Speed-lights and color correction...

[hjoseph7]

One thing Manufacturers rarely talk about is 'color correction' in Speed-lights. The more expensive Studio Lights usually have some type of color correction, so that when you turn-down the power, the color of the light looks the same. Not so with speed-lights such as my Canon 580 EX II. Don't get me wrong, this is a great professional flash unit that can put up with all the hardships of commercial photography, however the color-correction is virtually non existant.

I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I have heard of the term color-corrected flash tubes. As a matter of fact, that was one of my main deciding factors I used when choosing my studio lights.

I never really noticed any color shifts when turning down the power on a Speed-light because usally I'm using ETTL, until recently when I started using the Canon 580EX on the job in Manual Mode. 

In Manual Mode if you turn down the power on that flash unit from lets say full power (1/1), to half power (1/2), there is a significant shift in colors that you can see in your pictures, even on the back LCD of your camera ! A white wall will start looking pinkish. If you further turn down the power to let's say down to (1/4) that white wall might start looking yellowish.  

To avoid this I usually keep the flash at full power(1/1) and turn-down the exposure either by aperture and/or shutter speed, this way my images look uniform throughout. 

A lot of photographers are switching to speed-lights for example "Joe Mcnally" who is an expert in using Speed-Lights instead of bulky studio strobes. Maybe he knows something that I dont, because in the field, I have found that there is no way a Speed-Light can match a color-corrected Studio Strobe ?   

 

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by hjoseph7

[rodeo_joe1]

Hmmm. This paranoia about constant flash colour temperature started when everybody shot Ektachrome and there was no IGBT flash control. Some people just haven't got past that; especially if they're on the marketing team for certain studio flash brands.

Digital White Balance control and control of flash 'power' by adjusting its duration has changed everything. A modern speedlight's flashtube essentially works under the same conditions, regardless of how long or brief the flash pulse is and within quite wide parameters. Also, taking a custom white balance from any light source is as simple as a menu-selection and pressing the shutter button on most modern cameras.

Therapy for such CT paranoia:

1. There's no such thing as perfect colour reproduction. Accept it. 

2. Even if there was, not many 'jobs' require it. 

3. Specific colour matching for, say a product or logo, can be automated - at a cost - if your livelihood depends on it. Most photographers don't have that need, budget or customer. 

4. The general public aren't that colour conscious, and a few mired too warm or cool goes largely unnoticed.

5. 'Correct' colour takes no account of the emotive effect (mood) that an 'incorrect' CT can generate.

6. Breathe deeply and consider how lucky we are not to have to rely on E6 processing, film batch numbers and refrigerated storage for our media. Nor having to carry around a boxful of CC gel filters.

Edited November 8, 2022 by rodeo_joe1

[hjoseph7]

Here are two examples: The first image was taken at 1/4 Power, while the second image was take at 1/2 to 1/1 power I'm not sure with a lower exposure ? I guess I could go into Photoshop and change the Tint, but that is a Huge PITA if you have a lot of pictures to edit. Please do me a favor and don't mention RAW.

Edited November 8, 2022 by hjoseph7

[rodeo_joe1]

Not my experience with any speedlight I own. But you have mixed lighting. It stands to reason that the continuous light is going to get more dominant as the flash 'power' is reduced. 

Did you filter the flash to match the (presumably yellower) overhead lights? That's much more of a PITA than setting a custom WB, or the few seconds it takes to poke the 'eyedropper' tool onto something that should be white or neutral grey in ACR. 

You'll notice I avoided use of the full 'R' word, but if you want to throw away a major part of the potential of your camera - that's your loss!

[hjoseph7]

The color of the lights in the room plays a huge factor.  Some rooms have tungsten lights, some have fluorecent lights, some have white lights like the bathroom in this picture. Some have a combination. Believe me I have seen quite a variety of different lghts !

