>Hey all. I just finished building a photo booth for my turnings. I was going to buy 2 of the halogen lights , one for each side. I'll be using a white fabric for diffusion and different backgrounds. Mostly white. please correct me if any of these things are wrong. My real question is , is there any special setting I need to set the digital camera to for this kind of light. I won't be using flash . Any help is much appreciated. Thanks, Sean
>An inexpensive, but sure way to know how your camera will react to your light source is to get a 18% grey card which is sold at camera stores. Set the card upright next to your turning and take some sample photos with different camera settings. If the grey in one of the photos matches the grey on the card, that is the setting to use.
If the grey doesn't match in any of the test photos, you'll need to use software that allows you to 'Color Balance'. Once you find a adjustment to correct the balance, that same adjustment should be used on all your photos.
Since you'll be shooting without flash, it is important that the light source stays consistant so turn off all other lights in the room.
>Good advice Lloyd. If you are using quartz lights you will be very close to the correct color temperature for the tungsten setting on you digital camera. Some software I've seen doesn't have anything but an automatic setting for color correction so I would try to get it right with the Camera first.
If you buy a gray seamless paper background it will help solve all three problems. You won't need the gray card because you have a gray background. This will make adjusting the color easier if you have the controls.
The Gray background seems to help the camera get closer to the correct exposure and color if the camera only has an Automatic setting, and this is also true for software that doesn't have all the adjustments.
Lloyd is right about remembering the settings that you need to use either on the camera or software. They will be close to the same all the time. After you set them the same way as the last time you will only need minor tweaking.
Lastly his suggestion of being consistent about lighting. One of the dissadvantages of using quartz lights is that other lights in the room (ceiling or even windows) can affect the color and if bright enough even the exposure. If your pieces are very glossy they may also show up as unwanted reflections in the piece even if they aren't bright enough to affect the exposure.
Good luck with your system. If you have problems when you start shooting feel free to e-mail me.
>One other alternative is the white balance if your camera has it. I often use a white vinyl window shade for quickie set-ups and adjust to that color balance as well as +1 for an exposure correction pre-set. Save a lot of time correcting with software by getting as close to correct rendering with the camera first.