Learning white balance and manual flash

[heathermarie]

Okay, so I thought these looked ok on preview, but apparently they look awful. What am I doing wrong!!!! I really don't know what I"m doing I guess. These aren't good shots, I was just shooting for the sake of seeing what the outcome was. The first one shot f/5.0, ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/60, customer white balance setting. The second one of my husband is all the same except f/4.0 ISO 800. Someone please show me what they SHOULD look like... ;)

[heathermarie]

Should I shoot in raw and fix them all? That seems like far too much work..

[NOsquid]

Try flash white balance setting?

[re_guderian]

Should I shoot in raw and fix them all? That seems like far too much work..

Shooting in RAW helps for the white balance problems, like in the cat picture. The second one should look more like Brad Pitt...

[heathermarie]

Lol, I was making my husband hold up a white piece of a paper but he got sick of me real fast, how else am I supposed to know!

[NOsquid]

Here is the first, blue channel is clipped badly on the 2nd, hard to correct.

[Curtis N]

Tell us more about the lighting. Manual flash? At what power setting, pointed what direction?

[heathermarie]

Both were +1 and with the cat is was 45 degrees up straight left bouncing off the wall, more like the fridge I guess, and my husband, was bounced off the ceiling, he is looking at a monitor.. hmm

[heathermarie]

Here's 2 more, this is using my new kit, I"m just trying to figure it out, that's all. I guess I just don't get white balance. Well I know what it should look, I just don't know how to correct it without blowing out the picture. Both taken f 4.5, iso 100, shutter 1/160, strobe to the right and soft box on his left.

[heathermarie]

Here's how I think it should look, man I need to recalibrate my monitor ...

While I'm at it, any good tips for avoiding all that background clutter, seams n creases n such. I just photoshop it out.. fastest way to photoshop that stuff anyone?

[Curtis N]

Both were +1Ok, that's not manual flash. That's camera in manual mode and flash in E-TTL mode, which is fine.

For White balance, Flash WB or AWB usually get fairly close as long as you're bouncing off a neutral color. If you are carefully following the procedure in your manual for setting a custom white balance and the colors don't look right, then monitor calibration might be your issue.

Based on your posted images and comments, I am compelled to point out that white balance and exposure are completely different things.

[heathermarie]

Absolutely, let me give this one more shot...no exposure, just brought down the blue.. can't seem to get it to white though

[heathermarie]

Maybe I need a different backdrop, this one is quite thin :( I bet if I had white paper this would have turned out better because to me the white balance on the subject looks fine

[Curtis N]

It's critical that you understand light fall-off, not to mention the nature of reflections. The parts of a white sheet that are close to the light will be brighter than the parts further away. Images you see with a completely white backdrop are made with a separate light to illuminate the backdrop. Otherwise it will look grey because it is further from the lights than the subject is.

In this shot, I had a flash unit on the white seamless paper right behind the subject to light up the background. Notice that it's brighter than the same paper undeneath her.

http://performancephoto.smugmug.com/photos/227935182_M8Muk-L.jpg

This is a good thing. Otherwise, white clothing would loose all detail and any sense of depth or form. Wouldn't it be a shame if these white shirts had no shades of grey to show their shape?

http://performancephoto.smugmug.com/photos/232384314_dkFJf-M.jpg

[tzalman]

Should I shoot in raw and fix them all? That seems like far too much work..
You are mistaken. It is no more work when the camera stuff is done right and far less work then trying to save a screwed up jpg, to say nothing of the grief avoided.

[PhotosGuy]

to say nothing of the grief avoided. Waiting to adjust WB after shooting RAW may be a mistake. Curtis N found that a blown red channel is a problem:
How NOT to expose to the right (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=93712)

More info on how correcting WB affects exposure levels in a bad way:
White Balance, the Secret Weapon (http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/2007/11/white-balance-the-secret-weapo-1.html)

[Curtis N]

Waiting to adjust WB after shooting RAW may be a mistake. Curtis N found that a blown red channel is a problem:
How NOT to expose to the right (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=93712)

More info on how correcting WB affects exposure levels in a bad way:
White Balance, the Secret Weapon (http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/2007/11/white-balance-the-secret-weapo-1.html)If you're using your histogram to check exposure, then I agree. The RGB histogram is created from the embedded JPEG.

If you're using a meter, it doesn't matter.

[sinitry23]

http://performancephoto.smugmug.com/photos/232384314_dkFJf-M.jpg


How do you get lighting similar to the picture above? Does the photographer bounce the flash from the ceiling or use a bounce card? I love the look of this picture. It looks really sharp and clear. Can I achieve the same results with my 40D and 24-70 L lens and 430ex flash? If so how do I get that tack sharp image? High shutter speeds?

[NOsquid]

If your jpg's have some contrast added (likely) then checking the histogram for exposure might not be very accurate.