Hey, how’s it going? I’m Andy Jones, and this is episode 94 of the Photography Side Hustle podcast.
So since episode 13 was published back in July 2021, I have had a link in the show notes to SpeakPipe. This link lets you leave me an audio message.
Well after a few weeks with no messages I was wondering whether it was worth having it available. So I recorded four messages myself over the next few weeks. You probably wouldn’t know it was me if you listened to them, ok, it was obvious it was me trying to be funny.
Anyway, after that, I just left the link there and forgot about it. That is until last Sunday when I was uploading episode 93. I was about to delete the link and thought I’d take a look at the SpeakPipe account and delete it too.
Well, I was shocked, there were two messages that were sent 2 months ago. The first messages in 80 episodes.
So the first one is from Monty in Maryland, USA, let’s play that now…
Thanks for the kind words, and for taking the time to record a message, Monty.
Next is Tara Klippert from Whitehorse, up in the Yukon Territory, Canada.
She has a question, so let’s play that …
Now like Tara said she is a food photographer and shoots in natural light in front of a window. So I checked out her website, foodsandfeels.com, I’ll put a link in the show notes. Her food photos are excellent, and her videos are on the same level, and very impressive.
A big thank you goes out to Tara for this week’s episode …
Fixing Color Cast in Your Images
What is a color cast?
A color cast can affect all or just a tiny part of a photo. I had a problem with color cast when I was shooting dog agility. It was only in photos of white dogs, and their fur had a green cast.
I’ve also had a problem with it when shooting at ice rinks. You might think it isn’t a big problem, but if you have hundreds of photos with an unwanted color cast to edit, it is.
What Causes it?
Well, the white dogs with a green tint on their fur were caused by the sun reflecting off the grass. Now it only happened around noon when the sun was high in the sky. In the morning and afternoon, it wasn’t a problem.
The color cast I got at the ice rink was back when the rinks used HID lighting, and it was being changed to Fluorescent. There was a huge difference in the color temperatures of the two types of lighting. Plus there was a difference between fluorescent lights. Now they all use LEDs which are so much brighter and more stable.
Tara’s problem is blue and yellow color casts. Because she is shooting in front of a window the cause of the cast could be yellow plants outside the window. If the window frames are painted it could be the reflecting through the window.
It could also be inside the room. Curtains, clothing, furniture, or wall paint color can cause a cast by reflecting the sunlight that comes in through the window.
If you are shooting food like Tara, you need to control where the light is coming from. The light comes through the window and into the room. So you need to block off the area immediately around where you shoot the food with white foam board or a white curtain. Just leave the side facing the window open so the light can hit your food.
This will stop the light that goes into the room from reflecting off say a red couch or a blue wall and coming back onto the food and causing a color cast.
White Balance
To the human eye, a white object looks white in any type of light. Digital cameras adjust the color temperature using software to make the white areas of a photo look white.
The White Balance setting is the basis for your photo having natural-looking colors. If the white balance setting is wrong, all the colors will be off and it could cause a color cast.
Cameras have different preset modes you can use, such as Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Twilight, Sunset, Fluorescent, Flash, and Auto.
Auto is what most photographers use, and most of the time it works ok. It can still give you a wrong white balance.
All the other presets are approximates and you might still have to adjust the white balance when editing. Color temperature is measured on the Kelvin scale. The fluorescent light setting in my camera is 4000k (Kelvin), but you can buy fluorescent bulbs that are 5200k and 6000k. So the 4000k setting could be a long way from being correct. In fact, I would think the Auto setting would be more accurate than the fluorescent setting.
How do you fix it?
Well, the best way to go is to set a custom white balance. You need an 18% gray card to set a custom white balance, and you’ll need to do a custom setting for every shoot you do. 18% gray cards cost around $15 on Amazon and are very handy to have.
I just want to say, even if you do a custom white balance you can still get a color cast if the light is reflecting off an object that has a bright color. You need to move that object before you shoot, or after you realize you are getting a color cast.
If you have a photo that has a color cast you can reset the white balance in Lightroom. On the right-hand side at the top is the White Balance section. There is a color-picker tool you can click on, and then you need to click it on something in the image that should be white. This will change the white balance and correct the color cast.
Ok, I think that covers color casts. Thanks again to Tara Klippert for the question, and if you want to record your question, please do. I’ll leave the link in the show notes.
The more questions I get, the easier it is for me to come up with episode ideas.
So please ask away.
Right, I need a coffee, I’ll be back next week, hopefully with another recorded question. Talk to you soon, bye.