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10/19/2006 11:02:50 AM · #1 |
I have a school dance I'm taking portraits for. They are setting me up in a classroom with flourescent lights!!
Does anyone have any tips on working with the lighting so the pictures turn out ok? Is there anything other than my flash I should use?
Thanks guys!
Message edited by author 2006-10-19 11:09:05. |
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10/19/2006 11:05:54 AM · #2 |
You have talking pictures? Aren't those movies? ;)
Custom white balance - shoot a gray card in the light you will be photographing in and use that image as your white balance.
Message edited by author 2006-10-19 11:06:25. |
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10/19/2006 11:06:27 AM · #3 |
if its a strong external flash - no problem. if you got only your weak built-in flash - forget it, go to ISO 400 or 800 and set WB to fluorescent
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10/19/2006 11:09:37 AM · #4 |
| I have a strong flash I use, not the built in. Good points by both of you. Thank you! |
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10/19/2006 11:12:57 AM · #5 |
Shoot in RAW and white balance on Auto. I think you're gonna run into all sorts of lighting at a dance.
If the WB is wrong - you can change it in the RAW conversion process.
OH ... PORTRAITS!!! ...I missed that - anyway, I still stick to the RAW idea if it an option for you.
Message edited by author 2006-10-19 11:14:58.
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10/19/2006 12:50:08 PM · #6 |
Got a light meter?
What is the light in the room and what is your shooting setting with the flash?
If there's 3 stops or more difference the ambient flourescents won't affect the exposure.
If it's less then they will cause a color shift - so if the lighting ratio remains constant (some flourescents flicker and so their output varies!) then the WB wil be the same. If the ratio changes (eTTL for example will read every shot and the color of the clothing and skin will affect the exposure reading and the flash output will vary) the the color will change from shot to shot.
best deal is use two studio strobe and shoot from a tripod. you can custom WB one shot or shoot raw and fix it later wiht one click (in canon's DPP anyway). If you can dim some of the room lights even better.
Message edited by author 2006-10-19 12:50:38.
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10/20/2006 03:46:35 AM · #7 |
| additionally it might be worth considering picking up a fluorescent color 'gel' for your flash to bring it closer to the ambient light. The more different the colors of the light are in a mixed light picture, the worse things are. |
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10/20/2006 06:33:17 AM · #8 |
If your camera does not have flourescent kill button, then use the one supplied in the classroom on the wall (The Strobist paraphrased).
Message edited by author 2006-10-20 06:33:28. |
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10/20/2006 07:07:14 AM · #9 |
| I second the suggestion to use a gel on your flash, if it's impossible to switch off the fluorescent lighting. If you have light sources with different color temperatures, it's very difficult to get your WB correct in postprocessing. |
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10/20/2006 08:53:19 AM · #10 |
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:
Got a light meter?
What is the light in the room and what is your shooting setting with the flash?
If there's 3 stops or more difference the ambient flourescents won't affect the exposure.
If it's less then they will cause a color shift - so if the lighting ratio remains constant (some flourescents flicker and so their output varies!) then the WB wil be the same. If the ratio changes (eTTL for example will read every shot and the color of the clothing and skin will affect the exposure reading and the flash output will vary) the the color will change from shot to shot.
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You can not tell what the color temperature is with a light meter. You need a Color Temperature Meter.
Only tungsten makes a "dramatic" shift with color due to using dimmers. The less voltage in a tungsten lamp, the warmer it gets. Daylight, and flouresants don't shift as dramatically and this is where a color temp meter comes in handy.
Prof_Fate, what you are talking about is exposure.
Cool Whites are not of a good color. Their Kelvin hits the green spectrum of color in standard flouresants.
Your flash is hitting daylight coloring.
With the two differant Kelvins, the color contrast is going to look at the very least interesting, and at the worst like someone just threw up.
Use eschelar suggestion. After you CB your camera. Have with you a chunck of Quarter, or maybe even Half Plus Green color correction gell. Slap a piece of that onto your flash.
Shoot RAW.
When in post, change CB to tungsten, or what ever suits your fancy.
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10/20/2006 02:32:31 PM · #11 |
Kelvin (color temperature) doesn't tell you all about the light.
As eschelar suggested, gell your flash if you don't turn off the room lights. Or turn off the fluorescents, use your flash, and bring in a couple of daylight balanced incandescent or photo lights to keep the room lit. Or if the fluorescents are bright enough, use a couple of reflectors.
Different types of fluorescent lights have lots of different color temperatures, and some may have the same color temperature as a flash or incandescent light, but may have a greater amount of green light. I've seen instances with mixed flash and fluorescent where the skin looked green on the sides of the face and upper arms (where most of the light was from fluorescents), but was properly exposed on the forehead (where the flash predominated) |
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10/20/2006 02:53:33 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by American_Horse:
You can not tell what the color temperature is with a light meter. You need a Color Temperature Meter.
Prof_Fate, what you are talking about is exposure.
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Exactly right. And a meter is all you need.
Set up a some strobes in a dark room. Set the subject at say F8 and the background 3 stops lower - it'll be black in the image. If you over expose it by 3 stops it'll be nearly pure white.
Same theory applies to the situation in question. If the strobes are set 3 stops over the ambient, then the ambient will have little or no effect on the exposure, and therefore won't affect the color or WB.
Take a shot at a wedding for example, in a church or reception hall - set WB to daylight or flash and shoot the subject: the strobe lights the subject and the colors are correct while the BG, which is tungsten lit is going to be yellow. Since everything in the room is lit with the same tungsten light the subject should be yellow too, but since the flash is daylight balanced as is the film/sensor and that light overpowered the ambient, you get the proper color on the subject.
Gelling the strobes is the best option for a wedding, but not needed for a studio set up.
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10/21/2006 11:59:20 AM · #13 |
Originally posted by hankk:
Kelvin (color temperature) doesn't tell you all about the light.
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BUT....If your color temperature is the same all around....if the ambient kelvin is constant, and your key, back, fill and what ever else light you may have is equal, you can change the CB in post and everthing will match. Your post production is easier, and cleaner.
You can spend tons of money "masking" the bad color. OR...you can spend next to nothing putting a bit of gell on your flash to equal the kelvin of the 'flos'.
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10/21/2006 02:11:56 PM · #14 |
If you are simply shooting portraits, Prof is right, you simply have to crank up whatever lights you have to overpower the nasty flourescents, but unless you have multiple lights, you are likely to have some less than satisfactory results.
If you are dragging the shutter to use the ambient light as background fill, you will have a problem and putting a green gel over the strobe and using a custom WB is the best approach.
You could also put magenta gels over the flourescent tubes, but that's a LOT of gels and a big PITA. |
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10/21/2006 02:24:59 PM · #15 |
| I imagine the room has light switches? turn off as many as you can so your flash is fighting with less, and work to place your backdrop in the most favorable lighting you can. Can you get in to scout the room layout early so you can plan ahead? |
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10/21/2006 08:19:31 PM · #16 |
BTW, Canon Flashes in Av mode set the exposure to be half from the flash, half from ambient (sometimes P mode does this also). So you get the worst possible mixed lighting.
Use Manual mode on the camera. Gell the flash or turn off the room lights. |
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