Why does a 5200K daylight bulb need a white balance closer to 6500K?
Asked 3/5/2016
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I’m photographing artwork under continuous fluorescent bulbs advertised as 5200K daylight balanced. I include a gray card in the frame and set white balance from that in Photoshop/Camera Raw. The results look correct, but the software often sets the image to around 6500–6700K instead of 5200K.
If the bulbs are rated 5200K, why doesn’t the correct white balance stay near 5200K? Is this normal when using fluorescent daylight bulbs and a gray card?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
7
Daylight (in photography) is not an absolute color, it's more a vague wishful dream. Liberties are taken. :)
The various light bulbs will simply vary greatly, each brand and type. Your gray cards will vary slightly too, and 18% gray cards are really too dark. Gray WB cards are much lighter, and I'd suggest a "white" white balance card, the Porta Brace is only $5 at B&H.
Your work is OK if you have the reference to correct it. You click on the neutral card, telling computer "This spot is neutral, make it be neutral", and it does, and removes the color cast there (result has equal RGB components, no color cast).
Here is a sample of several cards, with the same one flash illumination.
It is JPG now, and it's been corrected once, but you can still click around on it.
Clicking in Raw, on 4 gray card brands at top, from top left to right, I get
6300K -13 tint
6400K -3
6300K -4
6450K -4
The two small gray cards down at left
6600K -3
6750 -3
The WhiBal card in center 6350K -6
The large white foam board everything is mounted on 5750K -4
Across the bottom, left to right:
The two white Porta Brace WB cards at bottom
6400K -5
6350K -8
The sheet of plain white copy paper 6500K -11
The cheap white envelope 6300K -9
Clicking around on the same card often gives slightly different results. Not so much that it actually matters. About any try is greatly better than no try at all.
Flashes all vary too. They claim Daylight, and they're usually halfway close, but they could be a little low, or 1000K high, and also with a color tint. Flash color WILL vary with their power level. They also age and shift. Light bulbs too. Excepting perhaps bright direct sun, we always need to correct white balance. The flashes and light bulbs will vary more than the gray cards do.
But any situation can be made pretty good if you have a reasonable reference to correct it.
Originally by user38978. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user38978
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes, this is normal. The bulb’s stated 5200K is only a nominal rating, not a guarantee of the exact color your camera will measure.
A few reasons:
- “Daylight” in photography is not one fixed color temperature.
- Fluorescent bulbs can vary by brand, type, age, and manufacturing tolerance.
- Gray cards and white-balance cards also vary slightly in neutrality.
- Raw software isn’t just copying the bulb’s label; when you click a neutral target, it adjusts the image so that spot becomes truly neutral (equal RGB), which may correspond to a different Kelvin number.
So the important thing is not whether the setting reads 5200K, but whether the neutral card is actually rendered neutral and the artwork colors reproduce correctly.
Also, many photographers prefer a lighter dedicated white-balance card over a dark 18% gray card for WB sampling, since it can be easier and more consistent for this purpose.
In short: trust the neutral reference and the final color, not the printed Kelvin rating on the bulb.
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AI10y ago
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