Project 52: Tungsten Balance

This project is part of the Artificial light chapter, and is to learn about light temperature and the resultant colour cast that can appear in photos where artificial light is present. Digital cameras have the wonderful ability to change on-the-fly the white balance (or in post-processing if shooting in raw), which is much easier than using filters (such as would be required for film).

I have chosen a simple scene and use my 580EX flash for those photos which require it. In this case, the tungsten WB + flash combination has the least colour cast, though you could say there is a slight blue cast. The sunlight WB + no flash has the most obvious yellow/red colour cast.

Photo 1: Sunlight WB, no flash

Photo 2: Sunlight WB, flash

Photo 3: Tungsten WB, no flash

Photo 4: Tungsten WB, flash

The next set of photos is using candles as the only light source, and bracketing to find the best exposure. In this case the 'correct exposure' seems to work well, my face is still a bit in the shadow, but the scene is generally lit by the candles. This was quite a fun project and I think I will try to take more low-light photos like this. The red cast in this case doesn't detract from the photo, and doesn't need correction.

Photo 1: 'correct exposure'

f/4, 1sec

Photo 2: slight underexposure

f/4, 1/3sec

Photo 3: more underexposed

f/4, 1/2sec

Photo 4: slight overexposure

f/4, 2sec

Photo 5: more overexposure

f/4, 3sec