Fluorescent light

From Nikonians Wiki - FAQs, Photo Glossary, Good Photo Locations, Help

Fluorescent light is commonly found in offices, gymnasiums, domestic strip lights, and energy-saving replacement domestic lightbulbs.

Most kinds of fluorescent light have a greenish tinge, which is invisible to the native eye, but very evident on a photograph. To avoid this, set the camera to fluorescent white balance. When shooting with fill flash, use the appropriate gel.

The distinctive colour of fluorescent is partly colour temperature, but mainly a greenish hue. When correcting an image photographed under fluorescent light with any other white balance setting, it is therefore important to correct for both of these effects. When shooting in Raw, simply select fluorescent white balance in postprocessing.

Fluorescent lights are now available with a colour balance matched to flash and without the greenish tint. These are often known as daylight bulbs, or high color rendering fluorescent light. These should be treated in the same way as flashguns for white balance.