If the rooms are painted with a color other than white, then the color shifts are minor. White walls is when I start running into issues. Remember that these pictures are only going to be posted to a Realtor's website, or printed on one of his brochures. They are not "Gallery prints",  but the yellowish picture above would be thrown out by the Realtor. They know for sure how finicky women can be when it comes to the colors in a room.

It seems I have less problems with my Norman 200C which has a color corrected tube, but the thing is bulky as heck to carry. That's why I much rather use the 580EX speed light. We are not allowed to shoot RAW, becuase the size of the images would be too large to upload to the back office. Also they prefer we stick to AWB. 

Edited November 8, 2022 by hjoseph7

[Ken Katz]

Is your issue the flash tube of the Speedlite, or that at lower flash power, the color temperature of the ambient light is overpowering the daylight balanced flash tube?  If you set you camera exposure the same, and match the flash output of the Speedlite to the flash output of Norman, does the image with the Norman look better?  I would of course set the shutter speed to the maximum sync speed available.

 

[hjoseph7]

Take a look at this picture, notice it looks a little pinkish, or has a slight tint of mangenta. This happens often when I use the flash(canon 580EX) at 1/2 power for some reason ? It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens enough. In this case, I will switch the flash to full power 1/1 and lower the exposure, if I can.

Too much power and you start blowing things out, which is also not good. Usually, I will use full power on large rooms, 1/2 power on medium sized rooms and 1/4 power in small rooms such as bathrooms.

The Norman gives me much cleaner light, but it's a bit too powerful. The Norman gives me 50W, 100W and 200W and thats with a Diffuser !

I'm wondering if bouncing the light of the walls could also be causing the problem ? I use to carry a flexible white reflector I bought on eBay, but it use to reflect mangeta colored light in ALL situations. Then I switched to a plain old color-corrected 8X10 white/grey card and that seemed to solve the problem, but unfortunately I lost it. I left it in one of the properties.  

Edited November 8, 2022 by hjoseph7

[rodeo_joe1]

15 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

Take a look at this picture, notice it looks a little pinkish, or has a slight tint of mangenta. This happens often when I use the flash(canon 580EX) at 1/2 power for some reason ?

Maybe the tube is on its way out. 

17 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

The color of the lights in the room plays a huge factor.  Some rooms have tungsten lights, some have fluorecent lights, some have white lights like the bathroom in this picture. Some have a combination. Believe me I have seen quite a variety of different lghts !

Then you acknowledge that the issue is with the room lighting and not the flash? This can be largely overcome by setting a high shutter speed - or the highest that X-synch will allow. This will subdue the room lights without affecting the flash exposure. 

Just to prove that you shouldn't see any variation of colour with speedlight output; here's my cheap YongNuo YN560 iii speedlight put through its entire range of output settings - 

Everything on the camera was kept constant, except the lens aperture, which was changed to track the flash output. WB was set manually to a CT of 5300K and the room was only dimly lit by continuous light - daylight through a small window in this case. 

OK, the exposure level is slightly variable, maybe due to aperture non-linearity in the lens (an old manual focus Ai-S 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor) or the fractional flash settings not being exact, or a combination of the two. However the colour is completely constant throughout the entire flash range. The CT chosen might not be spot-on, but it is consistent from one flash setting to another. 

15 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

I'm wondering if bouncing the light of the walls could also be causing the problem ?

Probably, if you don't compensate by setting a custom or manual WB.

My method for a custom WB is to carry two sheets of copier paper and take a reflected white-balance from those. (A single sheet is too translucent to give a properly white surface). Some people have criticised this method because of fear of optical brighteners added to the paper, but so far that doesn't seem to be a problem. Also, white copier paper is cheap and plentiful and easily replaced if it becomes soiled or yellowed. And it rolls or folds up quite small and is close enough to a Lambertian surface as makes no odds. 

Edited November 9, 2022 by rodeo_joe1

[laurencecochrane]

On 11/9/2022 at 10:21 AM, rodeo_joe1 said:

Maybe the tube is on its way out. 

