Portrait shots with natural light Advice needed please

Hi Guys

Here are two images I took yesterday afternoon at around 4:30pm. The light was not to bright or strong. I used a gold reflector on the first image to warm the face a little. Maybe needs cropping to get rid of the white top which is over exposed.

I have to enter an image next week for grading using natural lighting. This is my first attempt at outside lighting with the K10D. I used the 18-55mm lens at around 55mm. The problem I have is the images seem to me to be a little blueish especially the white areas of clothing and the second image on the face. It also appears to have an un natural skin tone look. If you look at the blurred tree branches top right of the second image they to look blue. Is this a white balance problem ??

I am not sure if it's the way I see it on my LCD monitor or not. I know the first shot is a little over exposed also.

I am going to do another shoot tommorrow at the same time using a white reflector. I think I will get my friends daughter to wear different colour clothes.

What are your opinions on the photos, what advice can you offer and what do you suggest I try.

Thanks Pete

Hi Pete
I seem to remember you're using Silkypix!?

If so (IMHO) try adjusting the colour temp to about 6800 and colour deflection to + 8 or 9 - knocks the blue out and adds more pink.

Crop them a bit and you have nice shots.

Pete,
As Rodger mentioned, you can adjust the colour temperature very easily if you've shot RAW and are using Silkypix. You can try manually setting the temperature, or use the "Skin sampler" in Silkypix to set the WB.
Even better - take a test shot holding a white piece of paper and use the "White sampler" to set the WB.

The "glow" on the clothes is down to the gold reflector. DSLRs favour white (and silver if you want a "hard" light). Gold tends to max out the red channel. You can always add warmth in Silkypix by tweaking the WB, or by adding a Photo Filter adjustment layer in Photoshop (or more complex: adding a "Color Balance" adjustment layer which gives more control).

Do watch your backgrounds when you shoot The split of light and dark is a bit distracting for me - it draws my eye away from the face. Don't be afraid to try different angles (looking from above etc) - whatever engages with the subject and helps the background too

Have fun
Matt

Hi Pete,

A very useful tip for getting the desired expression, is to have them looking straight at the camera (initially at least) and then get them to lean their head forward or back, whilst holding the gaze. Get your favourite guinea pig.. wife/husband, gf/bf to do this and it makes a big difference to their expression. They lean their head forward, and their eyes open wider, making them look friendlier, lean the head back, and the eyes close, giving them either a more studious, or err.. a less endearing look.

Take either of the above shots from from above.. I assume you're a little taller than your friend's daughter.. but make sure she's looking at the camera, but by moving her eyes rather than her whole head. Two advantages, it'll make her look more "doe eyed", which is always nice, and it gets rid of any problems with a potentially distracting background.

HTH

Cheers

Liam

Thanks Guys,

Both shots where taken as Jpegs. I will shoot again tommorrow

Matt I have read about the above many times. So if I take a shot of some white paper at the scene where I am doing my shoot what do i do then ?? The shot will tend to look grey off the paper. What is this going to tell me and what shoul I ajudt in Camera. I realise it is to do with white balance but what exactly am I looking for from the result of the white paper ??

Pete

The shot of the white paper is your 'reference white'. That is, when you are editing, you make the white balance adjustment to show the paper as being white. Then you apply that setting to your other shots taken in exactly the same lighting conditions.

Alternatively, you take a pic of the white paper to make a manual white balance setting in-camera for all the remaining shots in any given lighting situation. Then take another shot of the white paper and keep it. When you are editing, if the paper shot doesn't look white, you know you have a monitor calibration issue.

If the lighting conditions change, repeat this process.

If you were to invest in an Expodisc, all your white balance issues disappear. It is an excellent tool and can be used for incident (as opposed to reflected) light readings as well.

Peter (Mannesty),
I wouldn't say the "all of your problems" disappear with an Expodisc
You've got another thing to learn to use (and it can be used wrongly) And with mixed and complex lighting it's still often easier to use the reflected method. But yes, the Expodisc is a nice tool.

Pete - preferably get your model to hold the white paper in front of them, then take that as a shot. If you shoot RAW then that's all you need to do during the shoot. Retake that shot whenever the lighting changes appreciably.

When you are back at the PC, you load up the white test shot into Silkypix (or anything else for that matter), select the White Balance adjustment tab, and pick the dropper tool - then you just click on the white paper and Silkypix will take a reading from the white and setup the white balance for you. (You may want to slightly tweak it to make it slightly warmer/cooler - that's up to you)

You can then just Ctrl-C to copy the WB setting, go back to the thumbnail/folder view, select all of the shots in the same lighting conditions, and press Ctrl-V. Silkypix will apply the white balance to all of your shots in one hit

If you shoot JPG, then you can use the in-camera manual WB setting. But this isn't necessary for RAW shooting (if you do it though, your previews in camera will be correctly coloured).

Hope that makes sense!
Matt

Agreed. You can also buy the wrong size, like I did.

I thought a 67mm version would be big enough for my needs. I soon discovered it wasn't. As soon as I bought the 12-24mm DA that is, with it's 77mm filter thread.

That said, it fits most of my other lenses. I just put my 16-45mm DA on, set white balance with Expodisc, then change lenses. Not ideal I know, but I've not had any issues so far.

LOL! I have the 67mm too. I just hold it over the 12-24.

HINT: If you want a really, really cheap way of getting incidental WB then Lee filters do a three pack of white translucent caps for £3 from Speedgraphic They are huge and will fit anything (they are supposed to clip over the Lee filter adaptor ring).

With the *ist-D I used the Expodisc all the time, using the dedicated WB button to grab a white balance in camera. However, with the K10D's manual white balance being so fiddly and the file size so large I haven't bothered so far (especially since Silkypix does a pretty excellent job of getting it with the skin sampler - or maybe it's also because I have more experience of picking the WB manually!)

Matt

Setting WB has been well covered above. Just a mention that in creative photography we shouldn't get totally hung up on correct technique. Some of the greatest photographs have broken the rules, and this can apply to white balance as well. If you don't want a technically neutral result, then WB enables you to set up any colour balance you want...

Of course it is a good idea to know the way to set WB and be able to manage it properly. Knowing the method is necessary before we throw it away in a bid to be creative.

Pete
You don't have to re-shoot if you've got Silkypix you can adjust the JPG as well as PEF/DNG

Thanks Guys

God I have got a lot to learn

Pete

Pete - it never stops

Lots of good advice as usual above but it would be easier just to throw away te gold reflector in the first place, save a lot of time and effort in post production as well s posting here

Others are far more expert than I am on the subject of getting the whites right.

But I'm curious as to why you framed the shots with the edge of the tree trunk splitting her in half both times.

For me it rather spoils them, since to my mind the background distracts from the actual subject.