HELP please

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emmaman

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emma
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hi, im new to studio lights. im using the interfit ex150 lights. As im new to this i got the cheap lights lol. Iv also invested in a collapsible white background with a 7 ft train on it. Iv positioned one light (soft box) on the corner of the end of the train and on the other end of the train iv postioned the white umbrella light. Problem is the white background is showing up lilac! iv had some friends round this afternoon and iv taken some pics of them for some practise and on my lcd screen on the camera the pics are really nice. Then when i transfer them onto my comp, the back ground is pinky/lilac. It shows up more on the right hand side (the umbrella side). Iv tried everything i can think of....reposision the lights, adjusting my aperture, adjusting the lights strengh and it wont go :( anyone got any ideas?? i would be very very grateful x
 
My guess is that the images are OK and that is is the colour profile that you monitor/PC is using that is the problem.

Post one of your images here and I will let you know what colour it is on my calibrated monitor.
 
remeber hodders im an amerture lol


callumandlaurasportraits200.jpg
 
ill see if i can attach another one because this one doesnt seem to show up the lilac very well.

this one i took of my friend earlier

Capture_00057.jpg
 
so it cant be that my moniter is out like hodders said because you can see it. The instructional DVD that came with the lights said to set the WB to flash. Iv also tried it on AWB and doesnt make a difference :( Do you think that just having 2 lights isnt enough then? on some of my pics the pink trails all the way down the train too, not just on the background. Im really stumped as to what it is.
 
yes i know how to set up the WB. its on flash at the mow as per the flash instructional dvd but i have also taken pics in AWB and still shows up pink. Im using GIMP at the mow for editing software, im told its the closest to PS.
 
You might want to use a flash on the background as well, it seems that lilac colour might actually be coming from ambient light which might be why the white balance is off or not correcting for the flash.

Most of the studios I've been in have had four flash units, one for the background, a Softbox above, one below to help light the darker areas and if the fourth is needed, ambience.
 
iv tried everything i can think of but because i dont know alot about off camera flash i probally havent haha. Iv tried shutting all the curtains in the room and turning off all room lights and having the modeling lamps on, iv tried leaving curtains open etc.. but still no difference. Because iv only got a small living room i dont know if i can fit another 2 lights into the room. Iv also tried turning the flash lights down but then the background goes grey and the subject is under exposed, there doesnt seemt to be a happy meduim.
 
you normally have a thing called custom white balance, take a photo of the back drop with the lighting you are using and that will set your white balance.

The most accurate way to set it is to take a photo of something 18% grey. But white normally works.

I've never used gimp but on PS you select the colour you want to get rid of with the eye dropper, use select colour range, then delete.

I have the ex150's too, took this straight off the camera using off camera flash on the backdrop.

DSC05084.jpg
 
hi lee, so did u have one light on the BG and one light on the subject? or did you have both of the ex150 lights on the subject and 2 separte lights on the BG? I got both the lights on the corners of the train which is about 7ft away from the main BG, pointing towards the BG. I have my camera setting on 1/125 ISO100 F.8. I think having extra lights on the BG will help but i dont know how it can help with the pink on the train. Ill try the custom white balance too.
 
You are right it wont help on the train, also if you look at the face the skin tones are a bit off too, so deffo you need to set custom white balance. But it will get rid of the dark bits you get on the backdrop.

This is pretty much how I set mine up.

photo-studio-setup.jpg
 
Yes, custom white balance is essential. 'Flash' means different colour temperatures on different cameras and auto white balance doesn't work with flash.

My guess (and it is only a guess) is that although there is an obvious white balance issue there is also colour polution from the ambient lighting. The colour polution shows up more in the area that is not overexposed, that's why it isn't as bad in the area on the left of your background.

But just to complicate things, if you have the power turned down on your particular lights the colour is very likely to shift towards red
 
thanks Lee, i def think i have to invest in a 3rd light. Im gonna log off now to give the custom white balance ago, will update tomorrow if it works. Garry iv tried with all ambeidence lights off and still no change. My husband has just this sec pointed out that we have a deep mauve(plum) colour wall behind the umbrella. Would the flash bounce off the wall then onto the BG? i never thought of that before. If the custom white balance doesnt work then i think ill try covering the wall and seeing if that helps. Thanks for eveyones support, iv had a crisis today and now have a head ache lol x
 
emmaman said:
My husband has just this sec pointed out that we have a deep mauve(plum) colour wall behind the umbrella. Would the flash bounce off the wall then onto the BG? i never thought of that before. If the custom white balance doesnt work then i think ill try covering the wall and seeing if that helps. Thanks for eveyones support, iv had a crisis today and now have a head ache lol x
Click to expand...

Yup there is a fair chance it's that wall, custom WB may sort that out for you.
 
emmaman said:
My husband has just this sec pointed out that we have a deep mauve(plum) colour wall behind the umbrella. Would the flash bounce off the wall then onto the BG? i never thought of that before. If the custom white balance doesnt work then i think ill try covering the wall and seeing if that helps.
Click to expand...
Yes, light bounced from any coloured surface will cause problems, and a custom white balance won't cure it, you need to remove (or cover up) the problem
 
Your images are also lilac on my monitor so it is not your monitor colour profile. I'm guessing that they look OK on the camera screen as the screen is only small and not that accurate.

Get some grey card/material and use it to set a custom white balance at the beginning of a shoot. (Look in your camera manual about this). That way your camera will have a reference as to what colour balance it is seeing.

First of all, well done with the shots - some good ones !
 
Garry Edwards said:
Yes, light bounced from any coloured surface will cause problems, and a custom white balance won't cure it, you need to remove (or cover up) the problem
Click to expand...

I'm with Garry on this - I'm guessing the light from the umbrella is bouncing off the wall causing the lilac tint you can see - I think if you custom white balance to correct this you'll get some very strange skin tones!

May I suggest you try the following: -

Set up just one light with the softbox directly in front of and slightly above your model (so you shoot just under the softbox). Keep it quite close to the model for a nice soft light. Set your white balance to flash. You shouldn't get very much spill from this so you should get a grey background. Skin tones should look natural.

If this is OK then try setting up the second light directly behind the model (so you can't see it in shot) to light the background. Just use the reflector, not the umbrella. Depending on relative position of background and light you may get a completely white background or a white centre fading to grey. If you want the white background you'll have to play with the position and brightness of this light.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck!

Andy
 
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