This exercise is to make us aware of some of these different light sources, mainly tungsten, fluorescent and vapour.
For the first exercise I have illuminated the room with standard tungsten lighting and waited for the light level outside to drop until there is just a little daylight left. I have spent about a minute staring out of the window so that my eyes have adjusted to light outside. Turning quickly to look into the room, I have noted that the light is very orange/red before my eyes adjust to the light.Turning to look out of the window again, the light now looks more blue.
For the next part I have measured the light around the room. With my camera set to ISO 100 and the aperture set to F1.4 which is wide open for this lens, the shutter speeds are generally to low for hand holding.The shutter speed near a reading lamp measures at 1/15th of a second (which may just be possible to hand hold) but in a darker part of the room is as low as 1/4 of a second.
The room is shown in the next three images which have been exposed using three different white balance settings. The first image has been taken with the white balance set to auto. The second with the white balance set to daylight. Note that both images are very similar. The view of the street outside seems to have the correct colouring which suggests that the cameras auto white balance is set to favour normal daylight. Note the orange tint to the light in the room.
The third image is very different. The white balance has been set to tungsten so the camera is trying to make the room interior fit our view of normal daylight. The result of this is that the interior is much less orange but this in turn has made the view outside a lot more blue.
Fluorescent Lamps
For the second part of this exercise I have been tasked to find two different interiors lit by fluorescent lamps. The first of these is my garage. I have taken two shots, the first with the white balance set to auto, the second with the white balance set to fluorescent.
Examining the two images above, the first thing that becomes obvious is the difference between the auto white balance and the fluorescent white balance. The auto white balance image has a much more yellow cast. The book suggests that fluorescent lights do not emit the full colour spectrum. Looking at the second image which is set to the correct white balance, it does indeed appear somewhat 'washed out'. In particular the reds and the blues are very pale.
For the second part of this exercise I have been tasked to find two different interiors lit by fluorescent lamps. The first of these is my garage. I have taken two shots, the first with the white balance set to auto, the second with the white balance set to fluorescent.
Examining the two images above, the first thing that becomes obvious is the difference between the auto white balance and the fluorescent white balance. The auto white balance image has a much more yellow cast. The book suggests that fluorescent lights do not emit the full colour spectrum. Looking at the second image which is set to the correct white balance, it does indeed appear somewhat 'washed out'. In particular the reds and the blues are very pale.
