Posted by Morphine Dream: 
Ok, if I had any hair to pull out I would. Here is my problem, my images come out with a color cast of yellow. Its very easy to fix in PS and I know its an isssue with my white balance. I know that I have to use one of those color cards by macbeth or whatever they are exactly. The problem is how exactly do you use one in a shoot. How will it fix my white balance issue? 

Do you know about color temperatures and CTO/CTB/85/80A/MINUS GREEN filters and such? Because that's what you use to fix the color temperatures practiacally.

Assuming you don't know this stuff, which you should if you're taking pictures...

Daylight has a color temperature of roughly 5400-5700 degrees Kelvin ('K). 5400-5700'K light has a blue tint to it.

Most film you buy off the shelf is produced to work in that range, so it makes the blue light appear white when processed.

Regualar household lightbulbs and most professional lighting equipment (called "tungsten" because that's the metal that is glowing in the bulb) produces light with a color temperature of 3200-3600'K. 3200-3600'K light has a yelowish-orange color.

To get proper balance of color from a lightbulb on daylight balanced film you need to convert either the lightbulb or the daylight.

There are many ways to do the conversion, but every bit of light in in your shot needs to be made in alignment with the natural balance of the film you're using. If you're inside shooting with lights you can put a blue filter on your lens to convert the light to a cooler range. If there is sunlight coming into the room and you have lights on, put blue plastic gels (CTB's - color temperature blues) on the lights to convert them to daylight's range.

If you happen to get some tungsten film, you need to convert the other way, so CTO gels (color temperature orange) on the windows to make the daylight coming in match the lightbulbs. If you're outside put an 85 filter on your lens to convert the daylight ot an orange tone that will appear white on the processed film.

You can really play with this sort of thing with black and white, like putting a pink filter on the lens to shoot clouds in the desert will just make the most dynamic sky shots you've ever seen, because it kills the blue light and the light you're getting is what bounced back to the clouds from the orange dirt on the ground.

A good reference book is The Filmmaker's Handbook by Ascher and Pincus. Not specifically for stills, but a treasure trove of information.


... Of course if you're shooting digital there will be an option in your camera menus for daylight, flourescent, tungsten, and probably a few others. Simpler, but if you're mixing light sources you still need to do some conversion.

Daylight has a color temperature of roughly 5400-5700 degrees Kelvin ('K). 5400-5700'K light has a blue tint to it.

I think you mean daylight at about mid-day with a clear sky has a color temperature of about...

Even "daylight" varies significantly depending on time of day, condition of the sky, shade, etc.

One trick I have heard of working well is the "Pringles lid" trick. Place a plastic Pringles lid over your lens and take the shot. Then use your camera's CWB option to use that as your custom white balance. I know it sounds odd, but I really have heard that it works quite well.

Grey cards can also be used. This is another reason I like shooting in RAW. Shoot a grey card with camera set to Sunlight WB in RAW mode. shoot the rest of your images (taking another grey card shot whenever you change location). When processing the images, choose the grey card for the custom white balance setting to be used by the RAW converter and apply that to the series of shots and convert in a batch. I can also select from a number of preset WB options and see how they effect the imge on-the-fly and then "dial-in" the color balance I prefer.

When using foam core or any other "white" card, keep in mind that few, if any, "white" cards are true white. This will affect your WB. Cards of specific color shades can be used to create dramatic lighting effects (bluish tints to give a warmer cast like tungsten shot on daylight film, or orange/yellow to give a cooler cast).

As a general rule, I NEVER shoot in AWB mode. Even if I am off on my WB, I at least want the shots to be consistent to simplify correction.

Posted by Morphine Dream: 
Ok, if I had any hair to pull out I would. Here is my problem, my images come out with a color cast of yellow. Its very easy to fix in PS and I know its an isssue with my white balance. I know that I have to use one of those color cards by macbeth or whatever they are exactly. The problem is how exactly do you use one in a shoot. How will it fix my white balance issue? 

You don't give very much info, and everyone here's kind of guessing.  I can come up with several "yellow cast" situations where using a grey card or a Macbeth chart wouldn't help you at all, mostly from mixed lighting situations.  And, some yellow casts, caused by lights way over on the low end of the color spectrum, can't be fixed well in Photoshop because there's so little info in the blue channel that all you get is noise when you start adjusting.

If I'm shooting in natural light, I'll use a card, but I'll use it several times during a couple of hours, since light changes a lot outdoors - at least it does when I'm shooting outdoors, which is usually morning or evening.  However, I usually want a warmer look than using the card will produce.

99% of the time I set the WB by the camera's setting for type of light, because there's more there in your camera than just "the color temperature" of the light type - white light consists of a whole lot of colors mixed together, and every lighting source has a different ratio of those colors.  Daylight flourescents, while nominally the same color temp as daylight, get that color temp with completely different ratios of wavelengths (colors) of light.  So, first off, start with a setting that gets you the best match with the color temp profile of your lighting.  If you just set color temp, let's say to 5500, and shoot, you may get a slight yellow color cast, where setting it to daylight WON"T get a color cast.

(This is why Adobe RAW can produce yellow color casts with Nikon cameras, they have a different profile for "daylight" than Nikon does...and Nikon doesn't share that with the D2x, so I fight color casts with that camera that I don't fight with my D100.)

Second, if you're shooting with strobe, different strobes have different profiles.  You will get a nasty yellow color cast if you shoot with strobes that have UV coated tubes and set your camera to "daylight."  Strobes are more evenly profiled than daylight.  UV coating can push the color cast towards yellow - most UV coated strobes are 5000 to 5200K, daylight is theoretically 5200 to 5500k, up to 6500K some times of day.

Last, some kinds of mixed lighting will give you a bad cast.  Often, if the ambient tungsten lighting that you have on during a strobe shoot is bright enough, and your strobes are turned down enough, you get a mixture of the two color temps - yellowish.  I turn off all ambient lights when shooting, relying just on modeling lamps, to avoid that.  Sunlight mixed with strobe can be a problem, too, depending on time of day, could get yellow, could get blue.  Worst is when you get one color temp in shadows, another in highlights, if that's not what you intended.  Expose wrists, grab razor - it's a horrible experience called "pick your color cast."

What's your favorite GAM Color?

Posted by Morphine Dream: 
Ok, if I had any hair to pull out I would. Here is my problem, my images come out with a color cast of yellow. Its very easy to fix in PS and I know its an isssue with my white balance. I know that I have to use one of those color cards by macbeth or whatever they are exactly. The problem is how exactly do you use one in a shoot. How will it fix my white balance issue? 

I am a Canon user.
shoot the first frame to a white card or surface under the same circunstances you are going to work.  Selec on the menu CWB, click ok.
Go to the lcd over the camera and select CWB open the white image and the menu will tell you to clikc SET. All the images you will shoot under the same situation will have the same white balance.
If you change anything, you have to do it again...it works. Hope this helps. Regards. T. Trelles

Posted by Morphine Dream: 
Thanks guys, you've been awsome.  I've gone back to my manual for my camera and discovered a little section on white balance.   

Just curious, what camera do you have?