Mixing daylight and CFL

[redbourn]

A lightbox that I ordered arrived today, along with a diffuser, silver and white reflectors with a stand and a 150w CFL bulb.

I have a lot of natural diffused light in my apartment and I have shutters for the windows.

So should I close the shutters when I shoot using the lightbox?

I am using a Nikon D3300 and Nikkor 1.8G - so set the WB to incandescent?

I want to try the ideas expressed here ..

One Light Food Photography | Fstoppers

Thank you for any replies,

Michael

 

[Designer]

So should I close the shutters when I shoot using the lightbox?l

Besides mixing of light colors, your windows are (presumably) spaced out around the house, so maybe the issue is where the light is coming from, as much as differing types of light. So depending on how you want your photograph, if you want light from only one side, (the softbox, for instance) then the light from your windows will spoil the effect and probably should be shuttered. Try it both ways to see the differences.

As for your white balance, the softbox light is CFL, so you should use the "fluorescent" white balance, not the incandescent.

If your room lights are incandescent, change out the light in the softbox to incandescent also, so that all the lights are the same. And close the shutters in the daytime.

If, however, the room lights are fluorescent, then the CFL in the softbox should be fairly close, so just use the fluorescent WB in the camera. And shutter the windows in the daytime.

 

[Derrel]

I would of course shoot in raw, but set to Fluourescent, not Incandescent. See how that looks.

 

[redbourn]

So should I close the shutters when I shoot using the lightbox?l

Besides mixing of light colors, your windows are (presumably) spaced out around the house, so maybe the issue is where the light is coming from, as much as differing types of light. So depending on how you want your photograph, if you want light from only one side, (the softbox, for instance) then the light from your windows will spoil the effect and probably should be shuttered. Try it both ways to see the differences.

As for your white balance, the softbox light is CFL, so you should use the "fluorescent" white balance, not the incandescent.

If your room lights are incandescent, change out the light in the softbox to incandescent also, so that all the lights are the same. And close the shutters in the daytime.

If, however, the room lights are fluorescent, then the CFL in the softbox should be fairly close, so just use the fluorescent WB in the camera. And shutter the windows in the daytime.

Thanks for the reply.

No problem closing the shutters.

Didn't know that CFL was fluorescent !

Room lights are overhead fluorescents. But should I use them?

Michael

P.S. Not getting notifications to this post and will check why.

 

[Designer]

Didn't know that CFL was fluorescent !

Room lights are overhead fluorescents. But should I use them?

CFL stands for "Compact FLuorescent"

There again, it will depend on the direction you want for the light on your photographic subject.

If you want to emulate the "one-light" scheme shown in the example, then you should be very conscious of where the light comes from. By having all the room lights on, there will not be just "one light", but many.

 

[redbourn]

I would of course shoot in raw, but set to Fluourescent, not Incandescent. See how that looks.

Thanks.

I shoot raw and convert to DNG on import.

It's a minefield for a beginner.

 

[redbourn]

Seems like some good stuff here for beginners and maybe others too.

A Simple Way To Light Your Food | Fstoppers