Lighting Help

[bigman606]

Take a look (exif data included) I can't seem to get the lighting just right on this. The histogram has all the data near the center but the background has a grey tint to it. What am I doing wrong? I'm using 2 5000K lights. Am I under-exposing the image?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3649/3439726527_583761fa43_o.jpg

Here's a 2nd photo where I bumped up the exposure in PP.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3605/3440722306_fa202c7b94_o.jpg

[bizkit642]

Are you setting your WB?

[DerekSimon]

I think that it is definately a white balance issue. I know sometimes I will forget to set mine when I take shots.

[bigman606]

WB is metered off the background in the first and then AWB on the 2nd.

[buurin]

To get a perfect white balance you should not use the background since it may look white to you but its almost certainly NOT a neutral color. You need a grey/white card specifically made for setting white balance.

I hear a lot of people like the whiBal but there are cheaper alternatives. http://www.rawworkflow.com/whibal/

[griptape]

I agree your white balance is a big problem, but it is still a little underexposed. White on white can be tricky sometimes (and you can pretty much ignore your meter, it won't be right, it will under expose every time). Also, it's a lot easier to get accurate with flash than it is ambient. But it can be done. First picture is with the regular CFL bulbs on my ceiling, second is with flash.

[bigman606]

Ok, thanks for the responses - products shots aren't easy. :) I have a whiBal & grey card - I'll meter off those instead. Also I'll look at using the 580 Speedlite instead. And hopefully I can avoid hotspots - figure a diffuser will help with this.

[griptape]

Ok, thanks for the responses - products shots aren't easy. :) I have a whiBal & grey card - I'll meter off those instead. Also I'll look at using the 580 Speedlite instead. And hopefully I can avoid hotspots - figure a diffuser will help with this.
Search the lighting forum for "light box". My setup for that shot was just two pieces of white foam poster board to bounce the light off of (had the flash head at 1/8th power, pointed at the poster board on the left), and then a semi gloss sheet of white paper from a local craft store. I think it cost me a grand total of $8. Produces pretty good results from anything that fits in it.

[Tareq]

Correcting the WB

[Tareq]

one more correcting

[bigman606]

Tareq - ok, how'd you do it?? PM if that is more appropriate.

[Tareq]

Tareq - ok, how'd you do it?? PM if that is more appropriate.

Very easy, but i will tell you if we chat somewhere. ;)

[MattMoore]

I usually get pretty good results from my lightbox and a single strobe :

http://photos.theartofmoore.com/p261328195

Assuming the WB is set appropriately.

[tonydee]

Agree with the importance of flash and WB, but an overlooked point seems to be the misunderstanding of the histogram...

358339

Yes it spikes in the middle, but notice the bar underneath from black to white? That's your axis, and the graph above shows how much surface area in your photo is at that level of exposure. So, having a lot of graph in the middle means the photo has a lot of surface area with the intensity levels directly underneath that part of the graph. They are grey. It does make sense. When you use the camera's automatic metering, it will always put average brightness from the part of the image it considers in the middle of the graph like this, so when the scene has little contrast it will end up the same intensity of grey regardless of whether it was really a bright low-contrast scene, a dark low-contrast scene, or somewhere in between. You need to override the camera's behaviour and explicitly dial up the brighter exposure you want using the wheel on your 30D... probably up to +2EV in this case, but check the in-camera histogram after taking a shot, then brighten or darken further as necessary.

This "exposing to the right" technique is not only used for scenes you want as bright as possible without being blown, but is also used to maximise image quality... a bright shot darkened in post-processing will have less noise and more shadow detail than a shot than directly at the eventual exposure level, though you probably won't notice the difference unless you're doing some other post-processing or adjustment on it that accentuates quality issues.

Cheers, Tony