Why and how to fix too much blue in a flash photo

[DrestinBlack]

I've received conflicting advice on this so thought I'd throw it out there to more experienced folks.

Equipment: Nikon D7200 and Nikon SB-700 flash on top.

When I take photos without the flash firing my color balance is almost always quite accurate, from 90-100%

When I take a photo and the flash fires, including subject matter where there is plenty of close to pure white and black in frame, I am, more often than I'd expect, getting colors that have a blue tint in them. I can quickly and very accurately correct the color balance by using my software's "Color Correct/Cast" tool and picking the closest to pure white area. I take mostly photos of people so sometimes I'll even use bright white teeth or clear eyeballs to find that white and it snaps everything to where it should be.

Two questions: Why? And how to fix?

Thank you in advance.

 

[EE-TV]

I've received conflicting advice on this so thought I'd throw it out there to more experienced folks.

Equipment: Nikon D7200 and Nikon SB-700 flash on top.

When I take photos without the flash firing my color balance is almost always quite accurate, from 90-100%

When I take a photo and the flash fires, including subject matter where there is plenty of close to pure white and black in frame, I am, more often than I'd expect, getting colors that have a blue tint in them. I can quickly and very accurately correct the color balance by using my software's "Color Correct/Cast" tool and picking the closest to pure white area. I take mostly photos of people so sometimes I'll even use bright white teeth or clear eyeballs to find that white and it snaps everything to where it should be.

Two questions: Why? And how to fix?

Thank you in advance.

Good question. I am hoping to learn about using on-camera Speedlights (Nikon user too).

I know LED flash light (torch light) produces bluish color, but have never used a Speedlight before.
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Bringing to light, Exposing what is
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[DrestinBlack]

Good question. I am hoping to learn about using on-camera Speedlights (Nikon user too).

I know LED flash light (torch light) produces bluish color, but have never used a Speedlight before.
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Bringing to light, Exposing what is
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One thing I’ve always liked about Speedlights and the Nikon CLS is it being so easy, plug and play. This is the only issue I’ve had with one.

 

[rochester21]

Well....when you use flash, i assume you set WB to "flash" or you are using a custom seting for that purpose. But in your post you don't even mention seting the WB.

Well are you?

 

[DrestinBlack]

Well....when you use flash, i assume you set WB to "flash" or you are using a custom seting for that purpose. But in your post you don't even mention seting the WB.

Well are you?

Well, I do not. Can’t even recall reading in the directions that I should.

 

[rochester21]

Well....when you use flash, i assume you set WB to "flash" or you are using a custom seting for that purpose. But in your post you don't even mention seting the WB.

Well are you?

Well, I do not. Can’t even recall reading in the directions that I should.

OK, then why do you suppose those WB options even exist, if seting the correct white balance is not one of them?

Lighting conditions change constantly, even on cameras with good Auto WB i still have to use presets or custom WB from time to time. When using flash is one of those times because like you noticed, the flash light appears as blue but the camera automatically sets the WB according to the natural lighting conditions as seen through the lens. That is one of the reasons i prefer not using flash, it interferes with natural light and can ruin the photo!

Especially on my current sony rx100 which has an obvious preference for very cool colors(too much blue). So i have to fiddle with the WB a lot to get warmer tones...

 

[tclune]

Others have given you good answers. I just want to point out that there is an alternative approach to dealing with this problem -- color filters for your flash. Here is a product from Nikon specifically for your flash. The advantages of using a color filter (the light amber one would probably be what you want) include that you don't have to change your WB setting and that the color temperature of the flash will be close to that for sunlight, so you aren't trying to balance two different temperatures in one photo. If you are taking flash photographs when the artificial light is bright, all bets are off, of course. FWIW

 

[Leonard Migliore]

I've received conflicting advice on this so thought I'd throw it out there to more experienced folks.

Equipment: Nikon D7200 and Nikon SB-700 flash on top.

When I take photos without the flash firing my color balance is almost always quite accurate, from 90-100%

When I take a photo and the flash fires, including subject matter where there is plenty of close to pure white and black in frame, I am, more often than I'd expect, getting colors that have a blue tint in them. I can quickly and very accurately correct the color balance by using my software's "Color Correct/Cast" tool and picking the closest to pure white area. I take mostly photos of people so sometimes I'll even use bright white teeth or clear eyeballs to find that white and it snaps everything to where it should be.

