Lighting Nightmare! Please help!

[rediguana]

Originally Posted by aetnajojo

Some cameras provide a setting for flourescent light.

Yes, but unfortunately these settings tend not to handle the situation where you've got an even amount of daylight and fluorescent light. If the inside light was much stronger than the daylight then that would work, but the problem with this situation is balancing light of two different temperatures.

As a previous poster suggested, if you can take the flash off-camera and over-power the other light sources, you won't have that problem. Even on-camera flash and a diffuser might have done the trick too for a more simplistic solution.

[NaturesPixel]

ok no matter what Camera you use... either on board flash or a hotshoe flash will work wonders, we just did this at my local photo club meet,
Nearly all newer P&S (in the last yr or 2) will allow you to use Fill Flash, and adjust the flash output so do a test shot with fill flash on normal, if the person is filled with harsh light stop the flash out put down try - 2 for eg: this will also allow you to use a F2.8, f3.5 aperture making for a more desirable background (blurred) hope this helps for next time

[FocalFrenzy]

Hi everyone,
My camera is a Sony DSC-H1. The flash is not adjustable beyond on and off. The lady in the picture was sitting in her dining room. to get this shot, I had to stand in the livingroom. Had I been in the room with her, there would have been an even bigger window (4feet by 8feet) behind her. Only the position I shot from, allowed for the least amount of editing.
I apologize for the lack of EXIF data. I thought when you uploaded from Flickr, the info linked to the shot. If not, could someone tell me how to include it in my shots?
I really appreciate all of the advice and the time and effort everyone has put in to fixing this shot. I still haven't figured out how to use GIMP, so I'm still using Picasa and Photo Explosion. That's why I would rather learn how to take the shot "Right" in camera, than just try to fix it later, but I'm still kinda new at this. I'm sure that I'll have lots of shots that can only be salvaged by Post-processing. Thank you all, again for your help.

[Taallyn]

Even Ansel Adams played with shots in post processing (i.e. in the darkroom). So, don't sweat it. Learning digital post processing can actually help your photography as it helps you understand what you did wrong in the camera so you can do better the next time.

Taking the shot is only half of the process. Development, be it chemical baths or digital processing, is as equally important part as pressing the shutter button. In the end, the entire process is a learning tool.

(edit: Just noticed that this was my Nifty Fifty post! Yeah, me! ;-) )

[wulf]

The EXIF data is easy enough to pick up by visiting the picture on Flickr. It can be worth posting a few salient points with the picture though. I have a Firefox script that reveals key details like camera, aperture and shutter speed as soon as I glimpse at a photo page on Flickr so, for me, it is one click away, but for many people it is two clicks and maybe not so obvious in the first place.

Wulf

[hpebley3]

Originally Posted by FocalFrenzy

I took this shot with the available lighting because the woman in the photo is disabled and could not reposition herself into more favorable light. She is sitting under 3 of those cork-screw fluorescent lights, with a window over her right shoulder. The lights make the skin tones too red, and the window makes the skin tones too blue (pale and unnatural). The following shot (edited), was acceptable to her, as the kitten was the subject she wanted focus on anyway. If anyone knows how I could have gotten a better shot (without editing), please let me know.

When you've got mixed light, one of the easiest ways to deal with the different color temperatures is to get rid of one of the light sources. In this case, drawing the blinds might have made things easier.

Cheers.

[tporter762]

From what I have read, you would close off the outside light source and shoot with a flash. This would give you the best white balance for the picture and the AWB wouldn't adjust for the higher kelvin of the outside light source.