Green White Balance

mattoneill85 · 13 Apr 2012

The last couple of times I took pictures using my hi-lite and studio lights, I started by taking a picture of just the hi-lite itself and then set this as the custom white balance. The next picture I then took came out as green, any ideas why this would have happened? I ended up taking it in auto and adjusting it in photoshop when processing the RAW files. Thanks Matt

HoppyUK · 13 Apr 2012

mattoneill85 said:
The last couple of times I took pictures using my hi-lite and studio lights, I started by taking a picture of just the hi-lite itself and then set this as the custom white balance. The next picture I then took came out as green, any ideas why this would have happened? I ended up taking it in auto and adjusting it in photoshop when processing the RAW files. Thanks Matt

You need a plain white or neutral grey WB target, lit by the same light that you're shooting with.

mattoneill85 · 14 Apr 2012

Ok, why does it go green? As obviously the hilite is plain white so shouldn't it do the same as shooting the hilite? Is it because the flash is going off at the same time inside. I'm a little confused. Thanks

HoppyUK · 14 Apr 2012

mattoneill85 said:
Ok, why does it go green? As obviously the hilite is plain white so shouldn't it do the same as shooting the hilite? Is it because the flash is going off at the same time inside. I'm a little confused. Thanks

Guessing, but did you do the white balance with studio heads and their modelling lights on? They're yellow/orange and a completely different colour to the flash. It will turn the pictures blue/green.

As I said...

HoppyUK said:
You need a plain white or neutral grey WB target, lit by the same light that you're shooting with.

mattoneill85 · 14 Apr 2012

Yeah the modelling lights were on, I'll try turning them off next time to see if that makes any difference. Thanks again