What can I do to minimize "yellow lighting" problem

Posted on March 11th, 2010 by admin
  • Everytime I take pictures at night inside my house, the pictures get yellowish due to inside lighting. Using flash is out of the question, because I hate it. What can I do to minimize the yellow appearance? I'm currently shooting with a Canon 40d.

    Thanks all!


  • Excellent tips guys. I'll use the light bulb setting and play around with my WB for now before diving into flash. I'm newer than a newbie when it comes to DSLR.


  • but also natural ambient light can be fantastic. and the colour is really not a flash-no flash problem. If you want fater shutter speeds, oor if you want to get certain effects using additional light, then i would agreee, go for flash.


  • Remember too (totally unrelated) that flash IS your friend. I know the people around you probably don't appreciate it, but if you ever get a flash unit you can slide on the hotshoe, you can bounce it off of stuff like the ceilings and it is:

    a) more natural looking (people don't look like deer in headlights, lol)
    b) a lot less annoying and intrusive (nowhere near as bright)

    I just wanted to tell you that. I will be honest and say I can't use flash at all either (totally washes out my subjects), but it can work if you know how to make it work. And if you find out how, let me know :)

    Edited to add: Yeah, what Mav said... lol


  • Just pickup a 430 or 580 Canon flash and bounce it. Trust me, it looks 1000000000x better than ugly direct flash from point and shoots that most people getting into DSLRs are coming from. I avoided using a flash like the plague too, but then I taught myself how to use one well and that was the end of that. I use a flash for the majority of my shooting now. Even outdoors I use it for fill flash (getting rid of nasty shadows in the mid-day sun)


  • Silly Canon 40d that doesn't read the user's mind and automatically turn the dial onto the light bulb when it detects incandescent light... You'd think Canon would cater for buyers with enough money to purchase their 40d - but short of time to read their manuals...
    MORAL of story: Read the Manual...
    Jedo

    I never read a manual of any of the cameras I ever owned and used.

    OK, not that I recommend this, but not everyone likes reading manuals :) Also, manuals tend to be a bit useless, unless you know the basics behind what is explained there.


  • How do you know they're useless if you've never read one?

    Hey, now this was a witty answer! :D

    As I said, I do not say people should not look into their manuals. But I do understand if someone does not like doing it.

    I did not really read a camera manual, but I had a glimpse into some. And none was really convincing, well written or good for a beginner.

    But you are right, maybe I should have a look at the manual of a modern camera and fully read it before complaining more :)


  • Everytime I take pictures at night inside my house, the pictures get yellowish due to inside lighting. Using flash is out of the question, because I hate it. What can I do to minimize the yellow appearance? I'm currently shooting with a Canon 40d.

    Thanks all!


    Why do you hate flash? I can see why you would hate the on-camera flash, but a 550EX or a 580EX can be your best friend sometimes.


  • I never read a manual of any of the cameras I ever owned and used.
    ...
    Also, manuals tend to be a bit useless

    How do you know they're useless if you've never read one?


  • Remember too (totally unrelated) that flash IS your friend. I know the people around you probably don't appreciate it, but if you ever get a flash unit you can slide on the hotshoe, you can bounce it off of stuff like the ceilings and it is:

    a) more natural looking (people don't look like deer in headlights, lol)
    b) a lot less annoying and intrusive (nowhere near as bright)


    Flash is your friend in certain situations. It shouldn't always be on the hotshoe. Bouncing it off the ceiling doesn't work in every situation. Red ceiling? Black ceiling? Only more natural looking if you know how to use it. Some one that's never used a flash before will probably be like "WTF" when you tell them it's more natural looking and they're getting crappy results because they don't know what they're doing. Less intrusive, eh? So, firing it up at the ceiling and bouncing it so it hits everything in the room as opposed to firing it in one direction is less intrusive?

    I just wanted to tell you that. I will be honest and say I can't use flash at all either (totally washes out my subjects), but it can work if you know how to make it work. And if you find out how, let me know :)

    Edited to add: Yeah, what Mav said... lol

    No offence, but if that's the case, you probably shouldn't be giving advice to other people. You haven't even bought your camera yet and you were just asking about advice on which to purchase like last week.

    It's kind of like me telling you how to pack a parachute. I've never done it before and I probably shouldn't be telling you how I think it's done if I don't know what I'm talking about.


  • What senor said.

    Either do a custom white balance, or edit in post.

    If you're shooting RAW it's very easy to do in DPP. If you're shooting JPEG, it's still not that hard from what I understand - but someone else will have to guide you through that.


  • Silly Canon 40d that doesn't read the user's mind and automatically turn the dial onto the light bulb when it detects incandescent light... You'd think Canon would cater for buyers with enough money to purchase their 40d - but short of time to read their manuals...
    MORAL of story: Read the Manual...
    Jedo


  • Another piece of advice is to lose the "Flash is bad" idea. Flash can be bad when it isn't used the right way, but when it is used correctly, it can really make a photo fantastic.


  • Have you adjusted your white balance? Auto WB has been known to be really not very good in incandescent conditions, so you might have to actually switch to the incandescent WB setting. If that's not good enough (I believe its customizable, you might wanna look at your manual), you'll probably have to shoot in RAW and change it with post-processing software.

    Of course, if you already know this part of the camera, then ignore me.


  • I do understand that and why you don't want to use the on-camera flash. Ruins about every photo you take indoors.

    But a separate flash, bounced off the (white!) ceiling does wonders to your indoors-photography.

    If lamp light only IS your choice of light, make sure you adjust your white balance to that kind of light. You can choose from at least 7 different light source situations, or go AUTO. One is a little bulb-icon, and that should be on when you are indoors with tungsten light as your source.

    Don't forget to go back to "cloudy" or "sunny" when you are back out again, though, or everything will be blue :D.

    (Shooting RAW is the easiest manner to remedy such little mistakes as you can adjust your colour temperature ever so easily).







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