 Betsy Labuschagne |
Setting white balance for studio I am the Canon 350D with studio flashes. I have a few questions about white balance. I tried to set a custom white balance over the weekend, it looked a bit too red, so I tried to tone it down, it’s just too difficult! My questions are: What mode are you supposed to use your white balance on for studio work. If you set a custom white balance, then I suppose you’ll set it to custom. I was wondering if you could also use flash mode, and I’ve tried the cloudy day mode and that actually looked quite good. My next question is: should you try to add some colour tone to studio shots to warm up skin tones a bit, or set it as true to life as possible? If you set a custom white balance, does it affect all the white balance modes, like flash, ect. or just have an effect on the custom. I really will appreciate all help!
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Christopher A. Vedros |
Okay, let's see if I can tackle these one at a time. Studio flashes are supposed to produce a light that is very close to daylight in color. You should be able to set your WB to flash or daylight. Some photographers recommend keeping the WB setting on cloudy all the time to get warmer tones. Use what you think looks best. If you (and your client) think adding some warmth to the skin tones looks better, then by all means do it. There are no rules. Just try things one at a time, and keep track of what you do, so you can repeat it if you like the results. If you don't like the results, click UNDO. ;-) Setting a custom WB only affects pictures taken on the custom WB setting, not those taken in other WB modes. Chris
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Betsy Labuschagne |
Thank you so much Chris, this really helps a lot!!! I was surprised to read that the WB only affects custom WB. I took some studio pics of my little boy a while ago. He has blond hair and a pale skin. They looked warm, although his skin tone still looked right. His hair was a little darker. In my more recent shoots with him, his hair looks so light and his skin tone pale. I thought that I may have set another white balance, but always use the flash WB mode, so it didn't make sense to me. I was even wondering if I had used my gold reflector for the previous pics that I liked, I don't think I did. Could it be the settings on my lights that made the difference?
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Betsy Labuschagne |
Ok, I've gone back and looked at shoots that I did from the start of the year. I haven't changed any camera settings. Where my lights used to look soft and had a 'studio glow' effect, whether they were over or under exposed, they now look hard and I seem to have lost colour. I have no idea what could be wrong. My flashes are firing fine. I have shoots lined up, and no idea how to fix this...Any suggestions will be appreciated.
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Pete H |
Post some examples as that would make it so much easier to analyze. What is your setup? Umbrellas, softbox..etc? Finally, if you shoot RAW mode, color balance can be easily corrected in post processing.
Pete
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Betsy Labuschagne |
I haven't tried correcting color balance, the lab where I do my printing does corrections for me. I can hear you gasping, I just don't feel that I have enough knowledge to do much post processing. I'm posting two examples of my son. I prefer Example 1. I know that light is never the same and even if you record exactly what you did it may look different when you try it again, but if I look at the complete shoots on my computer you can see a definate colour change.
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Betsy Labuschagne |
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Pete H |
Hi Betsy; It's very difficult to discern any color balance prob with the pics you provided..not your fault, BP doesn't reproduce the photos well. If you'll allow me to make some other suggestions: 1)I see 2 catch lights in the eyes..This is a no-no. Your fill light needs to be off angle more; or repositioning the camera or subjects head angle. The softbox is ok and you should see a catchlight in the 11 or 1 O'clock position on the eye. 2) Photo 1 seems to have the ears out of focus a tad..Try stopping down a little more..you'll have to up the power a little on the strobes. 3) Lastly; and perhaps you know this, a softbox provides it's greatest diffusion or "softness" the closer it is to your subject. That seems to defy logic, but it is true. All the best, Pete
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Betsy Labuschagne |
Thanks for your input Pete. My studio is tiny, so I tend to bring the lights too much to the front of my subjects. I use my fill at half the power, main f8 reading, fill f4. I have been doing a lot more test shots today, and still can't solve the mystery! I've even taken my lights in to be checked, I thought I may have to replace the bulbs. They said they look fine. I'm starting to wonder if I should send my camera for a service, maybe it's faulty? It doesn't make any sense. My pictures looked fine to me and now they look as if I'm lighting them with my camera's pop up flash. They look grey and pasty. I've had my studio for almost a year, and can honestly say that I don't think I've changed anything that could have this effect. I feel so frustrated. I'm going to have to cancel my weekend shoots. Thanks again for your help.
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