Two questions: Why? And how to fix?

This sounds like you're shooting JPG's with auto white balance. And you may well be shooting in "P" mode. Is that correct?

I have an SB-700. Its usual mode of operation is i-TTL, which is automatic fill-flash. So if you're running in A mode, the camera exposes for ambient light and the flash fires to fill the shadows. I'm not sure what happens in P mode; I never use it.

In any case, if you're using auto white balance, it sets it for the ambient lighting. A long time ago this was tungsten but now it can be anything from fluorescents to LED's to totally mixed up. So the camera's going to set something for white balance but it won't be right for the flash, which is pretty close to daylight.

Because I'm easily confused, I always use M mode for flash. I set the aperture to something useful, the shutter speed to a little slower than the flash sync and the ISO to whatever I need. I don't care about white balance since I shoot RAW but if I were shooting JPG's, I'd set it to flash. This way, the camera never does anything that will surprise me.

 

[DrestinBlack]

Thank you. I’ll try that out

 

[DrestinBlack]

Well....when you use flash, i assume you set WB to "flash" or you are using a custom seting for that purpose. But in your post you don't even mention seting the WB.

Well are you?

Well, I do not. Can’t even recall reading in the directions that I should.

OK, then why do you suppose those WB options even exist, if seting the correct white balance is not one of them?

Lighting conditions change constantly, even on cameras with good Auto WB i still have to use presets or custom WB from time to time. When using flash is one of those times because like you noticed, the flash light appears as blue but the camera automatically sets the WB according to the natural lighting conditions as seen through the lens. That is one of the reasons i prefer not using flash, it interferes with natural light and can ruin the photo!

Especially on my current sony rx100 which has an obvious preference for very cool colors(too much blue). So i have to fiddle with the WB a lot to get warmer tones...

Note 1: I do not have the option to not use my flash in the setting where this occurs.

Note 2: it does not happen every time. Usually when something happens every time I associate that with an incorrect setting. This only happens occasional so I suspected something in overall technique that goes “off” sometimes.

Frankly I was being naive and made a poor assumption. It occurred to me that if I was using WB Auto and the camera detected the use of its own brand flash firing (The Nikon CLS) it would be smart enough to select the appropriate temp for WB. I see that setting WB to Flash sets the temp to a fixed 5400. That may be my solution in a single setting. I suspect that the auto WB was doing a fair job but missing on occasion.

I’ll try this setting tonight and see what happens.

Thank you for your time and advice.

 

[DrestinBlack]

I've received conflicting advice on this so thought I'd throw it out there to more experienced folks.

Equipment: Nikon D7200 and Nikon SB-700 flash on top.

When I take photos without the flash firing my color balance is almost always quite accurate, from 90-100%

When I take a photo and the flash fires, including subject matter where there is plenty of close to pure white and black in frame, I am, more often than I'd expect, getting colors that have a blue tint in them. I can quickly and very accurately correct the color balance by using my software's "Color Correct/Cast" tool and picking the closest to pure white area. I take mostly photos of people so sometimes I'll even use bright white teeth or clear eyeballs to find that white and it snaps everything to where it should be.

Two questions: Why? And how to fix?

This sounds like you're shooting JPG's with auto white balance. And you may well be shooting in "P" mode. Is that correct?

I have an SB-700. Its usual mode of operation is i-TTL, which is automatic fill-flash. So if you're running in A mode, the camera exposes for ambient light and the flash fires to fill the shadows. I'm not sure what happens in P mode; I never use it.

In any case, if you're using auto white balance, it sets it for the ambient lighting. A long time ago this was tungsten but now it can be anything from fluorescents to LED's to totally mixed up. So the camera's going to set something for white balance but it won't be right for the flash, which is pretty close to daylight.

Because I'm easily confused, I always use M mode for flash. I set the aperture to something useful, the shutter speed to a little slower than the flash sync and the ISO to whatever I need. I don't care about white balance since I shoot RAW but if I were shooting JPG's, I'd set it to flash. This way, the camera never does anything that will surprise me.

