What is causing this orange banding? Canon 5D 50mm f/1.4

[linda guerra]

I shot these last night at a kids event and noticed the banding right away in

camera. I shot several frames right before and did not have this issue. As stated

in the subject line, I was using 5D with 50mm f/1.4. The lights in the room were

office flourenscent lights. I used both AWB and the preset and it did not seem to

matter which one, I still got banding in several shots. Someone please "shed

some light", no pun intended.<div></div>

[jc5066]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

[phule]

Can you upload sample images? What were your shutter speeds?

[linda guerra]

I was coming with photos guys!! I just couldn't figure out how to get more that one up at a time. Still can't.<div></div>

[phule]

huh. there was no sample image at first. but now I see one. :) I'd be willing to bet you're seeing the normal cycle of the florescent lights. You can test by shooting through a range of shutter speeds in that room.

[linda guerra]

Here is one more<div></div>

[linda guerra]

It is located on one side of the frame each time. Notice how on vertical shots it is up and down and on horizontal it is located in the same area, thus the band occurs across the top. Puzzling.

[rainer_t]

-- "The lights in the room were office flourenscent lights."

 

If that was your main lightsource, you should have slowed down your shutter speed. Fluorescent light has no constant colortemperature. Colortemperature oscillates with the double frequency of your mains power.

 

The images you've posted were taken with 1/500sec , 1/1250sec and 1/4000sec. Its important to understand, that if you set exposure time to 1/4000sec, the shutter cycle itself takes much longer than that. (That is the main reason, why this super short time helps absolutely nothing in this case).

 

The consens with fluorescent light is, that you have to slow down shutter speed. 1/125sec or 1/60sec would have worked much better.

[linda guerra]

That makes sense....but I wanted a very narrow DOF, so I guess what I should've done is bring my ISO way down instead of cranking it up like I did. Then I could've used a slower shutter. Thanks.

[trebor_navilluso]

Not without a sample pic. Post one, and maybe we can help you. It could be anything from flare, to bad cf card, to sticky shutter. We can't possibly know without seeing it.

[chris_autio]

yep. It's the fluorescent light source. We videophiles have this trouble, too. Desaturate, then

add sepia color... if you can't do without these pics.

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

Linda,

 

I agree with the above comments. I usually find it best to keep ss less than 1/60 in fluorescent light or plan to convert to B&W.

 

Paul

[JAPster]

I think i agree with all the folks who commented so far. Florescent lighting can give that 'yellowish' overcast look to pictures taken with ambient lighting w/o a flash. I saw something similar on some color film pictures I took in a bookstore one time. I neglected to use an FL-D filter to correct for the florescent lighting, and all my pics were completely overcast with this same color in your "banding".

 

To try and prevent this from happening the next time, in addition to using a slower shutter speed, suggested above.

 

Try

1. Setting the White Balance on the digital SLR to 'Florescent'.

 

or

 

2. Using a screwon FL-D filter, designed to correct for the florescent color cast in the light.

 

or

 

3. Try using an ExpoDisk to create a custom White-Balance "grey image", then set the WB to that image. This will custom calibrate the WB to the immediate lighting in that particular room. That should help you get the best possible color values from all the colors.

 

or

 

4.If permitted, use your hotshoe Flash to illuminate the subjects, letting the flash light over-ride the overhead florescent. Try setting the WB to both Flash and Automatic to see which looks better.

 

i hope you find these suggestions helpful.

AP

[savagesax]

The 5D of course has several white balance settings. On my monitor you were underexposed by at least 1 f-stop, which enhances this color effect.

 

If you shot these pics in RAW simply convert your WB (white balance,) to florescent. On your camera you can also set the WB to florescent when you run into this situation again. Auto white balance on the 5D will not work.

[conraderb]

linda, I'm going to bet $1000 that your shutter speed was above 1/125, and $10000 that it was above 1/60th. keep it at 1/60th and you should be good. it is b/c fluorescent lights do a complete cycle 60 times a second. if your shutter is faster than that, you get only a partial cycle and the colors look weird.

[wedding-photography-denver]

Conrad, Conrad, he's our man, if you read his post you'll know he can. :-)

[rainer_t]

-- Conrad Erb -- "it is b/c fluorescent lights do a complete cycle 60 times a second"

 

I know this is nitpicking ... but ... while the voltage (and the current) are cycling with 60htz (or 50htz in other countries), poweroutput (in this case light and heat) cycles with the double frequency ... 120htz in that case.

[linda guerra]

Alrighty everyone, I went back to the venue and brought my ISO down from the max to around 400 or so, lowered my shutter to between 1/125 or right there abouts, and lo and behold, that was the whole thing! You guys who knew about the flashing effect of flourescent, bravo! I remember a science teacher of mine way back in grade school telling us about that, but I had forgotten about it...turns out that it cycles through those varying temps at a rate of about a 400th of a sec,; sooooo we must keep our shutter speed below, say 1/300 or even 1/250 to be safe! All of the other factors matter not. It wasn't any other thing. Tried other ways to make it happen again, and it only did when I went above that 1/400 mark. Thanks everyone for a good, educational discourse. Cheers.

[linda guerra]

I felt the need to correct something...the statement that the cycle of the lamps occurs at 1/400 is wrong. What does happen is that it becomes visible in photographs taken at that speed thereabouts. With fluorescent lamps, on AC power, you will have two drops in power per cycle (120 Hz or 100 Hz), and you will have "flicker", for lack of a better term, at twice the mains frequency.