Custom White Balance for mixed (Flos and Tungsten) light setups??

[Gene Sung]

I have a custom White Balance question for mixed light setups. I use a Canon 7D.

I have Cool Lights Fluorescents as the key and the fill, but I use a Lowel Pro Light (Tungsten) as the hair light. I could gel the Lowel, but for this situation, lets say I kept it Tungsten.

My questions are

1) To photograph my Grey Card for the Custom Balance, should I place the grey card where the subject would be so it gets a bit of the Fluorescent key, fill and the Tungsten hair light? A mix of the the Flos and the Tungsten?

2) How often do you reset the Custom White Balance? Should I reset the Custom White Balance every time I adjust the lighting setup for a new shot?

3) Any other suggestion?

Thanks so much

 

[ggrantly]

Though it will cost a few bucks, you can get 3200k tubes for your flos. Cool Lights has a pretty good deal on them and they come in a nice storage box. This will give you great versatility having both available. Otherwise, I would gel the tungsten, realizing you are going to lose a lot of light. Mixing the sources would be my last option and not a good one.

Grant

 

[David Jimerson]

You can gel the fluos with CTO, too. You'll lose less light that way.

 

[J Davis]

If you're near a window stay at 5600k. Run some tests, tungsten hair light while balanced to daylight will prob look just fine, keep them subtle

 

[Gene Sung]

Thanks for the responses guys. I do have 3200k bulbs and also Blue gels for the Tungsten. I've been messing around and sometimes a tungsten hairlight looks pretty cool with 5600k Flos. I could just gel the Tungstens.

My question was actually more about where to hold the Grey card for the best White Balance setting. SHould I:

1) To photograph my Grey Card for the Custom Balance, should I place the grey card where the subject would be so it gets a bit of the Fluorescent key, fill and the Tungsten hair light? A mix of the the Flos and the Tungsten?

2) How often do you reset the Custom White Balance? Should I reset the Custom White Balance every time I adjust the lighting setup for a new shot?

 

[PerroneFord]

My question was actually more about where to hold the Grey card for the best White Balance setting. SHould I:

1) To photograph my Grey Card for the Custom Balance, should I place the grey card where the subject would be so it gets a bit of the Fluorescent key, fill and the Tungsten hair light? A mix of the the Flos and the Tungsten?

2) How often do you reset the Custom White Balance? Should I reset the Custom White Balance every time I adjust the lighting setup for a new shot?

1. Yes.

2. Never.

 

[bruce southerland]

Thanks for the responses guys. I do have 3200k bulbs and also Blue gels for the Tungsten. I've been messing around and sometimes a tungsten hairlight looks pretty cool with 5600k Flos. I could just gel the Tungstens.

My question was actually more about where to hold the Grey card for the best White Balance setting. SHould I:

1) To photograph my Grey Card for the Custom Balance, should I place the grey card where the subject would be so it gets a bit of the Fluorescent key, fill and the Tungsten hair light? A mix of the the Flos and the Tungsten?

2) How often do you reset the Custom White Balance? Should I reset the Custom White Balance every time I adjust the lighting setup for a new shot?

When white balancing this paticular setup(daylight key, tungsten hairlight) you have three options...
Balance for the key(key will be neutral/hair will be full warm)
Balance for the hair(hair will be neutral/key will be full blue)
Custom set the balance between the two(each will be half warm/half blue)

Or, as said previously, you can take measures to balance the two sources.

 

[slondon]

For a pleasing aesthetic I think Davis is right. Dial up daylight on the camera and enjoy a little kiss of warm light on the hair. It's quite beautiful nearly always. If you want a white backlight I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to put a bit of CTB on the ProLight. I use your setup often and use 1/2 CTB all the time and to my eye it looks lovely.

If you balance to a blend of light that's anything warmer then your key and fill then they will look blue, which I doubt you want.