Compact Fluorescent globes

[Eliot_Z_Cohen]

Hi all.

I seem to be faced with an upcoming dilemma: Very soon, traditional tungsten light globes are going to be stopped being stocked and sold here in Australia.

I photograph a lot of homes, for architects and builders, and magazines. My usual technique is to drag the shutter to give a natural feel to the ambient light in the room/s and light and fill with strobe for control over contrast, exposure and colour.

There are a couple of problems with the compact fluorescent globes. First is the colour temperature. As with any fluoro, the colour temp varies with the age of the globe. The other major problem is the quality of the light coming from the globes. It's indistinct, soft, and doesn't have that nice "shape" to it that tungsten or halogen downlights have.

Any thoughts on how to address the issues being presented by these lights, short of carrying a car full of globes and changing them all as I go? Even gelling globes might not be a total solution, especially with the compact fuoro downlights.

Love to hear input and similar experiences from others in the same predicament as I am.

[Dennis_Vied]

Very good point, as we also face the same situation in the states.

In the past, we have used a long enough shutter speed to cover the cycle time of fluorescent lights, but I haven't had a chance to try that as I don't have any CFLs installed yet. I wonder if the response time of auto White Balance circuitry is fast enough to allow for individual variations in CFL color.

If I were faced with this situation, I would certainly shoot RAW so I could make corrections after the fact, but that doesn't address the situation caused by variations in individual CFL color effects, or, as you have said, in the quality of the light.

I would venture a guess that the camera manufacturers have encountered this problem somewhere along the way. It would be interesting to know what approaches, if any, they have taken to meet the problem.

[David_Buzzard]

Any kind fluorescent light is going to look horrible, no matter what you do to it. I just turn them off, or keep my shutter speed high enough that they just register as being on, and don't throw much light to screw up your colour balances. That means you also have to use a lot more flash to light the scene.

David Buzzard

[Eliot_Z_Cohen]

Yes, the light does look horrible, both in its quality, and the crossover colours you get when combining with daylight.

I think maybe I'm just going to have to adjust some of my techniques to do something similar to what David suggested.