Tungsten and Fluorescent Lighting

Exercise: Tungsten and fluorescent lighting (first part 3 photographs, second part 4-6 photographs)

Part 1 Tungsten lighting 

For the first part of this exercise, I was to take three photographs covering both an interior lit by tungsten lamps and exterior at dusk. Each photograph would be taken with different white balance (WB) settings. The first with WB set to Daylight, second set to Tungsten and finally the third set to Auto. I was then to compare the results. 

f3.2 @ 1/50sec ISO 1000 Daylight WB 5000k

The first was taken with the WB set to daylight. As you can see the tungsten wall lights have a distinct yellow glow and therefore the interior scene has a colour cast of that colour from them. The exterior looks a more natural colour as would have been expected with this WB setting. 

f3.2 @ 1/60 sec ISO 1000 Tungsten WB 2950k

With the WB set to tungsten the interior view is closer to the colour present at the time of shooting, with a slight yellow cast. The exterior has taken on a much bluer, cooler look. 

f3.2 @ 1/40 sec ISO 1000 Auto WB 2950k 

Set to Auto the camera has adopted the best setting for the scene. The interior light is now  exactly how I remember it. The exterior has taken on a more natural colour, however with still more blue than was actually present at the time of shooting. 



The WB tungsten and auto setting gave a value of 2950k, this is right in the middle of the approximate range on the Kelvin scale for tungsten, which could be anywhere from 2500-3500k depending on the power or wattage of the bulbs. 

Part 2 Fluorescent lighting 

For the second part of this exercise I was asked to look at fluorescent lighting. I was to find two different scenes lit by fluorescent lighting and take two photographs of each, one with the WB set to Auto and the other with WB set to fluorescent, and again note the differences.

f6.3 @1/125 sec ISO 1250 Auto WB 3750k

The first two photographs were taken at the cafe at the Tate Modern in London. The cafe had high ceilings with small circular suspended fluorescent lights hanging down. This photograph was taken with the WB set to auto and has produced a photograph very close to how my eyes saw it at the time. 

f6.3 @ 1/100 sec ISO 1250 Fluorescent WB 3800k

With the camera set to fluorescent WB there is only a slight difference in the WB value from what had been recorded on the auto setting. However the scene has a purple hew to the colours, which makes me think the light coming from around the counter is not fluorescent and therefore causing the colour cast. 


The results of the two photographs above prove that when there are more than one type of light present the naked eye does a fantastic job of filtering it so that we see just a constant light, however the camera's sensor struggles to cope.

f6.3 @ 1/15 sec ISO 800 Auto WB 4050k

The next two photographs were taken at the Canary Wharf underground station, not the sharpest of photographs due to handholding at too slow a shutter speed. 

The object of the photograph however was to record the lighting. Once again the cameras auto WB setting has done a fairly good job of recording the light as it was at the time of shooting, with a slight orange cast. 

f6.3 @ 1/15 sec ISO 800 Fluorescent WB 3800k

With the WB set to fluorescent the scene is now exactly same lighting conditions as that at the time of shooting. 

Therefore the only lighting present within this area of the underground station is fluorescent. As with the camera set to the appropriate WB setting it records the lighting at the scene exactly how it existed at the time of shooting.