White Balance Question

ckasparckaspar Registered Users Posts: 154 Major grins
edited October 6, 2010 in Sports
Well...as the title says, I have a WB question.

Yesterday I was shooting an indoor onroad R/C race. Flourescent lighthing with an black asphalt track and green and white painted curbing. On some of the shots the WB is perfect. On others though the WB is VERY orange yellow. Why is that? I was not shooting auto WB so I thought the camera would use the settings I chose.

I was shooting with a Rebel XSi with a 50MM 1.8

Any ideas?

Mods, if this is not the right are please move accordingly. I just put it in here because of the types of shooting I was doing

Comments

  • QarikQarik Registered Users Posts: 4,959 Major grins
    edited October 4, 2010
    fluorescents cycle through different colors at 60hz. Are eyes just blend them to an average color..but your camera can "see it" if you are running at say 1/500 sec. If your shutter is ruuning slower then 1/60s then you will see the one color (theoretically).
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  • Scott293Scott293 Registered Users Posts: 369 Major grins
    edited October 4, 2010
    If you can shoot in raw and adjust in pp.
    Scott Davis

    Nikon D70,D2H,D300,Nikkor 300mm f2.8,Nikkor 80-200 f2.8, Nikkor 24-70 AF-S f2.8,Nikkor 50 f1.8

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  • ckasparckaspar Registered Users Posts: 154 Major grins
    edited October 5, 2010
    Qarik wrote: »
    fluorescents cycle through different colors at 60hz. Are eyes just blend them to an average color..but your camera can "see it" if you are running at say 1/500 sec. If your shutter is ruuning slower then 1/60s then you will see the one color (theoretically).

    Makes total sense. Didn't even think of that. Thanks!
    Scott293 wrote: »
    If you can shoot in raw and adjust in pp.

    I ALWAYS shoot in RAW so at least I can "recover" the screwed shots. I was more just curious why it was happening. The bummer part about it is that it takes me so much longer in PP when I have to process a pic a little before I decide it if is a keeper.

    Oh well. I have about 400 more indoor R/C pics to process. Thanks for the info and input guys.thumb.gif
  • travischancetravischance Registered Users Posts: 642 Major grins
    edited October 6, 2010
    You could try using an Expodisc WB filter. I have one & love it.
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  • mikeofsdmikeofsd Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited October 6, 2010
    You could try using an Expodisc WB filter. I have one & love it.


    I agree. I just switched to the Color Checker Passport by Xrite and IMHO it is the best WB tool I have used.
  • MileHighAkoMileHighAko Registered Users Posts: 413 Major grins
    edited October 6, 2010
    ckaspar wrote: »
    I ALWAYS shoot in RAW so at least I can "recover" the screwed shots. I was more just curious why it was happening. The bummer part about it is that it takes me so much longer in PP when I have to process a pic a little before I decide it if is a keeper.

    Oh well. I have about 400 more indoor R/C pics to process. Thanks for the info and input guys.thumb.gif

    You might try Lightroom 3 (even the trial) to batch import and adjust the WB en mass. Just create a preset and apply to all the suspect photos at once.
  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited October 6, 2010
    Just keep in mind that the "take a shot" white balance tools (Expodisc, Color Checker which I have) will only be correct for the point during the 60Hz cycle when you shot! You'll still have to go back and contend with the other mixtures of green and yellow that occur at other points during the cycle.

    Wouldn't that be a great camera feature to have? A white balance that auto-senses the cycle of fluorescent lighting and matches the phase, like a white-balance version of image stabilization, so that all the shots have a consistent white balance? You'd probably sell that camera to every night sports photographer on the planet. Get Chuck Westfall on the line!
  • ckasparckaspar Registered Users Posts: 154 Major grins
    edited October 6, 2010
    You could try using an Expodisc WB filter. I have one & love it.
    mikeofsd wrote: »
    I agree. I just switched to the Color Checker Passport by Xrite and IMHO it is the best WB tool I have used.

    Interesting tools but I am concerned that because I am moving around the perimeter of the track and can't get to where the subject is that I may run into more problems.
    You might try Lightroom 3 (even the trial) to batch import and adjust the WB en mass. Just create a preset and apply to all the suspect photos at once.

    Ya, I've got LR3. I did a batch WB adjustment but it still took me forever to process my race photos from last weekend. Probably 4 times as long as an outdoor race. Laughing.gif Oh well!
    colourbox wrote: »
    Just keep in mind that the "take a shot" white balance tools (Expodisc, Color Checker which I have) will only be correct for the point during the 60Hz cycle when you shot! You'll still have to go back and contend with the other mixtures of green and yellow that occur at other points during the cycle.

    Wouldn't that be a great camera feature to have? A white balance that auto-senses the cycle of fluorescent lighting and matches the phase, like a white-balance version of image stabilization, so that all the shots have a consistent white balance? You'd probably sell that camera to every night sports photographer on the planet. Get Chuck Westfall on the line!

    That would be awesome abd would save me SO much time when shooting indoors. Oh well. One can dream can't they!

    Thanks for the info guys. I suppose I will have to keep playing with workflow to try to reduce the time it takes me to process the shots.
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