Light Box = Yellow Pictures

[AdrianeA]

Hi,
I'm new here and need help.

I built a light box out of white foamcore. I'm using 4 utility clip on lights with 100w bulbs. I had a hard time finding that wattage in natural light bulbs so I'm using "soft white" bulbs in all but one lamp.

All of my pictures are coming out yellow, instead of the bright, vibrant white I'm looking for. I'm trying to photograph crystal jewelry and some other things and nothing is working. I've moved the lamps to just about every position, faced the box toward the window and away from it.

Could it be the box is too big? Its about 36" wide and 24" deep.

I'm using a Fujifilm E550 Digital. I've tried with with & without the flash also.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

Adriane

[drg]

Welcome to Photography Review!

Are you using a custom White Balance setting? If so make sure that what is being used as the reference is truly "white" and not some slight off color shade or a paper that has lots of brighteners in it to make look white with ink, paint, chalk, etc. applied to it.

When using a light box it is important to use the same kind of lamps throughout the light source. Mixed mode lighting if color is important, does not work as well even with custom White Balancing as it doesn't 'average' out. There will be pools of different temperatures of light that will show in the final photo. There are several ways to correct this, but the same kind of lamp is the first place to start. Even mixing soft with clear can cause many problems.

Look for Westinghouse RealLite at almost any hardware/home improvement store, even groceries will have them. They come in sizes readily available up 150W. 250W are not that difficult to find either. There are some other continuous source lights that will also work for this that are not over priced.

You other choices include regular photographic HMI (not cheap!), or flourescent in many different 'flavors'.

Start with all the same lighting, use Custom White Balancing, even profile your camera with a color chart under the lights and see what happens.

There is one other inexpensive solution. Use a color cast or white balance adjustment tool in post processing and select a known white or black area with the eyedropper/tool.

Let us know how it works and what else we can suggest/do/offer as assistance.

Again, Welcome to PR!