17:100 Strangers - Unexpected Technical Difficulty

Jeremy was working on the Information Stall at the Michelago May Fair and, with his bright yellow Rural Fire Service outfit was an instant and obvious choice for a portrait shot. He told me he has been a member of the nearby Colinton Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade since 2002. He was very interested in the “100 Strangers” project and entirely willing to be a subject. And that was where the problem began, when I took the portrait shot you see here under the bright orange marquee, then tried for a wider shot of him in his “yellows”.

Because my camera usually has very good auto white balance, I use that as my default setting. But the combination of orange/yellow clothing, an orange tent over the top and a purple tent in the background was obviously too extreme for the system and led to some very unlikely (over-blue) results. At that stage, Jeremy had several people waiting for his time and I was called away, so I agreed to chat with him again later.

Several hours later we again caught up and I found that not only is he also a keen photographer himself but that he also is a self-employed graphic designer. Just my luck, when I demonstrate my errors in front of a subject, that they should turn out to be an expert! Anyway, we had another crack at the full length shot and again found a very blue cast: but I was shooting in RAW, so correcting the colour balance was not too difficult and gave the second shot. It was a useful lesson for me on unexpected colour casts.

I greatly appreciate your patience with these shots Jeremy, and hope you approve of the results. This picture is 17 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page