Fluorescent Bulbs White Balance

41 views
Skip to first unread message

Kevin Childress

unread,
Nov 9, 2015, 11:11:58 AM11/9/15
to Photography tips, hardware, and software
Looking for ideas on determining color temp of various fluorescent bulbs - please see list below for reference.  No, I will not be investing in a light/color meter.  Yes, I am considering putting a gray card back in my gear bag for setting a manual white balance. I'm not sure that I'm capable of looking at an interior space and judging the color of fluorescents by eye, especially given the wide range of possibilities shown below. Does anyone have enough experience in judging color temp by eye to offer any suggestions?


© Tom Cooper

unread,
Nov 9, 2015, 2:20:36 PM11/9/15
to Photography tips, hardware, and software

I can't give you what you are looking for.  I always have a grey card (cut one down to a convenient size), and if I have to balance fluorescents, that is where I start.  But fluorescent bulbs (and the sodium and mercury vapors listed in the same category) are not like other light sources.  Lamps with a heat-based light source (such as the sun or incandescent bulbs) have a more-or-less continuous spectrum, and balancing them to a point where most colors are rendered close to expected is usually possible. 

 

Because of the discontiuous nature of fluorescents, even if you have a grey card that is balanced grey, you could have a blue object look very dark because the bulb produces no wavelengths that the blue object reflects.  You might have a green object that renders bright green because it is very efficient at reflecting the specific green that the bulb produces.

 

Now add to that a facility that is a number of years old, and the facilities people have not been careful about what type of bulbs have been used for replacements.  (Think of an old church basement as an example.)  You could end up with several different types of bulbs, and even the bulbs of the same type can be different if they are different ages.  So even if you could get it close, different parts of the room can render differently because the bulbs are different.

 

I do not know enough about LED bulbs to know where they fall in this mess.

 

I wish I could be more helpful, but I can't.

 

Tom C.

Kevin Childress

unread,
Nov 9, 2015, 3:01:09 PM11/9/15
to Photography tips, hardware, and software
© Tom Cooper wrote:

Because of the discontiuous nature of fluorescents, even if you have a grey card that is balanced grey, you could have a blue object look very dark because the bulb produces no wavelengths that the blue object reflects.  You might have a green object that renders bright green because it is very efficient at reflecting the specific green that the bulb produces.



Thank you, Tom. Actually that was more helpful than you may think. Your bold text above helps me get a few thoughts organized. I can recognize the difference between a few different types of bulbs/lamps (say incandescent vs. fluorescents) and I can set a general manual WB with that pretty close, but I'd sure like to fine-tune that in-camera if possible. Sounds like I need to find an article for "Reflective Wavelengths For Dummies" and try to start my understanding all over again. 


 

© Tom Cooper

unread,
Nov 9, 2015, 6:39:14 PM11/9/15
to Photography tips, hardware, and software
If it helps, the issue is related to color gamut, but with fluorescent bulbs, you can think of the gamut as having holes or gaps in it.

Kevin Childress

unread,
Nov 10, 2015, 1:00:14 PM11/10/15
to Photography tips, hardware, and software
Yesterday I spent some time reading material that basically served as a good refresher. I split from the typical photography-based articles and ended up reading a bunch of stuff written by physicists about light absorption, reflection, and transmission. I think one of the things I had been overlooking was matters related to light absorption and I got some good information in that area. Ken Kruse provided me with a link to a photography-based article that was also an excellent refresher:


Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages