White balance will be the death of me...

[ORourkeK]

Yes, your most recent photos are so much improved!!! Awesome progress. Just wondering : about how far would you say that the mono light is placed from the light tent?

Sorry Derrel, your post is now above mine. I tried to redo mine since the images aren't showing properly on my end. Anyway, to answer your question, the mono is about 2 feet back. I tried a few different distances and this seemed the best. Do you think I could have done better if it was backed off or if I turned down the brightness a bit to try and match the softbox's a bit better?

 

[ORourkeK]

Here is a teacup redemption.

1.
IMG_0686 by KC ORourke, on Flickr


2.
IMG_0676 by KC ORourke, on Flickr


3.
IMG_0671 by KC ORourke, on Flickr


4.
IMG_0669 by KC ORourke, on Flickr


5.
IMG_0665 by KC ORourke, on Flickr

 

[Derrel]

Yes, your most recent photos are so much improved!!! Awesome progress. I think the backlight is about.4 to .7 EV too strong, but overall the lighting
Is nicer than before. It's late and I
Am On My phone.

 

[ORourkeK]

Thanks! I think my issue is that I am just unable to match the power and quality of the mono with the two soft box's. Thinking about picking up another ProMaster Unplugged.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Before you go any further, since you made the committment to do this then obviously it needs to get done. But so far it's involved a good bit of time and additional expense for equipment (which seems to indicate you didn't have what was necessary to do the job) for no pay. Which I suppose is fine if you intend to do this type work and planned for purchasing equipment you don't yet have.

It seems like you need to find other ways to learn and practice instead of taking on clients doing unpaid work without the necessary experience and expertise. That may not help you develop a good reputation as a photographer, and may lead to expectations that you'll work way under the going rate.

Develop your skill level to a point that will enable you to be competitive and successful doing work for clients. Get on American Society of Media Photographers - Homepage or PPA and find resources and info. from professional photographers organizations.

 

[ORourkeK]

Hmmm. This is interesting. Trial and error is no longer an acceptable way of learning? I'm also not marketing myself yet. This job is for a family member who already has pictures up on the site for the items, I am just improving them. I appreciate your input and insight though. I plan on giving this a more in depth response when I get home.

 

[ORourkeK]

Also, I have completed over 100 items on my few trips there. I do not post them all. You can see where I started with my original post, and below is what all of the items I have completed tonight look like. This is not edited what so ever. I am starting to achieve 255:255:255 out of camera. This experience has been invaluable to me, and I have not hindered anyone in the process.

Edit: I lied, I cropped it in post XD

IMG_0793 by KC ORourke, on Flickr

 

[Derrel]

SNIP> This is not edited what so ever. I am starting to achieve 255:255:255 out of camera. This experience has been invaluable to me, and I have not hindered anyone in the process.

Edit: I lied, I cropped it in post XD

IMG_0793 by KC ORourke, on Flickr

Looks pretty good! It takes a bit of time to learn anything "new"...and you're getting there, pretty quickly I think. Just keep in mind, the Inverse Square Law, and the way light "behaves", which is to say in a manner that is counterintuitive to most people. When there's a problem in getting even lighting, the FIRST thing to do on a tabletop-sized set is usually, to move the lights BACK, farther away from the subject, and thus to create more-even lighting, with LESS fall-off across short distances.

A second thing can be to realize that a softbox might not have really even light distribution if it is angled; it's quite easy to have the center part of the box at let's just say, 3 feet from the set, and the top at 2 feet 6 inches, and the bottom of the box at 3 feet six inches. At such a short distance range, the difference in light that hits the tabletop set can be pretty significant! Buuuut...if the box is moved back, to say, 10 feet, the difference in lighting will be much less.

 

[ORourkeK]

Thanks, Derrel! Your comment about the light being a bit too bright really helped. At the start of my session, I really studied the lights to make sure they looked even. Once I was happy with how it looked, I started to shoot the items. It has been a little under a week since I started this thread, and I have learned a TON that will help me in all aspects of photography. I won't be posting any new pictures on this thread. I believe I have achieved what I was looking for when I created it. Thank you all for your wisdom!

 

[greybeard]

This is what I do: Set the WB to Auto, shoot RAW, include a gray card in the 1st shot and any shot with a different exposure. In lightroom I use the WB selector eyedropper and sample the gray card. Take note of the WB sliders are set from the sample gray card. Adjust the other shots from the same exposure to the WB slider settings from the gray card. It works great, especially on shots with mixed lighting like fluorescent with flash fill.

 

[ORourkeK]

Oops photos are no longer available

Sorry! I removed them from my Flickr not even thinking about this post. I will fix this tonight when I get home for anyone that happens to stumble across this post.