Forum: Photography


Subject: November Forum Challenge "Night/Low Light"

bclaytonphoto opened this issue on Nov 01, 2009 · 68 posts


EBurnett posted Mon, 02 November 2009 at 6:39 PM

Auntietk,

The orange cast is just a basic white balance issue. If the WB setting is left to auto, majority of camera's will show an orange cast with indoor and incandescent  light sources. Setting the WB to tungsten like suggested above will give it a cooler temp look, but might also not be completely accurate. If you are planning to take a few indoor shots and the lighting will be consistant, another option is to set a manual WB. 

A simple way of doing this is to get a blank white page (printer paper works) and place it in the area you will be taking pictures so that it is lit by the lighting that will be used. Take a picture of the white page, letting it fill the shot frame. In your camera menu, select manual WB, and it will ask you to select a picture to use. Just pick the one you just did and the orange cast should go away and you can take pics in that light. Once done, you can change back to other WB settings like auto, daylight etc.  You'll notice if you forget to change it back, because if you left it set to that specific WB and try to take pics outdoors or elsewhere, they will look like smurf village with a blue tint.

If a white page is not handy, such as when you were in the restaurant in the above pic, many camera cases are a medium gray and can be used in a pinch. If yours is, just fill the frame with a section of the gray area instead of a white page. If all else fails, look for someone that has a shirt or sweater etc that has a flat white or gray section that can be used.