Wriiten by Mr. Cartman
Hi all,
First of all, I’m not trying to be a wise-ass teaching people simple stuff like this. I’m just merely sharing my little photography knowledge. I don’t claim that my photos are great either :-[
The main purpose here is to encourage people to take more photos of their models and share it here with all of us
This tip is targeted for digital camera users even though I will mention about film cameras as well.
So here goes:
I’ve seen a lot of modellers out there who has problem with photographing their models. The #1 gripe is how the photos don’t show the correct color of the model. Some are yellowish, some are blueish, etc.
As we all know, photography is all about lighting. The cause of this incorrect color problem is also lighting.
There are many light sources in real life: light bulb, fluorescent lamp, table lamp, sunlight, etc.
These light sources have different colors, which can affect how the eyes see the color of the object (the model).
What is white balance?
In film camera, the camera just captures the light spectrums, making the negative film. This negative will then have to be developed to make the real photo. The developer will then have to make out the color, thus guessing how the color should turn out. This process is merely guessing, thus can cause the color incorrect. That’s why we sometimes wonder why the same negative developed in photo center A can have different result with photo center B. And that’s also why professionals develop their own photos themselves, because they know how the correct colors are.
In digital camera, this process is done in the camera itself, thus resulting in “real color” photos. So as those photo developers, the camera also guesses the right color by guessing the color of the light source. Now this what makes the object color incorrect also.
So, how do we solve this problem you ask?
The answer is to tell the camera what the light source color is. Tell it how white color should look like, thus the term “white balance”.
Camera’s white balance
Most digital cameras work with “Auto white balance” by factory default settings. And I’m sure most of us don’t bother changing it since it’s fairly correct anyway. The better the camera, the more clever the auto white balance is. White balance of most cameras though, works best on bright sunlight (average color temperature). That’s why many like to take model photos on bright sunny day (Fichtenfoo for example).
I personally, like to take stationery objects on a closed room with my own light source. I like to have control on the light source.
Like I said, the auto white balance is fairly correct. But fairly correct is not necessarily correct. We want to be picky ;D So we have to use the “white balance set” mode. We tell the camera what the white should be under the light source.
Most digital cameras have the “white balance set” mode (name may differ). Even the lower-end ones. But I’ll let you check your camera’s manual for that
This is how to set the white balance:
- Set your tabletop studio
- Turn on all the light source
- Put a sheet of white or 18% grey paper on where the object/model will be
- Set the camera to “white balance set” mode
- Position and point the camera to the white paper. Tripod is highly recommended.
- Point until the frame is full with the white paper. Zoom if you can and must.
- Set the white balance (refer to camera’s manual).
Here’s a picture of my "tabletop studio " when I took photos of my Freedom:
this is from Wriiten by Mr. Cartman
my friend modeler master in Singapore to sharing this~ [s:5]
thanks for thier help~