Photos under Fluorescent Light

I have been asked by friends to take photographs of their wedding.

They are having it at a hall with high ceilings, and it will be under

fluorescent lights. I have a Pentax MZ-6, and I will either be using

the built-in auto flash, or a Vivitar Automatic Flash. I am

wondering what settings I should put the camera on, and how do I

minimize the "green effect". I am strapped for cash, so I would

appreciate suggestions that require little or no money. Is there any

hope of the photos coming out decent?

 

Thanks!

 

Jen B

Your best low budget bet would be to use the most powerful flash you have or can afford, and stop down enough that the ambient light from the fluorescents is three or more stops below your exposure. This might mean picking up a Vivitar 283 or 285, and foregoing TTL in favor of the automatic mode supported by those flashes.

 

For example, if ambient light results in a meter reading of f/2.8 at 1/60s, stop down to f/5.6 and switch to 1/125s shutter speed. Now you will be three stops down from ambient, which will dramatically decrease the effects of the fluorescents. Alternately, if you don't want to give up TTL automation, use fast film and the built-in flash.

I don't find most flourescent lighting to be a big problem. Using a Fuji film with the "4th layer" helps, and overexposing fast (400 ISO) film helps as well.

 

For weddings use Fuji NPH and expose it at 320 ISO normally, and 200 when in off color lighting. Process normally. Buy NPH online at B&H Photo. Buying it locally can be a rude awakening for a cash strapped photographer.

 

I would use an external flash because it will have more power than your built in one. I would set the camera in manual mode and adjust the ambient exposure for 1 to 1.5 stops underexposed. Then use the flash to properly expose the nearby subjects. This will give you a slightly darker background with properly exposed subjects.

 

If this is an auto flash (not TTL) set the lens aperture as the flash dictates and adjust the shutter to provide that -1 to -1.5 exposure for the room. When taking pictures of the bride and her white dress is dominating the image, open up the aperture one stop. When taking pictures of the groom in his black tux/suit close down 1 stop. If they are both together set the aperture to what the flash says.

 

If this is a TTL flash (or the built in one) I hope you have Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) to cause the same effects as above.

I agree about using a strong flash, or even multiple flash units as a way to deal with the dreaded yellows. If you want to be less intrusive you'll need to either use a 80A filter with outdoor film or switch to a tungsten film

To shoot in fluorescent light without flash, a CC30 magenta color correction filter does a pretty good job of canceling out the green cast. Filters and films designed for tungsten light will not work because the color of fluorescent is very different from tungsten. If you use flash, make sure to use the highest power/smallest aperture you can, to avoid green ambient backgrounds... if you get that, there's no way to correct it out without turning the foreground pink. It might be possible to bounce the Vivitar flash off the ceiling to whiten the background, while using the built-in flash for the foreground.

 

:)=

Using an on camera flash unit is going to make the shots a lil flat. maybe a combination of the auto flash and an off camera flash set off to one side? i would defer to guys who understand flash shooting better then me, but i have had some good results this way. Plus, with 2 flashes going it should drop the green cast from the flourescents...

Another idea... shoot b&w. i have had some great shots from using flourescent light fixtures, they give the effect of using a 4 foot softbox. just some ideas.

 

Bobby

Jen-- Here is a cheap, awkward way of shooting underflourescents if you want to use them for fill. Note that if a good shot presents itself in a different lighting situation (outside or in a windowlit hallway), you'll be pulling crap off your camera and flash and then cramming it back on. But if you will never be shooting under any other type of lighting, you can try this:

 

Put a 30cc magenta filter over your lens. Put a 30cc GREEN filter over your flash. Both the lens and the flash will now be balanced to the flourescents. Shoot with a fast film at as slow a shutter speed and as open an aperture as you feel you can get away with.

 

I very much agree on using Fuji film for this, and the Reala does a nice job with multiple light temps in the film.

 

This will not give you perfect color, and you should shoot a test roll to see if you get what you want. Also note that flourescents vary widely in color temperature, but 30cc magenta will take care of most of them. If the color of the flourescents is different, what will happen is that your subjects will be properly colored but the background may be off a bit.

 

Again, shoot that test roll to make sure that things are working right, especially to make sure that the filters on the lens and the flash are coordinated properly. Note that preferably I'd just blitz the place with radio-slaved strobes, but I've used this technique several times and it has rendered some surprisingly good results.

 

Best of luck. -BC-