Canon Community

slaw1962 · ‎09-27-2016

I have an EOS Rebel SL1. i love the camera. but when i am taking pics at my church the walls come out yellow in the background. the subjects are fine in the pic. it's just the walls. what can i do? i am still learning abt the settings, ie. white balance, f stop, etc. will i just have to "play" with the different settings? where do i need to start witht the setting numbers?

ScottyP · ‎09-27-2016

@TTMartin wrote:
@slaw1962 wrote:
I have an EOS Rebel SL1. i love the camera. but when i am taking pics at my church the walls come out yellow in the background. the subjects are fine in the pic. it's just the walls. what can i do? i am still learning abt the settings, ie. white balance, f stop, etc. will i just have to "play" with the different settings? where do i need to start witht the setting numbers?
If you are using your flash to illuminate your subject, it will often be a different color temperature than the interior lights of a building (a church). While shooting RAW allows you to adjust the overall color temperature of the photo, it becomes much more complicated to try and adjust two different sections with two different white balances.

The solution to this is to add a color filter to your flash so it is the same color as the interior lights of your church. Google 'Strobist' for more information on how this is done.

This is it exactly. Your flash is a bluer white than the indoor lighting in the church. The little flash has only a short range and the power of its light drops off very quickly with distance. The camera's auto white balance knows you are using flash so it selects a color that makes the flash lit subject look good but the background will be off.

There are little light modifiers for popup flash. Most are diffusers but some can change the color I think. You may be a lot happier just buying a Speedlite flash instead. It has longer range and there are many many color modifiers available for them.

Scott

Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites

Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?

View solution in original post

TTMartin · ‎09-28-2016

@slaw1962 wrote:
This info is so helpful. I do have an extended flash but is not a speedlite.

It is not about getting a stronger flash. It is about 'gelling' your flash to match the temperature of the ambient light. Again Google Stobist, and read how to do this.

RobertTheFat · ‎09-28-2016

@TTMartin wrote:
@slaw1962 wrote:
This info is so helpful. I do have an extended flash but is not a speedlite.
It is not about getting a stronger flash. It is about 'gelling' you flash to match the temperature of the ambient light. Again Google Stobist, and read how to do this.

It's actually not about either one. If you use a flash strong enough to light the wall, the subjects in the foreground will be overexposed. If you adjust the color temperature to suit the wall, the subjects in the foreground will be too blue.

What it's really about is using auxiliary light to brighten the wall and/or bounce flash to light the room more evenly.

Bob
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

TTMartin · ‎09-28-2016

@RobertTheFat wrote:
@TTMartin wrote:
@slaw1962 wrote:
This info is so helpful. I do have an extended flash but is not a speedlite.
It is not about getting a stronger flash. It is about 'gelling' your flash to match the temperature of the ambient light. Again Google Stobist, and read how to do this.
It's actually not about either one. If you use a flash strong enough to light the wall, the subjects in the foreground will be overexposed. If you adjust the color temperature to suit the wall, the subjects in the foreground will be too blue.

What it's really about is using auxiliary light to brighten the wall and/or bounce flash to light the room more evenly.

You would use an Orange (CTO) gel on your flash, and set your camera's white balance to 'Tungsten'. The CTO gel on the flash would make the flash illuminating the subject have the same white balance as the church lighting on the wall. Everything has the same white balance, so neither a stronger flash, nor a flash on the wall is needed.

Waddizzle · ‎09-27-2016

@slaw1962 wrote:
I have an EOS Rebel SL1. i love the camera. but when i am taking pics at my church the walls come out yellow in the background. the subjects are fine in the pic. it's just the walls. what can i do? i am still learning abt the settings, ie. white balance, f stop, etc. will i just have to "play" with the different settings? where do i need to start witht the setting numbers?

Ah, almost forgot. If you are using the built-in flash of the camera, it doesn't have very much reach. Once you get much beyond 10 feet away, the light intensity from the flash drops off severely.

Go outside in a well llit parking lot and take a few test shots at different distances from people, to get an idea of what I mean. Have them stand with a car 5-10 feet behind them.

Your background walls are likely yellow because your flash is barely illuminating them. As noted above, they're being lit by the interior lighting of the church, and the WB compensation of the flash is rendering them with a yellow tint.

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