Then you acknowledge that the issue is with the room lighting and not the flash? This can be largely overcome by setting a high shutter speed - or the highest that X-synch will allow. This will subdue the room lights without affecting the flash exposure. 

Just to prove that you shouldn't see any variation of colour with speedlight output; here's my cheap YongNuo YN560 iii speedlight put through its entire range of output settings - 

Everything on the camera was kept constant, except the lens aperture, which was changed to track the flash output. WB was set manually to a CT of 5300K and the room was only dimly lit by continuous light - daylight through a small window in this case. 

OK, the exposure level is slightly variable, maybe due to aperture non-linearity in the lens (an old manual focus Ai-S 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor) or the fractional flash settings not being exact, or a combination of the two. However the colour is completely constant throughout the entire flash range. The CT chosen might not be spot-on, but it is consistent from one flash setting to another. 

Probably, if you don't compensate by setting a custom or manual WB.

My method for a custom WB is to carry two sheets of copier paper and take a reflected white-balance from those. (A single sheet is too translucent to give a properly white surface). Some people have criticised this method because of fear of optical brighteners added to the paper, but so far that doesn't seem to be a problem. Also, white copier paper is cheap and plentiful and easily replaced if it becomes soiled or yellowed. And it rolls or folds up quite small and is close enough to a Lambertian surface as makes no odds. 

Too right I Shutter speed  ONLY EFFECTS AMBIENT LIGHT. Not flash ! A REAL PHOTOGRAPHER WILL KNOW THIS. Surprsing on here reading from those that dont. So called self professed experts included.

[hjoseph7]

Thanks for the color patch test, you went through a lot of trouble and I appreciate that. First of all I doubt the flash tubes are wearing out, but I have no way to test this ? I'll keep the highest-sync thing in mind. The Canon 580EX's highest sync speed is 1/200. Anything higher than that and you start getting black streaks accross your pictures. One thing I didn't think about is setting the flash to HSS(High speed sync).

Since i'm working in close quarters, it wont make that much of a difference when it comes to flash-to-subject distance. However, I need to practice this to get it down pat... One problem is that we are only allowed to use an Aperture of f8-f11 @ISO 100-200 max.  Sometimes I cheat, but if you do it too often you get this Huge yellow/red email from the QA department. The look they are trying to achieve is balanced Ambient/room light with only a hint of flash to keep the colors honest.

Edited November 10, 2022 by hjoseph7

[hjoseph7]

Another thing I noticed about the Canon 580EX Speed Light is that after about 8-10 Full Power pops, the flash goes to sleep for about 15-20 seconds. You'd be firing away and the flash wont fire all of a sudden ?? No such problem with the Norman 200c. I use the old Canon STE-2 Transmitter to fire off the flash, but it requires line of sight. Whenever I need to move the flash to another room(away from camera), I might switch to the radio wave PockeWizards Plus II transmitters.     

Edited November 10, 2022 by hjoseph7

[chris_autio]

While not familiar to Speed-lights, I would guess the bathroom photo has some extended exposure (such as 1 second) bathed (pardon expression) in warm tungsten interior lighting...filling the lower part of room, and that your speedlight is of course lighting the ceiling with its cooler temp. 

I have used White Lightning monolights my entire career and found that using a UV gel on lights eliminate a bluish quality.  It is not that the strobe flash is blue but that there is a very narrow but prominent spike of UV (edging into purple) spectrum. I can see the difference when I set up two monolights at 45 degree to a white wall (one being unfiltered).  I do not notice it with tents that are baffled.  But if you are shooting a bathroom with ceiling reflection, I would recommend somehow attaching a warming gel such as Rosco Cinegel 3409. But I wouldn't use ceiling reflecting, I would use available lights.  At one time I was hell bent on bringing a lot of lighting to an architecture job when available lighting is just fine.  When in the days of film I had a wedding to shoot inside a brilliantly windowed ski lodge, I DID need all my lighting, pointing it to the ceiling, 6 high powered monolights straight up.

But as Rodeo says, the public are not color conscious.  (In movie production, people are much more accepting of color being out of whack compared to a glitch in audio). A note on Rodeo's display of the the 1/128 image: I would hazard the guess the shutter curtain is moving just a smidge faster than it takes for the combined time of shutter release, transmitter, lightsource, flash operation.  My Pentax 6 x 7 has to be set at 1/30 or slower in order to use flash or strobe to get an evenly lit image.

Tungsten bulbs warm as they age. Grey cards change!  where does it all end? I know a color blind photographer who shoots artwork with a medium format camera.  All his worry is satisfied with color balancing in RAW program.

 

 

[rodeo_joe1]

On 11/10/2022 at 6:22 PM, chris_autio said:

A note on Rodeo's display of the the 1/128 image: I would hazard the guess the shutter curtain is moving just a smidge faster than it takes for the combined time of shutter release, transmitter, lightsource, flash operation.

Yes, the slight red shift is more noticeable in the posted composites than it was on my monitor. More likely simply due to even the subdued level of ambient light competing with the feeble amount of flash. While lens vignetting at full aperture accounts for the variation of exposure across the frame. Plus; who uses a 1/128th speedlight setting to light an entire room? I'd rarely use that setting even for macro shots. OTOH, running out of light or a desirable aperture at full output is a pretty common issue. 

Edited November 13, 2022 by rodeo_joe1

[Jochen_S]

On 11/8/2022 at 6:07 PM, hjoseph7 said:

1. ... Remember that these pictures are only going to be posted to a Realtor's website, or printed on one of his brochures. They are not "Gallery prints",  but the yellowish picture above would be thrown out by the Realtor. They know for sure how finicky women can be when it comes to the colors in a room.
2. We are not allowed to shoot RAW, becuase the size of the images would be too large to upload to the back office. Also they prefer we stick to AWB. 

1. Gallery prints go for $100? And you are trying to shoot somebody into what price range? "Just multiple nice new cars", I 'd guess? 
2. Sorry! If there is ONE thing I learned about flash in product photography: DON'T use AWB, aiming for a low PP-fuzz consistency. Shoot single felt markers crayons on a sheet of white paper, compare results and the paper color shifting through the entire range, to know what I mean. 
3. AWB & manual flash: What is your camera able to know? The ambient light and exposure you set. Does it know that it will fire a flash? - Mine probably doesn't. // Have you ever watched one of Daniel Norton's Adorama tutorials? He always starts with making SURE he 'll use flash, by turning it off and exposing a perfectly pitch black test frame.

Sorry, I am not in your business. I 'd assume, if somebody bothered to pay me, to drive around and shoot "rat holes 4 sale or rent", they 'd desire results beyond iPhone. To squeeze them out of my old gear and condense them into an Internet friendly format, I 'd probably have to acquire some mobile office, panel van converted compact car, "solar generator", iMac. I 'd use Xrite color checker and a RAW batch workflow, to get colors across properly. I'm not fast. I'd be new to LR and stuff but willing to self exploit, till I see either hope or no chance. 

FTR: IDK it all. I have a rough idea, how to get things done, with my kit. Having a say about efficiency and speed, I'd probably beef up the HQ with a decent media tech and enough bandwidth, to let all shooters upload their RAWs. Having that tech remote accessing shooters' work PCs, might be even less demanding?

[Bill C]

On 11/8/2022 at 6:15 AM, hjoseph7 said:

I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I have heard of the term color-corrected flash tubes.

Here's how that works... "photographic daylight" is considered to have, as I recall, a "color temperature" of about 5500K. Electronic flash, on its own,  tends to run a bit higher, meaning slightly more bluish. When the flash tubes are "color corrected" this generally means they are filtered to be closer to 5500K.

Fwiw the slight color difference is not that big a deal for something like a color neg film - this can be easily corrected at the printing stage.

A more important thing is whether the flash has been "UV-filtered." If it is not, there is the possibility of a bluish tinge in white objects, which usually contain fluorescent brightener. Such a tinge is not readily correctable. 

