Reading mode: Light Dark

6D indoor shooting with tricky white balance - thoughts?

Go to last post
A

Andrew2468

Member
Messages
49
Reaction score
9
hello, I’ve offered to shoot stills for a friend’s lunchtime function in a church, and would be grateful for any thoughts on how to get a good white balance. I’m doing it for free and don’t want to spend time post-processing. I’d like the camera jpegs to be good.

The church is in south west England and the function 12:00 - 15:00. It’s in the actual church, not a side room or annexe etc. There will be a mixture of daylight and artificial light. Being a traditional UK church, there is not a mass of natural light coming in, though some of what does come in is through stained glass windows. Messy I think!

I’ve been to look round and was getting 1/60 at f2 at iso400 with the lights on as they will be for the fn. I plan to use my 6D + Canon 85 f1.8. I’m thinking I’ll expose at f5.6, 1/60 and auto ISO to get at least a bit of DoF, albeit with some noise I suppose. The pics will be straightforward head and shoulders informal shots of individuals and couples mainly.

Regarding the white balance, I tried a few settings in the church but none seemed great. I’ve just tried auto WB round the house including with artificial light, and it doesn’t seem much good. Then I snapped my grey card and set this a custom, that seems good for the room in question. But I’m thinking the light will vary as I move around the church interior. And of course on the day it may be sunny, it may be cloudy. So this is my problem - what's a good strategy here? (I usually process RAW so don’t normally think about WB…) Any thoughts will be welcome.
 
You need to use a flash in this situation. As an editorial photographer, I've shot hundreds of roughly similar scenarios. These days and with the camera you own, shooting around ISO 1600 with a shutter speed around 1/60th, f/4.5 and fill flash should get you pretty close.

If the church uses primarily tungsten lighting, putting an ETO gel on the flash and setting a tungsten color balance into your camera should look nice. I like to use a 24-70 lens for this kind of work--an 85mm is kinda long, especially if it is crowded or tight quarters.

When you arrive, give yourself a few minutes to tweak the exposure while checking the background to see if you like what you see. But the recommended settings should get you into hand grenade range, especially if you shoot raw. ;)
 
You write, accurately, >> But I’m thinking the light will vary as I move around the church interior. <<

Yes, it will, which is why Hotdog's suggestion of flash is so very wise.

I'm puzzled about RAW.

Maybe I don't understand. Is this correct?

1/ Set camera to RAW = JPEG

2/ Set white balance to Automatic

3/ Open JPEG file in Photoshop and keep going if the color looks good.

4/ If color is off, open RAW file in RAW processor, move slider, and then open file if "regular" part of Photoshop.

Does this add more than 2 seconds? And only on some shots?

5/ Finish up rest of postprocessing -- cropping, re-sizing, etc.

That should allow you to get good color very quickly.

But flash would be better.

BAK
 
I'm not sure I understand the question... If you shoot RAW, you can always adjust the WB to taste in post processing (that's the main benefit of RAW—you are not committed to your camera's initial guess at WB). Getting the WB perfectly in camera is usually only important if you shoot jpeg. If the problem is mixed lighting (daylight vs tungsten for instance), then you need to get better control of your lighting.

If I completely misunderstood your initial question, just ignore this post. 😁
 
Folks, thanks for the comments. I’ve been back to the church and taken some more test shots with a custom white balance set, and the results in various parts of the space are reasonably good.

I accept that fill-in flash would work better, but I’ve never pursued flash use and don’t have one. So it will be an available light job.

I’ll take my 50 f1.4 along also, Craig.

BAK, the plan is simply to provide the friends with the camera jpegs (on max. quality setting), I don’t want to do any processing at all. I’ll have the RAWs also in case there’s a few special shots which deserve proper processing. You’re a better man than me if you can tweak the two colour balance sliders in 2 secs! I find this a bit iterative. (In fact I don’t use Photoshop, I use RawTherapee, very good IMHO)

Dave Boy, yes you did misunderstand, I will ask God to sort out his lighting! :-)
 
I'll concede to 10 seconds, allowing the file to open.

Anyway, it's good to hear your tests have made you comnfortable.

BAK
 
Andrew2468 said:
Folks, thanks for the comments. I’ve been back to the church and taken some more test shots with a custom white balance set, and the results in various parts of the space are reasonably good.

