Why do some of my low light photos come out red?

[AndrewWG]

All,

I hope someone has an answer to this. I have been taking photos of a baseball team all summer long and have noticed that some of my photos, especailly when the light levels become low enough that I am pushing everything I can out of my camera to keep the shutter speed high enough, come out with a nasty reddish tone to them. Is there a way to avoid this? The problem I have is that it doesn't happen all the time. In fact, it can change from picture to picture. When the light levels are good, the pics are fine.

Any thoughts?

Here is an example, although not a great one as it has been PP'd as much as I could to get it back to white. It is now more pinkish than redish. The uniforms are supposed to be white. I'll try to find a better example later on.

Thanks for any input you all may have.

 

[ukcatfan]

Are you shooting RAW or JPG? If RAW, then you can set the WB in PP.

 

[AndrewWG]

Are you shooting RAW or JPG? If RAW, then you can set the WB in PP.

I am shooting RAW, but even when I push the WB away from the yellows and the tone away from red, it still doesn't come out all that great. It is probably a time for some flash, but the team isn't very fond of flash on the field. In fact, they frown on it. This pic would have probably been fine as it was a walk off game winning hit, so no more play was going to go on, but usually it is during play.

I really am pushing the 30D away from what it can handle decently. At this time of night I am using f2.8, ISO 800 to 1000, and am underexposing by about 1/2 stop usually. This just barely keeps the shutter speeds at usable levels.

 

[Alztybrn]

I have a 30D as well...I have had decent results using ISO 1600 and shooting in RAW.

 

[AndrewWG]

I have a 30D as well...I have had decent results using ISO 1600 and shooting in RAW.

I generally try to keep away from 1600. I have always gotten very noisy results from it. 3200 (H) is a joke. I'm not sure why they even put that on the cameras. The team is kind of picky, (although not too unreasonably so), but I am trying to give the best that I can and still keep my sanity while post processing them.

 

[Alztybrn]

You are definitely right about the 3200...I tried it for a couple of soccer shots one evening...never again. but shooting wide open at 2.8 with ISO 1600 I have been able to achieve adequate shutter speeds for baseball. Maybe we have better lights, but results have been decent.

Have you tried shooting at 1600 and then using some noise reduction software?

 

[AndrewWG]

You are definitely right about the 3200...I tried it for a couple of soccer shots one evening...never again. but shooting wide open at 2.8 with ISO 1600 I have been able to achieve adequate shutter speeds for baseball. Maybe we have better lights, but results have been decent.

Have you tried shooting at 1600 and then using some noise reduction software?

This year, I haven't tried that. I did it a bit last year. The difference is that this year, I take over 300 shots a night with about 100 or so in the worst possible light. I am cheap so I have not purchased a good noise reduction software package, but have the free version of noiseware. Unfortunately, that does one at a time. I will give it a try tonight with just a few to see how it comes out. Generally I have found that they are good for a pic used on the internet or something, but rather bad looking for a decent print. I am uploading all of these to my photo site for the parents, etc to be able to make prints from them. I need to keep them as crisp as I possibly can. The noiseware program (as all of them do I suspect) caused the sharpness of the photos to degrade a bit due to the way it reduces the noise.

I'll try tonight and see how it goes. I am not sure if that will cure the redness of the photos, but I am also goint to go old school on them tonight and bring a gray/white card to try to get exposure and white balance to be corrected before I post process. I am not expecting miracles on that one though....

 

[Abby's Dad]

All,

I hope someone has an answer to this. I have been taking photos of a baseball team all summer long and have noticed that some of my photos, especailly when the light levels become low enough that I am pushing everything I can out of my camera to keep the shutter speed high enough, come out with a nasty reddish tone to them. Is there a way to avoid this? The problem I have is that it doesn't happen all the time. In fact, it can change from picture to picture. When the light levels are good, the pics are fine.

Any thoughts?

Here is an example, although not a great one as it has been PP'd as much as I could to get it back to white. It is now more pinkish than redish. The uniforms are supposed to be white. I'll try to find a better example later on.

Thanks for any input you all may have.

Are the stadium lights sodium vapor? Many are, and there are more than one kind. Googling sodium vapor lights and color balance seems to indicate that there are huge problems with getting the color balance right with them, and that the color balance can vary from one picture to the next. A lot of the suggestions that I saw were just to live with it, though there were some that claimed by holding a deving rod just right that they were able to get proper color balance . Sorry I don't have anything more meaningful.

Fred

 

[DVC Jen]

Hey Andy - I have noticed a reddish tint to ALL of my photo - especially in skin tones. It doesn't matter if I set a custom white balance - nothing.

I am forever taking red out of photos. It is sooo frustrating.

Anyone else with a Canon 30D noticing this?

 

[Code]

Stadium lights flicker just like flourescent, so when your shutter speed is fast, the brightness / color shift will depend on where you catch the flicker.

A slower shutter speed will be more likely to catch the peak intensity of the light, but if high shutter speed is needed, you'll just have to shoot continuous and trash the ones that are beyond fixing.

 

[ukcatfan]

Here are a couple more thoughts. IMO, when you underexpose the problems like bad color are harder to correct. As for NR, you need to sharpen after you do it. You would want to make sure that you only sharpen once though, so do not do it before the NR. I think the sharpening should be the last thing done before converting to JPG and the final product. I think an even better solution is to do it all in RAW. You need something more than a basic RAW program to do it well though. I don't know what you are using, but you would need something like Lightroom or Bibble Pro.

 

[dr_zero]

Hmm if everything is a little to red maybe a color correcting filter ?

I have been playing with Nikon Capture NX does this one look any closer or is it too light?

 

[Steve's Girl]

I am cheap so I have not purchased a good noise reduction software package, but have the free version of noiseware. Unfortunately, that does one at a time. I will give it a try tonight with just a few to see how it comes out. Generally I have found that they are good for a pic used on the internet or something, but rather bad looking for a decent print.

Hey Andy -

After our WDW trip last year, I purchased the Noiseware Standard version for around $30. It will batch process a whole folder. It's probably the best $30 I've spent on photography stuff in a long time.

These photos I took at my daughter's dance recital. I used ISO 1600 for all of them and ran them through Noiseware. Even when printed, the noise is not noticeable. I'm sure the image is not quite as sharp, but still very usable.

This is a crop of the photo above and the noise still isn't too bad.

edited to add - I personally have found that when I underexpose, the noise is worse if I try to up the exposure in PP. I think I would try to bump the ISO up and not underexpose and see how the results are.

 

[DueyDooDah]

Hey Andy - I have noticed a reddish tint to ALL of my photo - especially in skin tones. It doesn't matter if I set a custom white balance - nothing.

I am forever taking red out of photos. It is sooo frustrating.

Anyone else with a Canon 30D noticing this?

After checking, I find the only times I get a reddish tint is on high ISO in a night or low-light indoors scene. It seems to start about ISO 640 but only happens under certain circumstances (lots of black background, really dark room with only Xmas tree lighting). But, all-in-all I don't see what you describe on my 30D as a rule.

Andrew, if you are using LR, try tweaking the Camera Calibration settings and save it as a preset. Then apply it to a select set of photos and see if it takes care of the problem.