Exercise:Tungsten and Fluorescent Lighting

I waited to the light outside was a little darker than that of the room i was in, I stood by the window, looked outside for a few minutes and then looked inside to see what colour the light appeared to be before my eyes first adjusted.
Outside was a dark dullish blue as the sun near enough gone but when i looked inside, the light from a tungsten light appeared yellow in colour until my eyes had adjusted.
I did this again, outside still appearing a dullish blue, but the light inside a whitish blue. Maybe my eyes had not yet adapted properly from the lighting outside.
I composed a photograph with the lighting outside and that of a tungsten lamp inside both visible.

The first photograph i took, i set my white balance to auto. The photograph looks very natural.

I then took another photograph with the white balance set to tungsten. Everything is tinted extremely blue.

The third i set to daylight. Slightly more of a dullish blue tint than the first photograph, however still looking very natural.

Being  small lamp, i didn't really feel this gave off a lot of light making a great difference to the room inside. I notice the ceiling light was fitted with tungsten bulbs, and so repeated the exercise to see if there was any difference.

With the white balance set to auto, the room appears very orange. Whites are not white. The outside, although still the same level of light before, seems a lot darker because of the overpowering light.

White balance here is set to tungsten, Still a slight blueish glow, but a lot white than before and definitely a more natural looking photograph

The white balance her is set to daylight. Again still slightly orange, but a lot more subtle than the automatic.


I then entered a room with fluorescent lighting very commonly used throughout household in the form of CFL bulbs. I had some of these fitted in my living room, and so used those.

The first photograph i took, I set the white balance to automatic. The light itself seems very white, whilst the light outside a dull blue.

I then changed the white balance to fluorescent, The light inside still stayed quite white, although a little darker. But the light outside, seemed to glow an electric blue, it almost looks radioactive the glow is that strong.

I then tried another setting using a fluorescent lamp.

The white white balance her is set to fluorescent. The light outside is not glowing a bright blue this time, however the peach coloured blinds to have a blue tint to them. The light itself reflecting on the light frame is very white.

The white balance here is set to auto. I cannot think of another way to describe the light here, other than white. The light looks white throughout. The outside lighting remains dark and unchanged. Perhaps a little darker than it seemed when actually taking the photograph. This scene looks very strong, and fairly natural. Albeit slightly white. My favourite of all the shots.