a single image.

I would place the WB emphasis on the primary subjects skin tone and not worry so much about the objects. I run into the same issue at local concerts with multi color lights constantly changing colors.

I appreciate the comments but there seems to be a misunderstanding here. This is not a situation where there are colored lights being used. This is the lights cycling and changing colors while appearing white to the naked eye. The camera is able to catch the variations.

If you look at the second, third & fourth images, there are multiple color casts within the same photo. At this point, I haven't found a way to get a consistent white balance from image to image without dropping to a shutter speed that won't stop the motion.

magicmikey wrote in post #15043214
At this point, I haven't found a way to get a consistent white balance from image to image without dropping to a shutter speed that won't stop the motion.

There isn't going to be. Unless you find a way to sync your camera to the lights' cycle: Then you'll get a consistent color change over each image. But still a color change

The *only* way to prevent that, is to make sure you catch a full cycle. Which sucks, big time.

That's what I was thinking but I was hoping I was wrong! I was looking for some secret I didn't know.

The other option is to demand that the production purchase the more sophisticated (and expensive) LED lights that stay consistent somehow. (I'm not sure of the technology but I do know this doesn't occur with the higher end LED stage lights.)

magicmikey wrote in post #15041531
I have to use the watermarks because I don't own the copyright. I did this as work for hire and the International Brotherhood of Magicians owns the copyright, although I have permission to use the photos in my own promotion.

I have some much better photos I'll post later.

The thing is, whenever I post up my photos, grant you, the watermarks are right in the middle for a reason, they're on my flickr account i.e. very public I just don't want people nicking them and using them for their own ends.

I tend to get no one or the odd one or two saying a few things, hence I'm not bothering even posting any more, it seems they don't like it with it right in the centre. If I were a photographer for a magazine or an agency, I would probably be told not to put them up on other website due to the fact that they would own the copyright since they would be paying me.

I have posted a few that weren't right in the middle, still the same attitude I get.

CanonCameraFan wrote in post #15043016
I would place the WB emphasis on the primary subjects skin tone and not worry so much about the objects. I run into the same issue at local concerts with multi color lights constantly changing colors.

+1 It's a pain, but it's just the way things go

Use "Daylight"