White Balance and Strobes

<p>Hello All<br>

I bought some strobes ( White Lightning 1600's ) to play with. Not a very serious phototographer...but thought I might try some "studio" type stuff for fun. My question is about white balance. Do I have to white balance? Should I use the flash setting? The color is "good" with this setting...but not perfect. I tried balancing off a white and gray card but it was very very blue.... am I suppose to be balancing when the flash goes off? or with out the flash? links appreciated or just good 'ol advice! Thanks! ( Then we'll work on lighting ratio's...hehehehe)</p>

<p>what would be the purpose of balancing WITHOUT the flash? that's what is illuminating the scene.</p>

<p>Those are nice strobes. But you definitely need to do a custom white balance off of an exposure withe strobes actually doing the lighting - otherwise your camera is being fooled by the warmer tones of the incandescent modeling lights ... and the flash, when fired, will indeed seem bluer by comparison.<br /><br />You should indeed be able to get very close by using the daylight or flash WB settings already available to you.<br /><br />But here's the real way to do it: shoot RAW files, and include a shot of a proper white balance target. Then adjust in post, using a batch color temp adjustment based on a sampling of that target.</p>

<p>Studio strobes usually work well with the Daylight/Direct Sunlight white balance setting.</p>

<p>Strobes are at a higher color temperature than daylight. I understand they are anywhere from 5100-6100 Kelvin, depending on how close they are to full power, and I know natural daylight is 5500 Kelvin (the average wavelength from the sun falls in the optically yellow spectrum). That is why your shots look blue. The light you are using is bluer than daylight.</p>

<p>While the daylight balance will get you close, I think it's not all the way there if you are firing two of these at full power. I definitely agree that you should calibrate your white balance with those strobes because they are your primary source of illumination. Given their power, I very much doubt that the ambient studio light is having any effect on your exposures.</p>

<p>Try the daylight setting as a starting point for comparison. Then set the WB setting for "flash" and try again. See how it looks, and inspect your whites. If that's not good enough, and it might not be, then I would consider manually setting the WB in your camera using numeric Kelvin color temperature. Fiddle with it, maybe starting at 6100, and take a few shots up and down from that number in increments of 100 until you believe the white is white and not blue.</p>

<p>Your strobe instruction manual should list the specifications for these strobes concerning their Approx color temp.<br>

If your camera has the ability to set a particular Kelvin temp, I would start there; you won't be far off.</p>

<p>If you get into a fussy and careful balancing of strobes, keep an eye on the power out. Sometimes there will be a subtle shift in temperature based on power output. Generally speaking, the more power you pump out, the more likely you are to be a touch bluer than daylight. </p>

<p>The easiest way to handle this is to compose the photo so that everything that's illuminated is lit by the strobes. If you get into a situation where one part of the photo is warm (orange-ish) and another is cold (blue), then a mechanical solution is to gel the light. </p>

<p>Before you get into all that, go back and think about the light bulb. Different types of lamps, including strobes, will put out a slightly different color of white, based on what makes up the filaments of the light bulbs. Tungsten will be the regular incandescent light bulb, the strobe will be between daylight and fluorescent. </p>

<p>Daylight color film will aim for 5500K; a common sheet of white paper will often look 6500; newsprint will be at 5000K. This is not completely true, but it's an approximation that can help guide you.</p>

<p>Think about the light bulb. What's in the light bulb, and does it glow warm (3200K), neutral (5000K), or cold (6500K)? By "warm" I mean, "orange"; by "cold" I mean, "blue."</p>

<p>Howard M...geez...forgot to put the "I'm an idiot disclaimer" in the title...but figured if I was posting in the beginner section it might be overlooked...guess not. Anyway. Thank you all for the excellent advice..now I'm off to play with my lights! I have a D300 so custom balance is no problem and I have some basic knowledge of temp. just never thought to try daylight setting, makes perfect sense though...here is one of my shots...did the balancing in Lightroom, shot raw. Also never thought to keep the white card setting to batch in Lightroom...duh... :-) Husband and son...</p>

<p>of course...perhaps I need that disclaimer about being an idiot...I changed that one to blk and white...</p>

<p>While Howard's answer was a bit flippant, there is some truth behind it. Color balance accuracy is important especially shooting people. Since digital cameras tend to be more sensitive in the red channel, if you "expose to the right" to get the lightest proper exposure, you can blow out the red channel on skin tones.</p>

<p>Also, you can make batch adjustments to your images in post-processing, so as long as you are close-you have no problem.</p>

<p>BTW, Deena Martin? is that your real name? very cool...or should I say hip.</p>

<p>Deena, I'm a fan of shoot smarter.<br>

Set up your scene, set your exposure, bring in a balance smarter, or lasolite ezybalance,<br>

Put your camera's white balance on pre, hold it till it flashes, then hit the shutter and make sure all your lights fire, if it says ok, your good to go, your linked up and you just did a custom white balance, your white balanced. If you move your light, etc just do another custom white balance.<br>

Don't believe me, try it, lay out a white wedding dress, it's white. Bounce the light off green walls, pink reflectors, do a custom white balance with the balance smarter and the dress is white.<br>

Now I'll be flippant,<br>

On no, what does this mean? We don't have to shoot raw, spend hours in post processing or buy all that stuff that doesn't work.<br>

You got the equiptment let it work for you. Have fun</p>

<p>Believe it or not...that is my real name....My parents are big Rat Pack era fans..</p>

<p>There is no need to do a custom white balance when shooting under studio strobes. Strobes are plus or minus 5500 degree the same as daylight, so just set your camera to 5500 or daylight, depending on how it's marked on your camera. If the camera gives you other options that are plus or minus a couple of hundred degrees from 5500 try them and see which you prefer. Any tweaks beyond that are probably more easily done in Photoshop than worrying about a custom white balance. Keep in mind that until digital came along there were only two main white balance choices -- daylight or tungsten. Do not use auto white balance since it will usually see the 3200 degrees (plus or minus) of the modeling lights and balance to that, giving you blue pictures when the flash tubes fire. If you want to do a custom white balance, make sure your camera can do it based on the actual flash exposure and isn't balancing from the modeling lights.</p>

<p>There is no need to do a custom white balance when shooting under studio strobes. Strobes are plus or minus 5500 degree the same as daylight, so just set your camera to 5500 or daylight, depending on how it's marked on your camera. If the camera gives you other options that are plus or minus a couple of hundred degrees from 5500 try them and see which you prefer. Any tweaks beyond that are probably more easily done in Photoshop than worrying about a custom white balance. Keep in mind that until digital came along there were only two main white balance choices -- daylight or tungsten. Do not use auto white balance since it will usually see the 3200 degrees (plus or minus) of the modeling lights and balance to that, giving you blue pictures when the flash tubes fire. If you want to do a custom white balance, make sure your camera can do it based on the actual flash exposure and isn't balancing from the modeling lights.</p>

<p>huh...Thanks Craig... :-)</p>