Chris Autio describes the issue with a non-UV-filtered flash tube. His solution - use a supplementary filter in front of the flash. This cuts off the UV right at the flash, so no fluorescent brightener are activated. But things would be easier if one spent the extra money up front for UV-coated tubes.

 

[Bill C]

On 11/8/2022 at 10:23 AM, hjoseph7 said:

Here are two examples: The first image was taken at 1/4 Power, while the second image was take at 1/2 to 1/1 power I'm not sure with a lower exposure ? I guess I could go into Photoshop and change the Tint, but that is a Huge PITA

Harry, I'm pretty certain this issue is not caused by your flash. I've personally looked at a number of flash units with a spectrophotometer (which could also calculate a color temperature). These included a 580EXII flash (same as your model), which I ran at several different power levels. 

Back to your "problem" images... the first image, with a strong yellowish cast, was shot at 1/4 power. The second, more neutral image, was at either (?) 1/2 or full power. These results seem contrary to what I measured on the flash.

I looked at a wider power range - 1/8 and full power. There was what I would call a relatively small color shift, roughly 300K, but in the opposite direction of what you observed. The 1/8 power flash had the higher color temperature, meaning the light output is more bluish (albeit only a slight amount). Your lower-power example shot, on the other hand, has a strong yellowish cast. This is the wrong direction.

Long story short... nothing here implicates the 580EXII flash for the large color difference. My guess is some camera is setting is the culprit, but your example images don't seem to include the exif data, so I can't tell.

Fwiw the 580EXII has good UV filtration built in, so this is not a problem. Also, regarding the temporary flash-halting, I'd guess it's a thermal shutdown, due to temporary overheating (I'm pretty certain that the user guide says something about this). If this is the case a workaround might be to shoot at half-power; this will make it much harder to overheat.

Ps, flash tubes don't seem to change color as they fail. They generally just start misfiring before total failure occurs. 

 

 

 

[rodeo_joe1]

I'm not sure UV is a big issue with most modern speedlights. For the simple reason that most of them have two layers of plastic in front of the tube - a Fresnel condenser and a light-shaping patterned plastic plate. Plastic is a very good absorber of UV, making additional filtration largely redundant. The tube itself may also be coated to reduce its CT and pretty much bring it into line with 'standard' daylight. The latter is very likely on top-line speedlights from marques such as Nikon and Canon.

Studio flash? Much more of a lottery. For a start there's no plastic sheeting permanently in front of the tube to absorb UV, and some manufacturers don't, or didn't, bother to anti-UV coat their tubes. Older equipment may also switch capacitor values, add inductances or vary the tube voltage to alter the light output. None of which help to maintain a constant light colour.

So historically studio flash colour change with 'power' was an issue. And still is if you use old gear, or even modern lower-end studio flash from a lesser-known brand.

But if you calibrate your equipment and know what CT and tint your flash has, then the issue is much reduced. Simply setting one or more stored custom WBs in your camera goes a long way, and typically takes less than 1 minute per WB value to set.

Mixing flash with ambient light is the real minefield. With tungsten, fluorescent tubes, LEDs and CFLs all in fairly common use, and none adhering to any rigid standard.

In the OP's situation: I would have as many types of domestic lighting stored as preset White-Balances as my camera allowed, and those that I couldn't store I would note down as a Kelvin temperature and Green-Magenta tint. I'd then carry a few sheets of filter that matched my flash to at least the 4 common lighting types above, and filter the flash to the ambient light. At least reducing the clash between flash and ambient, even if it wasn't completely eliminated. From there a tweak of a RAW file (sorry, it had to be said) would pretty much have things sorted. 

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by rodeo_joe1

[hjoseph7]

20 hours ago, Bill C said:

Harry, I'm pretty certain this issue is not caused by your flash. I've personally looked at a number of flash units with a spectrophotometer (which could also calculate a color temperature). These included a 580EXII flash (same as your model), which I ran at several different power levels. 

