Help! Natural Studio Lighting

redcoat36 · Dec 26, 2010

Help! I love natural light but bought the Erin Manning Portable Studio with daylight balanced lights so that I could try out studio lighting before spending a lot of money on it. I know I need to learn how to shoot with lighting for the winter months when it's cold outside, etc. I hate being a slave to the sun! The kit comes with two large softboxes and of course, the daylight balanced lights. I find I am not getting the results that I want and am very frustrated. I've gone through all white balance settings as the auto is giving me a weird look, almost greeish sometimes. So my question is, what does everyone out there use for the TYPE of lights? Should I have gotten something else? I want to do newborn portraits, children, etc. so you know the look I am going for. Thanks!

tirediron · Dec 26, 2010

Inexpensive light kits tend to be less than reliable in their WB. There are two options: (1) Set your WB to auto and place a known white or middle grey object in the frame and correct to it in post, or, (2) Use a tool such as the Expo Disc to allow you to create a custom WB for your lights. Note that you should be shooting in RAW to obtain the greatest flexibility in your post-processing and WB correction.

redcoat36 · Dec 26, 2010

Thank you! I will definitely try the gray card and keep the WB in auto. (nice website, by the way!)

ErinManning · Dec 26, 2010

Hi! It's Erin Manning, and I'm here to help you with the lights. Tell me more about your setup:
1. Where did you shoot?
2. Were there other lights on in the room?
3. How did you position the lights?
4. What camera did you use and what were your settings? Were you shooting in AWB or?
5. Did you use a reflector?
6. What color are your walls?
With a few more specifics, I can help you attain the results you want with the lights. The White Balance can vary depending on the other ambient light in your scene (tungsten, halogen, etc. household lights) and the WB setting on your camera. Shooting in RAW or taking a custom WB reading helps, but may not even be necessary depending on your setup. The educational DVD that's included is also really helpful regarding light placement and lighting ratios.

www.erinmanning.com

redcoat36 said:
Help! I love natural light but bought the Erin Manning Portable Studio with daylight balanced lights so that I could try out studio lighting before spending a lot of money on it. I know I need to learn how to shoot with lighting for the winter months when it's cold outside, etc. I hate being a slave to the sun! The kit comes with two large softboxes and of course, the daylight balanced lights. I find I am not getting the results that I want and am very frustrated. I've gone through all white balance settings as the auto is giving me a weird look, almost greeish sometimes. So my question is, what does everyone out there use for the TYPE of lights? Should I have gotten something else? I want to do newborn portraits, children, etc. so you know the look I am going for. Thanks!

redcoat36 · Dec 26, 2010

Erin Manning!! I am in shock!! HELLO! Love your studio kit! It was so simple to put together! Okay...I think I've recovered. Thank you for writing! I've been googling like crazy trying to find the right "tweak" to get the results I'm after! Watched the DVD a few times as well. Think the problem is getting the right combo of light and WB. To answer your questions:
1/2. Tried shooting in two different rooms, both dark without any other light.
3. I tried all kinds of different positions for the lights. Both low, one high, one low...you name it!
4.Camera settings were on AWB but I was getting a greenish hue (my daughter's hair is blond and was coming out reeeeally garish.) Tried all the other settings as well.
5. No reflector.
6. Very busy room with bookcases and the other had a dark armoire behind her. Didn't bother getting a proper backdrop up.

Thanks again Erin! I love natural light and loved that your kit is like a window that can be moved around! I want to get a studio look that looks like I have a huge window looking over my subjects!

GeneralBenson · Dec 26, 2010

"Daylight Balanced" seems to have a very wide definition. I would think that shooting a gray card, either before your shoot to set a custom WB, or hiding is your shot to balance later in post, would be the way to go. And shoot RAW.

IgsEMT · Dec 26, 2010

GREY CARD.

GeorgieGirl · Dec 27, 2010

Question: What does everyone do about the color of their walls? If I am balancing with Grey Card what is impact on overall tone of photo based on wall colors?

And Expo Disc, who has been using this, I have heard about it but would like to hear more.

(Should I start a new thread with so many tangent questions? :taped sh

jcolman · Dec 27, 2010

GeorgieGirl said:
Question: What does everyone do about the color of their walls? If I am balancing with Grey Card what is impact on overall tone of photo based on wall colors?

And Expo Disc, who has been using this, I have heard about it but would like to hear more.

(Should I start a new thread with so many tangent questions? :taped sh

Color walls can reflect unwanted color onto your subject if your light or lights are bouncing off the walls. To minimize color shift from the walls, try not to have your light reflect off the walls.

If you have light spilling onto your subject from color walls, you *might* be able correct the color a bit by using a grey card, however it really depends on your subject, how much color there is and your post skills.

When I shoot weddings, I like to bounce my light off the walls at the reception to achieve a nice soft light, however if the walls are colored, I won't do it. I'll use shoot thru umbrellas instead. But sometimes I still pick up a bit of unwanted color so I'll tweak the color balance in post so that skin tones look good. If I'm shooting product shots where the color must me 100% accurate, I'll make sure that the only light that is illuminating the product is coming from my lights. I know that my lights are set at 5400K with a variance of +- 100k.

I suspect that the OP's problem may be that her lights are not all that accurate in terms of color balance. She should set her camera to 5400K and shoot some tests in a totally dark room with just her lights providing illumination. If she's still getting weird colors, then it could be a number of things.

1. The lights are not daylight balanced as claimed.

2. Her post processing is whack or she's using a different color space when editing.

3. Her camera is not set to the proper color balance.

The fact that she says her photos sometimes look "greenish" leads me to think that her problem is either #2 or #3.

tirediron · Dec 27, 2010

GeorgieGirl said:
And Expo Disc, who has been using this, I have heard about it but would like to hear more.

I have and have been using an Expo Disc for several years now. It's ideal for situations where WB is difficult to calculate, BUT it is not good in low-light situations (most cameras will not capture an accurate WB in very dim conditions) or when the light is changing (it takes several seconds to capture each new WB). What it does, it does very well, and I have always found the colours/WB when I've used it to be spot-on, but it is expensive >$100 in 77mm, and only useful in certain situations.

IgsEMT · Dec 27, 2010

I suspect that the OP's problem may be that her lights are not all that accurate in terms of color balance. She should set her camera to 5400K and shoot some tests in a totally dark room with just her lights providing illumination.

OR just shoot at 1/3 below sync speed. It'll knock out enough ambient light usually (when in-doors) and will be fast enough to exclude any reflections coming in.

jcolman · Dec 27, 2010

IgsEMT said:
I suspect that the OP's problem may be that her lights are not all that accurate in terms of color balance. She should set her camera to 5400K and shoot some tests in a totally dark room with just her lights providing illumination.

Click to expand...

OR just shoot at 1/3 below sync speed. It'll knock out enough ambient light usually (when in-doors) and will be fast enough to exclude any reflections coming in.

The lights she is using are florescence and not strobe.