D4 white balance issue with .jpg images

[Pierre Fox]

I was shooting a basketball game this weekend and noticed an issue when i imported the images into LR4. The white balance has changed from image to image although the photos are virtually identical. I assume this has to do with the 21 point focusing system.

I have never had a white balance issue before with the D4. In fact it has been so good that I almost always leave it on auto. In the future, I will likely bring a grey card and calibrate a specific white balance for the gym, but I thought this was odd.

I did have auto ISO definately on "off" . shutter was manual at 1000 at f3.2 and Iso 6400.

No complaints otherwise. The camera is very fast. I thought I would never need something this fast but it has bee great for sports.






Notice




Notice the tint of the back wall how it has changed.




--
IndyFox

 

[Zardoz]

Lighting.

 

[TheRidgeback]

Were the lights there Fluorescent?
Only they actually flash on and off at twice the mains frequency, as opposed to filament bulbs which dont.

I've had it before, where my D3, has done exactly the same,

Its to do with the flicker of the lighting system, and you will probably find that the speed of the shutter was much faster then the flicker of the lights, either 100hz or 120hz (depending if its UK 50Hz or USA60Hz) so what happens is you actually managed to shoot when the light was technically on, in one photo and then when it was technically off, in the other. The D4 being as quick as it is, managed to change the white balance to suit.

The only way round this is to manually set the white balance to match the lighting.

Mac.

 

[inasir1971]

That looks like lighting (I get that magenta hue on the wall in your shot sometimes in that situation) - some types of lighting (e.g. some fluorescent lighting) cycles at the power frequency 50/60Hz and can show up as this particularly at higher shutter speeds.

Don't know any way to avoid this as it's not a WB issue.

 

[Pierre Fox]

Thanks to all.for the physics refresher. I do recall the lighting was likely tungsten and was quite uneven. i was shooting on coninuious high and did not realize the d4 was taking a reading and adjusting after each frame at 10 fps. i will do a custom reading next time. thanks

 

[chipmaster]

In the older gyms if the lights are the cycling type, my experience no amount of custom WB will fix it, either you shoot very slow shutter speed, or you shoot a lot of very fast frames and hope you get one where you can correct it all. The worst gyms you can see pictures where half are skewed to one end of the specturm and the other half to the other... good luck!