fluorencent lighting

ok what to do with fluorecent lights every home now has them in the lights and church too so pics come out brownesh. how ya change what to correct for this?

White Balance.

As a side note, I know some fluorescent lights have a frequency to them. If youre shooting too fast of a shutter speed, you can catch the light at different "pulses" and the pictures can look drastically different from one another. Im not 100% sure that theyre all that way or what the frequency is, but I know the lights here at work do it.

You need to learn to adjust white balance. This site http://www.ronbigelow.​com …s/white/white_b​alance.htm has an excellent article on it. In brief shooting in RAW and adjusting in the RAW converting software is easiest, especially if you include a shot with a white or grey card in the scene (or cheat to get close if there's a white object in the scene like t-shirt, paper etc.). Other option is to use custom white balance from the camera - look up Expodisc to see one easy way to do it - I use a white coffee filter to accomplish the same thing.

Photographically speaking, fluorescent lights suck.

I try to overpower them with flash whenever possible. Bounce the flash and use 1/250 shutter speed to keep out the fluorescent.

In large rooms I'll use a green gel on my flash to match the fluorescent color (sort of), and use the flash as fill. This will help get some consistency in the subject at least. I shoot RAW and adjust the white balance in post.

Compact fluorescent bulbs cycle at a very high frequency so they're not so limiting, but traditional fluorescent tube cycle at 60hz (2 pulses of light per cycle). In that environment, keep your shutter speed at 1/125 or multiples thereof (1/60, 1/40, 1/30).

I've noticed a change in the lighting of ballrooms and such lately, some tend to go more yellow than green with the WB on the camera set to 5500. What Curtis suggests is exactly the way we did it with film with the exception we had a 30 or 40 magenta filter for our white balance control. One reason I love digital so much. Curtis, glad you like my quote.

Curtis N wrote in post #4191968
Photographically speaking, fluorescent lights suck.

I try to overpower them with flash whenever possible. Bounce the flash and use 1/250 shutter speed to keep out the fluorescent.

In large rooms I'll use a green gel on my flash to match the fluorescent color (sort of), and use the flash as fill. This will help get some consistency in the subject at least. I shoot RAW and adjust the white balance in post.

Hmmm. Never thought of balancing the flash. I'll have to try that.

They do? How? Why? They're still running on 60 hz. You mean there's an oscillator in the CF lamp that generates its own, higher frequency?

-js

number six wrote in post #4192392
They do? How? Why? They're still running on 60 hz. You mean there's an oscillator in the CF lamp that generates its own, higher frequency?

I don't know an oscillator from a muffler bearing. But this aspect of the CFLs is something I have read from more than one reliable source.

It would be easy enough to test if you have one of those godforsaken spiral bulbs. Set your shutter at 1/400 or thereabouts, shoot a burst and see if you get variations from one shot to the next.

RAW. Flash works well too.

Curtis N wrote in post #4192821
I don't know an oscillator from a muffler bearing. But this aspect of the CFLs is something I have read from more than one reliable source.

It would be easy enough to test if you have one of those godforsaken spiral bulbs. Set your shutter at 1/400 or thereabouts, shoot a burst and see if you get variations from one shot to the next.

I have lots of those. My daughter and my wife have installed them everywhere - except those places where they just won't work. (My call on that.)

Don't misunderstand: I'm 100% in favor of reducing energy usage.

Anyway, I have the fluorescent tubes and the spiral bulbs to test with, and I think I'll set up a test with a striped target on my lathe (on which I can change speeds easily) and take some shots.

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Speaking of messed-up white balance -- try what I did a couple of years ago (rather don't try).

A girlfriend and I spent a weekend at Disneyland. I packed an S3 IS with me (superzoom P&S, jpeg only) and was looking to take some memorable pictures..

Well, the night before our first day at the park we did some indoor stuff and I had set my camera to one of the indoor lighting settings.

We got to the park and I began shooting away. I wasn't "chimping", barely glancing at the shots, because the lighting was great, so it was a while before I noticed this bluish caste on the pictures...:o

And, believe me, if you're shooting jpegs, they can be difficult when it comes to getting that kind of thing right. That kind of experience sold me on going RAW only with my DSLRs!

Tony

number six wrote in post #4192392
They do? How? Why? They're still running on 60 hz. You mean there's an oscillator in the CF lamp that generates its own, higher frequency?
-js

Basic fluorescent lamps "strobe" at twice the mains frequency because the mains voltage is a sine waveform. The tube isn't fussy, and will light on both the positive and negative "peaks" of the wave. Each mains cycle has both a positive and negative peak, so the light strobes at 100Hz or 120Hz depending on your local mains frequency.

(As an aside, I believe it's considered good practice in machine shops to alternate the lights across the three phase supplies to minimise strobing, which could make an operating piece of equipment appear stationary).

Higher grade (pronounced "more expensive") fluorescents do generate their own (higher) frequency to produce a more "consistent" light.

john_s wrote in post #4194289
Basic fluorescent lamps "strobe" at twice the mains frequency because the mains voltage is a sine waveform. The tube isn't fussy, and will light on both the positive and negative "peaks" of the wave. Each mains cycle has both a positive and negative peak, so the light strobes at 100Hz or 120Hz depending on your local mains frequency.

(As an aside, I believe it's considered good practice in machine shops to alternate the lights across the three phase supplies to minimise strobing, which could make an operating piece of equipment appear stationary).

Higher grade (pronounced "more expensive") fluorescents do generate their own (higher) frequency to produce a more "consistent" light.

Incandescent light will also ‘light’ stronger twice per cycle.
Negative peak doesn’t mean ‘no light’, -, negative sign refers only to the direction of current (magnetic field), not to its magnitude.

The reason for fluorescent light being more ‘stable’ and 'consistent' in intensity is somewhere else.

rangersvtsplash,
I found this info by Curtis to be excellent
Limitations of Fluorescent Lighting <-- click to see

number six wrote in post #4192392
They do? How? Why? They're still running on 60 hz. You mean there's an oscillator in the CF lamp that generates its own, higher frequency?

-js

Fluorescents are a spark-discharge light, like sodium or mercury vapour lights, or strobes for that matter. Incandescents rely on a glowing filament which, by its very nature, doesn't get the "on/off/on" effect that fluorescents do - the filament doesn't cool down enough between current reversals to give you a problem

john_s wrote in post #4194289
Basic fluorescent lamps "strobe" at twice the mains frequency because the mains voltage is a sine waveform. The tube isn't fussy, and will light on both the positive and negative "peaks" of the wave. Each mains cycle has both a positive and negative peak, so the light strobes at 100Hz or 120Hz depending on your local mains frequency.

(As an aside, I believe it's considered good practice in machine shops to alternate the lights across the three phase supplies to minimise strobing, which could make an operating piece of equipment appear stationary).

Higher grade (pronounced "more expensive") fluorescents do generate their own (higher) frequency to produce a more "consistent" light.

This is true. In the old days, we used to calibrate the speed of turntables and tape decks using this strobing effect in conjunction with striped disks and tape.

This is the same effect that makes wheels appear to move slowly, stop, or move backwards in movies.

It is also the same effect that causes people to get headaches from cheap computer monitors.