• Home
  • Hal and Victoria Schmitt
  • Contact
  • Blog
Menu

LIGHT Photographic Workshops

Street Address
Templeton, CA 93465
805-550-4274

Your Custom Text Goes Here

LIGHT Photographic Workshops

  • Home
  • Instructors
    • Hal and Victoria Schmitt
  • Info
    • Contact
    • Blog
20110327_MdO_Poppy-64.jpg

Blog

LIGHT Photographic Workshops blog discusses everything photography related. Adobe updates, computer suggestions, accessories that can save your life and more!

Color Balance Delicate Subjects

July 1, 2011 Light Photographic Workshops

We have been approached by a local silk scarf maker who creates beautiful, one of a kind scarves. The process that you can see on her website looks very fun and very messy! She comes in with dark colored finger tips which gently caress her light fragile looking colorful scarves and says "I can't photograph the color close enough to post on my website".

She indeed came to the right place. Between listening to Kevin Ames, Jim DiVitale and, of course, master of the studio,  Hal Schmitt, they have all shown me awesome tips and accurate techniques in the studio about lighting and post production for commercial purposes.

First you want to set up lights that are as balanced as you can get. We use the ProFoto D1 Air Kits along with the Creative light strip boxes. You can see in the photo I'm using 2 strips. The other softbox in the upper left is just hanging for storage purposes only.

I tried the scarves on white first and got a few good images but wanted to see if black would create a more rich color. Turns out- it didn't matter once I color balanced, set my white and black points and cropped in, but I like shooting on black better. I also prefer having the option of showcasing the entire product and for me, color seems to stand out nicer with a black background.

I hung the scarves on a C-stand to pull them away from the black background to allow the light to fall off quickly behind the subject, making the black background darker. If you are ever getting to much light on the background pull the subject forward, back up and the background will naturally get darker.

Also, make sure your camera in not in AWB (auto white balance). This could give you varying color balance in the studio depending on what and how you're shooting (thank you Hal). I put it in flash mode, but ultimately I used my trusty X-Rite color checker- incredibly important to maintain neutral, honest color in your scene.  If I changed the lights in any way I would take the photo with the color checker again in case any inconsistencies came up.

I then loaded the images into Lightroom to see how I did. Bring up the image that has the color checker into the Develop Module. In the basic tab there is a small eye dropper next to your exposure slider. Take that eye dropper and click on middle gray or 18% gray. That will help bring your color balance to a neutral state. Set your white point and your black point.  Some photographers are a bit more technical than that, but I find that this method works for me.

Sync your settings to all the images with that developed image and you are color balanced and ready to crop.

I had a little fun with some "posing" and folding of the scarves to see what the client will like, but I can tell that this is going to be the main challenge. Have you ever tried folding silk? Maybe get a wind machine... I can't wait to get started on her other few hundred once we get a good system for her images worked out.

To learn more and get more detailed workflow instruction, come to our California Photo Festival and check out Jim DiVitale and Parish Kohanim for your commercial shoots as well as Rob Sheppard and Tim Grey for your Lightroom workflow.

 Fiat Lux

-Victoria

In tips Tags studio lighting, lighting, color balance, Victoria Schmitt
← Free Webinar on the 29th!Blending Landscape Exposures with Marc Muench →
Use the code "LightWorkshops" and receive 15% off of Photomatix Pro.

Use the code "LightWorkshops" and receive 15% off of Photomatix Pro.

  • Adobe
  • Alaska
  • Bull Schmitt
  • California Photo Festival
  • Canon Explorer of Light
  • Click!
  • digital photography
  • Hal Schmitt
  • HDR
  • Lightroom
  • Lightroom 4
  • panorama
  • photo tour
  • Photoshop
  • Really Right Stuff
  • Rick Sammon
  • Topaz Labs
  • Victoria Schmitt
  • video
  • wildlife photography

ARCHIVES BY DATE

  • March 2015 (1)
  • September 2014 (1)
  • August 2014 (1)
  • July 2014 (3)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • May 2014 (1)
  • April 2014 (2)
  • November 2013 (3)
  • October 2013 (3)
  • September 2013 (6)
  • August 2013 (5)
  • July 2013 (2)
  • June 2013 (4)
  • May 2013 (5)
  • April 2013 (4)
  • March 2013 (6)
  • February 2013 (3)
  • January 2013 (3)
  • December 2012 (4)
  • November 2012 (1)
  • October 2012 (3)
  • September 2012 (3)
  • August 2012 (5)
  • July 2012 (2)
  • June 2012 (5)
  • May 2012 (4)
  • April 2012 (4)
  • March 2012 (2)
  • February 2012 (1)
  • January 2012 (6)
  • December 2011 (1)
  • November 2011 (2)
  • October 2011 (2)
  • September 2011 (13)
  • August 2011 (9)
  • July 2011 (9)
  • June 2011 (5)
  • May 2011 (18)
  • April 2011 (7)
  • March 2011 (10)
  • February 2011 (12)
  • January 2011 (7)
  • December 2010 (6)
  • November 2010 (5)
  • October 2010 (3)
  • September 2010 (7)
  • August 2010 (2)
  • July 2010 (20)
  • June 2010 (6)
  • May 2010 (4)
  • April 2010 (8)
  • March 2010 (12)
  • February 2010 (8)
  • January 2010 (9)
  • December 2009 (9)
  • November 2009 (13)
  • October 2009 (18)
  • September 2009 (25)
  • August 2009 (38)
  • July 2009 (26)
  • June 2009 (18)
  • May 2009 (9)


BLOG     |     NEWSLETTER     |    VOLATUSWINE

The images on this website are protected by federal copyright registration by each individual photographer/creator. Any unauthorized use is a federal offense with penalties of up to $150,000. Unauthorized use includes any copying of images from this site.

SIGN UP TODAY FOR ONE OF OUR PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS AND TAKE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY TO THE NEXT LEVEL!​