I accept that fill-in flash would work better, but I’ve never pursued flash use and don’t have one. So it will be an available light job.

I’ll take my 50 f1.4 along also, Craig.

BAK, the plan is simply to provide the friends with the camera jpegs (on max. quality setting), I don’t want to do any processing at all. I’ll have the RAWs also in case there’s a few special shots which deserve proper processing. You’re a better man than me if you can tweak the two colour balance sliders in 2 secs! I find this a bit iterative. (In fact I don’t use Photoshop, I use RawTherapee, very good IMHO)

Dave Boy, yes you did misunderstand, I will ask God to sort out his lighting! :-)
Click to expand...
I recommend you take a few moments on the big day to recheck the custom WB based on the outdoor lighting at the time. Chances are, your previous custom WB setting will be close enough, but that last minute check may prove worth your while after all.

Good luck.
 
Andrew2468 said:
hello, I’ve offered to shoot stills for a friend’s lunchtime function in a church, and would be grateful for any thoughts on how to get a good white balance. I’m doing it for free and don’t want to spend time post-processing. I’d like the camera jpegs to be good.

The church is in south west England and the function 12:00 - 15:00. It’s in the actual church, not a side room or annexe etc. There will be a mixture of daylight and artificial light. Being a traditional UK church, there is not a mass of natural light coming in, though some of what does come in is through stained glass windows. Messy I think!

I’ve been to look round and was getting 1/60 at f2 at iso400 with the lights on as they will be for the fn. I plan to use my 6D + Canon 85 f1.8. I’m thinking I’ll expose at f5.6, 1/60 and auto ISO to get at least a bit of DoF, albeit with some noise I suppose. The pics will be straightforward head and shoulders informal shots of individuals and couples mainly.

Regarding the white balance, I tried a few settings in the church but none seemed great. I’ve just tried auto WB round the house including with artificial light, and it doesn’t seem much good. Then I snapped my grey card and set this a custom, that seems good for the room in question. But I’m thinking the light will vary as I move around the church interior. And of course on the day it may be sunny, it may be cloudy. So this is my problem - what's a good strategy here? (I usually process RAW so don’t normally think about WB…) Any thoughts will be welcome.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what lunchtime function in a church means... Anyway, i know the tricky light from some experience.

ISO 3000 with my 6D look quite good - higher ISO is one thing in this challenge. ISO400 is not enough - you will get DOF problems. Sometimes using a flash in a church is irritating people.

RAW is the only possibility if the light is tricky as it always is with mixture of artificial and natural through stained glass. If there are white things like table clothes or collars in the images the PP is rather easy and fast...
 
Andrew2468 said:
hello, I’ve offered to shoot stills for a friend’s lunchtime function in a church, and would be grateful for any thoughts on how to get a good white balance. I’m doing it for free and don’t want to spend time post-processing. I’d like the camera jpegs to be good.

The church is in south west England and the function 12:00 - 15:00. It’s in the actual church, not a side room or annexe etc. There will be a mixture of daylight and artificial light. Being a traditional UK church, there is not a mass of natural light coming in, though some of what does come in is through stained glass windows. Messy I think!

I’ve been to look round and was getting 1/60 at f2 at iso400 with the lights on as they will be for the fn. I plan to use my 6D + Canon 85 f1.8. I’m thinking I’ll expose at f5.6, 1/60 and auto ISO to get at least a bit of DoF, albeit with some noise I suppose. The pics will be straightforward head and shoulders informal shots of individuals and couples mainly.

Regarding the white balance, I tried a few settings in the church but none seemed great. I’ve just tried auto WB round the house including with artificial light, and it doesn’t seem much good. Then I snapped my grey card and set this a custom, that seems good for the room in question. But I’m thinking the light will vary as I move around the church interior. And of course on the day it may be sunny, it may be cloudy. So this is my problem - what's a good strategy here? (I usually process RAW so don’t normally think about WB…) Any thoughts will be welcome.
Click to expand...
I've come to accept the fact that with the 6D for most indoor shots with artificial light, I would have to correct WB on DPP. My preferred method is to choose Color Temperature and slide it horizontally until I achieve the "correct" white balance. Using a flash does help. However, know that when you bounce your flash, the color of the walls, ceilings, any mirror around you, etc. does affect the final "lighting."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top