Back to your "problem" images... the first image, with a strong yellowish cast, was shot at 1/4 power. The second, more neutral image, was at either (?) 1/2 or full power. These results seem contrary to what I measured on the flash.

I looked at a wider power range - 1/8 and full power. There was what I would call a relatively small color shift, roughly 300K, but in the opposite direction of what you observed. The 1/8 power flash had the higher color temperature, meaning the light output is more bluish (albeit only a slight amount). Your lower-power example shot, on the other hand, has a strong yellowish cast. This is the wrong direction.

Long story short... nothing here implicates the 580EXII flash for the large color difference. My guess is some camera is setting is the culprit, but your example images don't seem to include the exif data, so I can't tell.

Fwiw the 580EXII has good UV filtration built in, so this is not a problem. Also, regarding the temporary flash-halting, I'd guess it's a thermal shutdown, due to temporary overheating (I'm pretty certain that the user guide says something about this). If this is the case a workaround might be to shoot at half-power; this will make it much harder to overheat.

Ps, flash tubes don't seem to change color as they fail. They generally just start misfiring before total failure occurs. 

 

 

 

Here are the two Exif's for both pictures. Exif #1 is the data for the picture with the golden tinge. Exif #2 is the data for the more natural looking picture. Unfortunately the flash was set to manua,  so all that the Exif shows is that the flash was fired. I'm not sure if the Exif picks up the settings on the flash unit even if dependent on the settings of the camera. The only difference I see is that the two pictures were taken about 20 seconds appart. I'm pretty sure I turned Up the power on the flash not Down... You are right though usually the color turns more blueish when you turn the power down, so it could be another factor ? 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by hjoseph7

[hjoseph7]

20 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

Here are the two Exif's for both pictures. Exif #1 is the data for the picture with the golden tinge. Exif #2 is the data for the more natural looking picture. Unfortunately the flash was set to manual,  so all that the Exif shows is that the flash was fired. I'm not sure if the Exif picks up the settings on the flash unit even if dependent on the settings of the camera. The only difference I see is that the two pictures were taken about 20 seconds appart. I'm pretty sure I turned Up the power on the flash not Down... You are right though usually the color turns more blueish when you turn the power down, so it could be another factor ? 

 

 

Wait a minute i do see a difference. The "White Balance Details" are different, but now I'm really confused ??

Edited November 15, 2022 by hjoseph7

[rodeo_joe1]

Yup, incandescent lights - or any 'warm white' continuous lighting - is going to look very yellow with a flash white balance. 

Of course a RAW file don't care 'bout no white balance setting and can be set to whatever WB you like in post - within reason.

Edited November 16, 2022 by rodeo_joe1

[hjoseph7]

18 hours ago, rodeo_joe1 said:

Yup, incandescent lights - or any 'warm white' continuous lighting - is going to look very yellow with a flash white balance. 

Of course a RAW file don't care 'bout no white balance setting and can be set to whatever WB you like in post - within reason.

I might try to replicate the issue at home in my own bathroom today, if I have time. I'll keep you posted...

[Bill C]

On 11/14/2022 at 7:04 AM, rodeo_joe1 said:

I'm not sure UV is a big issue with most modern speedlights. For the simple reason that most of them have two layers of plastic in front of the tube - a Fresnel condenser and a light-shaping patterned plastic plate. Plastic is a very good absorber of UV, making additional filtration largely redundant

Probably not much of an issue. Certainly not with the 580EXII which has good UV filtration. But... assumptions about other hot shoe flash units? I've seen a couple that did NOT have good UV filtration (with respect to making brighteners in white clothing take on a bluish tinge). So I would say that a person looking at such a flash unit will NOT be able to tell, for sure, if it has UV filtration. (An actual shooting test can be used to determine this by comparing two white materials - one that HAS fluorescent brighteners and one that does not.)

On 11/14/2022 at 7:04 AM, rodeo_joe1 said:

The tube itself may also be coated to reduce its CT and pretty much bring it into line with 'standard' daylight. The latter is very likely on top-line speedlights from marques such as Nikon and Canon.

