Tungsten and Fluorescent Lighting

Again I was asked to use different white balance settings to compare the results but this time while artificial lighting was present. My first shots compare tungsten lighting inside and how it looks against normal lighting from outside. The shots were taken when the light levels were approximately he same inside and out.

1/20 sec, f/3.5 ISO 200 white balance auto

1/20 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200, white balance daylight

1/20 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200, white balance tungsten

With the white balance set to auto, the camera deals with the light outside the window very well, but inside the orange glow from the tungsten lighting reflects sharply in the purple room. Also the bedding in the room is satin so this is reflecting the light too so there is a mix of harsh uneven purple and orange tones.

The daylight setting is a little better and has balanced out the tones more evenly outside and in, but is not a true representative of either.

The tungsten setting makes the inside of the room appear the correct colours,  but outside is now far too blue in colour as the camera is dealing with the orange hues inside, so the blue tones outside are heightened. This is interesting to note again that the cool and warm colours in a scene have to be dealt with separately or compromised over to get something in between. I guess this is where a lot of people turn to photo shop and merge two images together to get the correct balance of colour temperature from sky and foreground etc.

There were similar differences with fluorescent lighting in which the colour temperature is affected by the white balance settings:

1/30 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, white balance auto

1/30 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, white balance fluorescent

1/30 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, white balance fluorescent 2

Again the colour tones range from cooler to warmer as the fluorescent white balance setting will compensate for the blue tones to the lighting on the shop floor, making this image appear more orange. Initially this was the image that looked closest to real life, but after viewing them on my laptop its actually the fluorescent 2 white balance setting that looks a much better overall colour as the white seem purer and less yellow than in the auto white balance setting shot.

it is very apparent that although sometimes these settings will help soften certain hues of colours in light that you may not want in the image, some times they can be used in an opposite way to enhance and change the overall feel of the photograph.