Thread: Lighting for photos

Robert,

It's been a while since I looked into this, but I think you can get correction filters to screw into your lens. Alternatives are to tape a coloured cellophane of a bluish tint over your flash or other lights. Got any mates that are into backstage threatre work? That's where I used to acquire mine. A bit trial and error - maybe somebody else has better ideas. You could have a chat with your local camera shop owner, they're usually only too keen to talk about their work (bit like woodies I suppose ).

Cheers,
John

Originally posted by Robert WA
To the photo wizards. <SNIP>
My question....
Given an SLR loaded with daylight film, in my case 400 asa, what can I do to avoid colour distortion when taking pictures inside under fluro or standard incandescent lights?
My wife has worked as a welfare officer for sight impaired people and has put me onto daylight bulbs, they look blue. I have taken pictures using my flash, rigged remotely, and a few of those bulbs with white reflectors, but still get some colour distortion.

There are two ways of getting the correct colours in prints. The best way is to make the exposure correctly (which is what you are talking about) but another way is to have the Photo Lab make the corrections at the time of printing. If you have your prniting done by a 'in house' lab (not a pharmacy) this service/ correction will normaly be done free of charge on request, as part of quality service.
Further to light colours. Electronic flash and Daylight bulbs aim at a light colour approximating midday Sunlight. Light under a cloud or in the shade is noticeably bluer. The amount depends on the depth of shade.
Morning and afternoon sunlight has more red/ yellow. Not dissimilar to incandesent globe light output Flurescent ligh has a green cast. If you are using normal daylight film correction filters such as blue for incandescent light, or pale salmon for blue/ shade light are readily available. If you are realy fussy then include a reference colour sample in the picture, so that the finished print can be compared to the original sample, like professional photographers do. However realize that the print colours will also appear different under different colour lighting.
Another option is to use a quality digital camera, which will have provision automatic or manual colour correction.
Cheers, Peter S.

Hello Rodert,

A few notes re filtration below.

Tungsten lighting - use a blue filter (80B)
Uncorrected fluro tubes - magenta filter (ask for fluro light correction filter)
In Shade - 1A skylight (Straw coloured) 81A stronger version - Darker straw colour

It's quite a complicated process to correct for different lighting effects as there can be many variables involved. The measure that determines the filter that you use is the film type ie daylight (Normal every day usage)or tungsten (Used for copying or photographing under tungsten type photoflood lights). These two factors are generally pretty constant and are not a problem as long as you use the correct film for the lighting you use. The difficulty is controlling you light. In photography the important factor in lighting is the colour tempeture of the light. Colour temp. of photo floods can vary greatly depending on the age of the bulbs and also by fluctuations in voltage. I use a colour tempeture meter for very important work that I shoot on slides for presentations. My big professional flash units need to be adjusted every 12 monyhs or so.

Much/all of this can be corrected for duruing the printing stage in the photo lab, so it is very important to find a good lab. If possible send your work to a professional lab - more expensive though and may take a bit longer.

It can be very benificial if you can inclue a "known colour" for the photo finnisher to have to match in you photo. Kodak manufacture Neutral Grey cards and special colour strips for this very use.

I haven't used fluro lighting for any important copy/table top work so I cannot say for sure if it will work well but am inclined to think that you may have problems getting good results.

As an earlier post said it's very important to get good exposures, if it's a work of art try bracketing a few different exposures. Come in close and fill the frame.

Hope I haven't been too technical but a few things

Choose good lighting
Use a filter if necessary - make the labs job easier
Use a grey card or colour strip
Get a good exposure

I'm a bit rushed for time but send me a EMAil if you have problems.

Peter

Just had aquick look for some sites that may help. I think that photographing smaller woodturning projects would fall under "Table Top" or "Product Photography" so you could possible do a more comprehensive seach on the web than what I did. If you have a specific problem I am happy for you to EMAil me. See sites listed below.

http://www.shortcourses.com/using/tabletop/chapter7.htm

http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/tips/tabletop.html

http://www.graphic-design.com/photog.../exposure.html

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/photo...iolighting.htm

http://216.26.162.38/newschool/deale...ealer=mycamera
Pretty technical BUT interesting.

I have a PDF file on fluro lighting so if you want it I can EMail iy on to you.

Peter