In the case of the Canon 580EXII, which I would say is considered top-line, it is not matching "photographic daylight." It actually has a bit higher color temperature (as did most of the hot-shoe flash units I looked at).

Coincidentally the units that I mentioned earlier, THAT DID NOT have good UV filtration, actually DID have (roughly) daylight-balanced flash output. (I'm not gonna name the  brand, though.)

I should probably be clear that I don't personally see this non-daylight thing as much of an issue. Real "daylight," as opposed to "photographic daylight" (5500K) varies quite a bit, and color neg film easily accommodates such moderate differences. And digital cameras have little problem correcting white balance. HOWEVER, if one tries to intermix a high-color-temp flash (many hot shoe units, in my limited experience) with a daylight-balanced flash, perhaps for portrait use, there will likely be color issues. 

 

[Bill C]

On 11/14/2022 at 8:39 PM, hjoseph7 said:

Wait a minute i do see a difference. The "White Balance Details" are different, but now I'm really confused ??

Yep, looks like you're onto something. If you can just find out what is causing the camera to shift.

Fwiw I used to occasionally make documents for our company tech support line in order to help company shooters correct camera issues on the spot. Here's something that was really helpful. Many DSLR cameras have an "info screen" that shows a summary of the key settings, including white balance. I'd take a snapshot of that screen, when properly set, then number every item. Then below I'd list every item along with a simple way to change it. For a quick check, tech support asks the shooter to follow along with each icon - perhaps 15 or so, of them. When something is found amiss, ok, here's how to fix it.

In your case, just note where the white balance shows up. Whenever you wanna check it just hit the info screen. 

[Bill C]

On 11/14/2022 at 7:04 AM, rodeo_joe1 said:

In the OP's situation: I would have as many types of domestic lighting stored as preset White-Balances as my camera allowed, and those that I couldn't store I would note down as a Kelvin temperature and Green-Magenta tint. I'd then carry a few sheets of filter that matched my flash to at least the 4 common lighting types above, and filter the flash to the ambient light. At least reducing the clash between flash and ambient, even if it wasn't completely eliminated.

I'd sorta concur with this, if you've got the time. I'd do it a little differently, though. Rather than store all the lighting types, I'd start with a custom WB of the ambient light (shoot a white or gray card, then set this image for the WB). Shoot same card again, viewing the color histogram to make sure it "took." (The r, g, and b spikes all in the same place.)

Next, using the SAME WB (do not let the camera change it) use flash to shoot the same test card. Again view the color histogram. This time the spikes will most likely NOT overlap (unless the flash color exactly matches that of the ambient light). (If the ambient light is tungsten, and you did a WB on this, the flash shot, using that same WB, will now have the blue spike shifted to the right.) What you ideally want to do now is to find a filter, by trial and error, to use over the flash in order to bring the blue spike more in line with the others. Once this is done, to some reasonable approximation, your ambient vs flash color differences will mostly disappear. 

I would expect that you can mostly get by with perhaps 4 filters. I'd suggest getting a set of 4 of what they call CTO filters for your flash. Try Rosco or Lee, and get CTO in full, 3/4, half, and 1/4. (You'll have to buy a largish sheet and trim to size.) If cost is an issue, you might just start with 1/2 CTO just for a test (two sheets of 1/2 CTO = a full CTO).

If it works out for you, you might wanna hold it back as your own secret method. Maybe you'll get better properties that pay better? Best of luck.

[rodeo_joe1]

I don't know about other cameras, but if you're using a Nikon it's quite easy to press the wrong button and/or turn the wrong control wheel to shift a setting that you thought you'd 'locked' into place. 

People often criticise Sony's cryptic menu system, but I find the A7r4 a lot less likely to surprise me with, for example, an unexpected shutter-speed change than my Nikon bodies. The Sony is also more straightforward to take a custom WB with. No waiting 6 seconds for the camera to accept a button press.