Examples of Mixed Light
Here are a few pictures that I said I would put up to show examples of color casts given off by different types of light. As you can see there is an obvious color cast throughout each picture that I did not see at the time I photographed it. In each instance the lighting looked like a neutral white light to my bare eye, but of course different light sources record differently on color film.
It's obvious that there is a yellow/ greenish tint to this picture. This is because this cafe was lit in mostly tungsten light with some flourescent. I could have neutralized this cast to accurately depict skin tone if I'd used a light blue filter over my lens or added more yellow light (which would result in more blue being added after processing) during printing but I chose to leave it alone because I like the warmth that the yellow light gives to this picture.
This picture is an example of what a professor of mine, Brian Johnson, would call "light soup" because it has so many differen types and colors of lights mixed. In the distance you can see the green tint of a flourescent lit office building and the Haagen Daas store is all lit in tungsten light. This picture was taken in a large square in Shanghai, China at night so I needed a relatively long shutter speed.
This is just the sort of image you can expect with a long exposure time (this one was probably 30 seconds) and mixed lighting. To my naked eye this scene seemed to be lit in a neutral, if not a little bit yellow, light. However when recorded on color film for such a long exposure time a totally different effect is achieved.
Here's a good example of what a little color correction can do to enhance your image. The picture on the left has that early evening color cast to it and everything looks a little blue/cyan and dull. Using Photoshop CS I added some yellow and red to the image to make it warmer, then turned up the saturation and made the image a little darker overall. The image on the right is the result of these changes. Looks a lot better, doesn't it? It does look a little dark but this picture was taken at dusk.
I hope that these pictures help to illustrate the point that I was trying to make on Episode 5 and my lecture on color temperatures of light. Interesting results can be expected if you experiment a little bit with mixed lighting or long exposures.
-Joe
The Latent Image
Email me at latentimage@unleadedlogic.com
It's obvious that there is a yellow/ greenish tint to this picture. This is because this cafe was lit in mostly tungsten light with some flourescent. I could have neutralized this cast to accurately depict skin tone if I'd used a light blue filter over my lens or added more yellow light (which would result in more blue being added after processing) during printing but I chose to leave it alone because I like the warmth that the yellow light gives to this picture.
This picture is an example of what a professor of mine, Brian Johnson, would call "light soup" because it has so many differen types and colors of lights mixed. In the distance you can see the green tint of a flourescent lit office building and the Haagen Daas store is all lit in tungsten light. This picture was taken in a large square in Shanghai, China at night so I needed a relatively long shutter speed.
This is just the sort of image you can expect with a long exposure time (this one was probably 30 seconds) and mixed lighting. To my naked eye this scene seemed to be lit in a neutral, if not a little bit yellow, light. However when recorded on color film for such a long exposure time a totally different effect is achieved.
Here's a good example of what a little color correction can do to enhance your image. The picture on the left has that early evening color cast to it and everything looks a little blue/cyan and dull. Using Photoshop CS I added some yellow and red to the image to make it warmer, then turned up the saturation and made the image a little darker overall. The image on the right is the result of these changes. Looks a lot better, doesn't it? It does look a little dark but this picture was taken at dusk.
I hope that these pictures help to illustrate the point that I was trying to make on Episode 5 and my lecture on color temperatures of light. Interesting results can be expected if you experiment a little bit with mixed lighting or long exposures.
-Joe
The Latent Image
Email me at latentimage@unleadedlogic.com
posted by latentimage at 8:39 AM
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