 

[AnthonyL]

This occurred while in any of P, S, A or M modes. I usually shoot in M but sometimes switch to A. For this particular work environment and job criteria it’s only practical for me to use jpg, obviously this would be a nonissue for RAW; I wish I could!

Frankly I was being naive and made a poor assumption. It occurred to me that if I was using WB Auto and the camera detected the use of its own brand flash firing (The Nikon CLS) it would be smart enough to select the appropriate temp for WB. I see that setting WB to Flash sets the temp to a fixed 5400. That may be my solution in a single setting. I suspect that the auto WB was doing a fair job but missing on occasion. It’s fair to mention that WB Auto worked far more often than not so I didn’t suspect it being a fixed setting. I would have expected a wrong setting to be wrong every time.

I’ll try this setting tonight and see what happens.

Thank you for your time and advice!

So it is as you said in your opening post. Auto WB not working as well with a lot of White or Black. The mode is not that relevant but the metering might be. My camera is much better than its early version (the 450D) when it comes to Auto WB.

 

[baloo_buc]

Flash has a 5400 K color temperature. If you have light that overpowers the flash that has a larger color temperature (like 8000 K) you will have blue tin in the areas illuminated by that light.

Also verify your monitor calibration.

 

[JimResnikoff]

Whenever I use flash, be it on camera or off, I set the white balance to Flash. If I am mixing ambient light I will make adjustments to color temperature by using a gel on the strobe.

 

[tedolf]

Well....when you use flash, i assume you set WB to "flash" or you are using a custom seting for that purpose. But in your post you don't even mention seting the WB.

Well are you?

Well, I do not. Can’t even recall reading in the directions that I should.

You might have the camera WB set to "incadescent" which will give you a blue tint with daylight flash.

Tedolph

 

[DrestinBlack]

Well....when you use flash, i assume you set WB to "flash" or you are using a custom seting for that purpose. But in your post you don't even mention seting the WB.

Well are you?

Well, I do not. Can’t even recall reading in the directions that I should.

You might have the camera WB set to "incadescent" which will give you a blue tint with daylight flash.

I was using Auto - which works 90+% of the time.

As I type I’m testing using “Flash” mode

 

[baloo_buc]

I mixed up the color casts. Higher color temperature will produce amber cast not blue. My bad.

--
Victor
Bucuresti, Romania

 

[DrestinBlack]

I hope my reply can be seen by everyone.

firstly, thank you everyone for your replies and advice.

next, last night I was able to test the most common and logical recommendation, changing my WB setting from Auto to Flash (while using my Speedlight).

I’m please to report my faith in this forum is preserved. From my review of the photos for. Last night (approx 300 taken in varying lighting conditions) appears to have resulted in a near perfect run. I found just one single photo that I felt was off in color, but not like the problem being discussed.

I remain impressed that full Auto mode was able to do the job so well for 90% of the shots but it’s a great relief, and time/effort saver, to have the troublesome 10% reduced to nearly nil with one small setting change. All I have to do now is remember to chsnge it when I’m not using the flash.

Thank you again to everyone.

 

[skyglider]

I hope my reply can be seen by everyone.

firstly, thank you everyone for your replies and advice.

next, last night I was able to test the most common and logical recommendation, changing my WB setting from Auto to Flash (while using my Speedlight).

I’m please to report my faith in this forum is preserved. From my review of the photos for. Last night (approx 300 taken in varying lighting conditions) appears to have resulted in a near perfect run. I found just one single photo that I felt was off in color, but not like the problem being discussed.

I remain impressed that full Auto mode was able to do the job so well for 90% of the shots but it’s a great relief, and time/effort saver, to have the troublesome 10% reduced to nearly nil with one small setting change. All I have to do now is remember to chsnge it when I’m not using the flash.

Thank you again to everyone.

For folks who's camera does not have a "flash" option in the white balance settings, set WB to daylight instead of auto. The light from flash is daylight.

When taking pictures in sunlight, switching between WB settings of auto or daylight will not seem to make any perceivable difference. So one might think they are the same thing. But no. Auto WB tries to adjust to ambient lighting conditions while daylight WB strictly stays at the daylight setting.

Sky

 

[R2D2]

I mixed up the color casts. Higher color temperature will produce amber cast not blue. My bad.

You were right the first time.