White backgrounds ..

D

Danny133

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following on from the jewellery thread i was after some advice ..

if shooting a subjetc in a poorly lit room with a very low aperture to allow light etc the background always looks yellowy or dull .. i have ordered 2 off camera flashes BUT i have just read about over exposing .. surely by doing this i will only end up over exposing the subject also?
 
You over expose the background by lighting that separately to the subject. The trick is to have enough room between the two and balance the light. It's a skill.
 
If you have a white background in a room lit by room lighting 9tungsten), the camera will see the light as yellow - our eyes compensate better for this.

So your image will have a warmer tone. The solution for the colour is to either switch to a tungsten white balance in the camera or do a custom white balance.

This will not turn the background white probably still grey but as noted above, you need to light the background seperately in order to get it white. You need to get about a stop or so more light on the background than on your subject and you don't want any of that light spilling onto your subject.

Sounds complicated but once you get used to it it's fairly simple to set up but can be awkward to master!

Look up the colour temperature of light.
 
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So auto White balance is no good?

If I go for manual kelvin what sort of number is good?
 
theres a good chart here for the light colour...

http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/page/001/CTGY/ColorTemp

however its irrelevant, you should be able to set a custom white ballance in camera, take a picture of the white background under the lighting your going to use then set it from that, it should adjust the colours for you...

if none of these work why not shoot in RAW and process it through lightroom?
 
Danny133 said:
So auto White balance is no good?

If I go for manual kelvin what sort of number is good?
Click to expand...

Switch to Tungsten (adds blue to neutralise the yellow) but a custom balance is the way to go and get an accurate WB.
 
so i should really be using the custom kelvinn white balance?

and does this mean i shouldnt keep using auto and i should get into the habit of selecting a WB every time im in a new envrionment?
 
If you want consistent images use a suitable white balance - I use custom or flash most of the time. Flash makes my images warmer but they are then all the same and consistent and easily fixed later. I don't use a particular kelvin as really you need to measure the light you are in to get it right.

A simple way to do a custom WB is to hold an A4 sheet of white paper at arms length. Fill the frame and shoot it. Now delve into the camera menu and select custom WB and it will ask what image you want to use. Select the paper you just shot. It will look yellow or blue or something depending on the light you are in.

Now go to the WB button on the top of the camera and set that to custom WB.

Now shoot the paper again and it will be a nice neautral grey (taking it you shoot without adding EC to make it white)..
 
If you put the camera on live view, you can flick through the white balance options and see how the LCD changes. See the handbook and it will tell you what each setting is in terms of Kelvins.

Auto white balance seems to work okay in daylight, when basically is doesn't have to do anything, but tends to struggle in most other conditions, especially artificial light.

I find the presets are pretty good, but if you want to get it right, and consistently right, then do a custom white balance as described above (also in the handbook). Very easy. Or you can correct it in post processing.
 
HoppyUK said:
If you put the camera on live view, you can flick through the white balance options and see how the LCD changes. See the handbook and it will tell you what each setting is in terms of Kelvins.

Auto white balance seems to work okay in daylight, when basically is doesn't have to do anything, but tends to struggle in most other conditions, especially artificial light.

I find the presets are pretty good, but if you want to get it right, and consistently right, then do a custom white balance as described above (also in the handbook). Very easy. Or you can correct it in post processing.
Click to expand...

Or you can correct it in post processing..... if shooting in RAW.

Much more difficult with a jpg
 
I can't photograph White paper as the background is plain the camera has nothing to focus on and won't shut
 
Danny133 said:
I can't photograph White paper as the background is plain the camera has nothing to focus on and won't shut
Click to expand...

Just switch the lens to manual focus. Or reassign AF to the back button.
 
EOS_JD said:
Or you can correct it in post processing..... if shooting in RAW.

Much more difficult with a jpg
Click to expand...

Exactly the same with a jpeg - no difference at all; this is a myth perpetuated by (people on) the Internet.... :)
 
Danny133 said:
How do I correct in cs5? From jpeg
Click to expand...

You mean the WB?? If so....

Edit > Preferences > Camera Raw, and then.....

bim00p.jpg


Your JPEG's will now open initially in camera raw and you can adjust the WB from there before opening in PS.....
 
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Danny133 said:
Af to back button? Sorry can u explain mate
Click to expand...

One of the custom functions allows you to use the * button to focus and separates the AF from AE. When you have pressthe shutter button normally the AF will lock as will the Auto Exposure Sometimes (mostly) you don't really want that so splitting the two is a good thing but can take some getting used to.

Don't worry about that for now. Just switch the lens to MF and take the shot then switch back to AF.
 
DekHog said:
You mean the WB?? If so....

Edit > Preferences > Camera Raw, and then.....

bim00p.jpg


Your JPEG's will now open initially in camera raw and you can adjust the WB from there before opening in PS.....
Click to expand...

You are not editing the WB interms of Kelvin though and it is more difficult to get right with a jpg than a RAW - it's not the same. No myth and well recognised by many of the top professionals - not saying yopu can't colour correct a jpg - of course you can but much easier and swifter with a RAW.
 
So if I shoot raw .. As long as I PP it's going to be better your saying? As I have more editing options?

But with raw I have to PP to use the image?
 
With a RAW you don't need to do a lot of PP to get an acceptable image - A few tweaks is normally all that is required. Regards WB you can select from any of the camera defaults - you cannot do that with a JPG image.

Even if I shoot jpg I still edit in my raw converter - Contrast, sharpening an exposure tweak if required.

Your image may not be "better" in RAW, it just gives more options and more latitude.
 
Raw's not better, it's just another option - if you constantly shoot overexposed shots or shots where your WB is well out, you'd best use raw.... if you're close enough on both these (and you really should be unless you've just picked a camera up for the first time) JPEG is much faster and easier....
 
I'm looking to learn and get accurate images .. So if raw is better for me ill use it. I always PP as I'm trying to learn how cs5 works
 
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