At a Loss---dark,brown look to pictures

[dan_kraft]

<p>I have a 30d with a 24-105 f/4.0 lens. I somewhat am familiar with Manual adjustments. I adjusted the ISO all over the place, used flash and no flash, kept the aperture at 4.0 but my photos still have a brown look to them. I have used external flash and the regular camera flash. I have shot in AWB and custom and nothing comes out right. Outside it's great but not inside: home, gym, etc. I have read through the book and have done some research on line but to no avail. Can someone help so my pictures can stop looking so bad. At times, I think I have had better luck with my old point and shoots. That shouldn't be. Thanks</p>

[gorasinski]

<p>Canon is notorious with its incandescent lighting WB. The only solution here is to shoot RAW and adjust it in post processing. It always works (well, almost ;)).</p>

[phule]

<p>[[kept the aperture at 4.0]]</p>

<p>If you are shooting in aperture priority mode with the flash, then the camera is using a shutter speed that will allow the ambient light to show up. Because the color of the light from the flash is daylight balanced, indoor ambient light is warmer (more orange and yellow) and will show up as such in your photos.</p>

<p>Possible solutions:<br>

1) don't use the flash, shoot RAW, and set your white balance afterward.</p>

<p>2) don't use the flash, manually set the WB at the time of exposure.</p>

<p>3) Use flash but in P mode not Av or Tv. This will cause the camera to use the flash as the only source of illumination. Your results will likely be properly exposed subjects with no light in the background.</p>

<p>4) Use an external flash that has a color-changing "gel" over the light that matches the color of the ambient light. Shoot RAW and set your WB later or manually set your WB at the time of exposure.</p>

<p>5) Shoot RAW and develop your photo twice, color correcting for the flash and then for the background light. Blend the two images.</p>

<p> </p>

[JohnMWright]

<p>Another option:<br>

I believe there is a custom mode on the 30D that forces the shutter speed to 1/250 when the flash is on (I have this on my 20D). That will eliminate (oeverpower) the ambient indoor light and use just the flash, which will provide better color balance. If you don't have one yet, get a flash with bounce capability.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>"Canon is notorious with its incandescent lighting WB. The only solution here is to shoot RAW and adjust it in post processing. It always works (well, almost ;))."</p>

<p>Where did you come up with THAT notion?!</p>

<p>Could you post an example of one of your problem shots. When it comes to indoor, artifically lit shots there are so many variables at work that it would help reduce the range of the guesses.</p>

<p>Dan</p>

[gorasinski]

<p>What I meant was that Canon cameras when set to AWB will not get good results under incandescent lighting. As proven in every single test of Canon Gear on Dpreview.<br>

Sorry, if I was not clear enough.</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<blockquote>

<p>What I meant was that Canon cameras when set to AWB will not get good results under incandescent lighting. </p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yep, AWB sets WB for a warm tungsten look. Reminds me of when I'm outside at night and look at light streaming from windows. Romantic and accurate but not what everybody wants. That's why Canon provided WB controls! No matter what auto WB default they program, somebody won't be happy! If you want the warm incandescent light to look totally white (& fake), you need to set color temp manually to about 2800. I think AWB is about 3500 hence the romantic look.</p>

[JohnMWright]

<p>I should have said in my post that the custom function works in Av mode to force a faster shutter speed when the flash is on. The custom function only works for Av mode. Assuming the issue is white balance from incandescent lighting</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Do you have a sample pic to post? I suspect what you're describing is a dark brown background. If you have your WB set to flash and expose the foreground of an otherwise tungsten illuminated scene with flash, the foreground will have a normal color balance, and the background will be dark brown. Is that the issue? If so, the solution is to put a warming gel over your flash to simulate tungsten light, and set the WB on your camera to tungsten You might have to tweak a bit in postprocessing, but it will look much more natural.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>Hmmm... I never see a WB problem that could be attributed to the <em>camera</em> rather than the <em>scene</em> itself, but I always shoot in RAW. One more reason to shoot in RAW all the time, right?</p>

[alfaromeo]

<p>unless you post a sample picture anyone can only guess, but I second what <a href="../photodb/user?user_id=482130">Rob Bernhard</a> said, put the camera to P and then shoot</p>