Flatter than a pancake! Help Please

Buckster · May 10, 2012

CollidePhotography said:
The skin tones look nice?! Thank you. I really struggle with that, WB is still a little difficult for me to grasp...

Get a white balance tool, like a gray card, and never struggle with it again.

CollidePhotography · May 10, 2012

Buckster said:
CollidePhotography said:

The skin tones look nice?! Thank you. I really struggle with that, WB is still a little difficult for me to grasp...

Click to expand...

Get a white balance tool, like a gray card, and never struggle with it again.

I just ordered one, thank you again.

KmH · May 10, 2012

F/2 is a bigger number than f/8 is, because they are fractions.

F/2 is a much bigger lens aperture opening than f/8 is too.

+1 on the gray card.

By the way, focus point distance and lens focal length also have to be considered when deciding how much, or how little, DoF you want a photo to have.

Some notes about constant lights:

A 500 watt constant light delivers that 500 watts over a 1 second time period.
If you use a shutter speed of 1/50 of a second, your exposure only uses 1/50th of the 500 watts, or only 10 of the 500 watts.
If you use a shutter speed of 1/100 of a second, your exposure only uses 1/100th of the 500 watts, or only 5 of the 500 watts.

I bet your constant lights aren't rated at 500 watts. Be very careful with constant lights around babies. Even the CFL kind of lights get hot. (I hope you have liability insurance if you're shooting other peoples infants)

Constant lights work well when you are shooting inanimate objects, can mount the camera on a tripod, and use shutter speeds longer than 1/100 or so.

jwbryson1 · May 10, 2012

Buckster said:
CollidePhotography said:

The skin tones look nice?! Thank you. I really struggle with that, WB is still a little difficult for me to grasp...

Click to expand...

Get a white balance tool, like a gray card, and never struggle with it again.

Buckster, I see you are back in Michigan. Buh-bye Kansas City.

jwbryson1 · May 10, 2012

480sparky said:
Kinda like this, only with the black slider.

Sparky, is this from Photoshop or LR3? I don't see the numbers in LR3.

480sparky · May 10, 2012

jwbryson1 said:
Sparky, is this from Photoshop or LR3? I don't see the numbers in LR3.

Capture NX2. But I'd guess any 'serious' software can do the same thing. It's just a matter of finding the slider.

CollidePhotography · May 11, 2012

KmH said:
F/2 is a bigger number than f/8 is, because they are fractions.

F/2 is a much bigger lens aperture opening than f/8 is too.

+1 on the gray card.

By the way, focus point distance and lens focal length also have to be considered when deciding how much, or how little, DoF you want a photo to have.

Some notes about constant lights:

A 500 watt constant light delivers that 500 watts over a 1 second time period.
If you use a shutter speed of 1/50 of a second, your exposure only uses 1/50th of the 500 watts, or only 10 of the 500 watts.
If you use a shutter speed of 1/100 of a second, your exposure only uses 1/100th of the 500 watts, or only 5 of the 500 watts.

I bet your constant lights aren't rated at 500 watts. Be very careful with constant lights around babies. Even the CFL kind of lights get hot. (I hope you have liability insurance if you're shooting other peoples infants)

Constant lights work well when you are shooting inanimate objects, can mount the camera on a tripod, and use shutter speeds longer than 1/100 or so.

Did I say it backwards? I'm sorry.

I'm excited to receive the gray card, I bought and expo disc too.

Thank you for all the tips, and yes I have liability insurance and am VERY careful in everything I do. Not to mention I'm only practicing with close friends and family until I'm ready to do all that goes into charging clients.