How do I take better pictures? - calling photographer expert - Post pics!

[MayFlower]

I'm using a Canon T2i with a 28-135mm lense.

I set it to AV mode, F5.0, ISO 400, white balance at Daylight.

My background is not pure white How do I get it white?

I changed it to Tungsten Light and White Fluorescent Light, but those colors were way off.

Any step-by-step recommendation?

As you can see, I use a small white enclosure with lights on the right and left side.

 

[Sigill]

Your photos already look good to me! I would just try with all the different white balance settings, see if you can get something nearer white.

 

[MayFlower]

I tried all of them I thought Daylight was white when I took them and it looks pinkish after I view them on my computer. I used a white cloth..and it's not near white after the picture. the steelbook is the actual color...but when I change different white balance option, it change the steelbook color

When I use Auto mode, it looks white...but I'm not able to focus in auto mode

 

[Sigill]

That seems strange that it won't focus in auto, even on macro? I had an issue with a camera where i couldn't take anything white without getting a pink tinge. They said the filter was broken. Maybe its an issue on the camera?

 

[MayFlower]

oh man, this sucks.

it does focus, but it focus right in the middle and I want it to focus on the face at an edge or somewhere else.

That seems strange that it won't focus in auto, even on macro? I had an issue with a camera where i couldn't take anything white without getting a pink tinge. They said the filter was broken. Maybe its an issue on the camera?

---------- Post added at 04:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 PM ----------

I decided to remove the white cloth and use black cloth...and change the ISO from 400 to 6400.

I like this photo better, but I still want to learn more about the white balance..maybe it was halogen light on the left and right side causing the pinkish tone.

 

[Sigill]

That looks like a good picture with the black background. Is your camera an SLR or a compact as you should be able to manually fix the focus point to where you want it.

 

[MayFlower]

It's a SLR camera. If I set the mode to auto focus, it won't allow me to override it so I set it to AV mode and then I'm able to focus it.

That looks like a good picture with the black background. Is your camera an SLR or a compact as you should be able to manually fix the focus point to where you want it.

 

[Sigill]

Yeah its always better to leave it on AV rather than auto. Too much limitation on auto, you can't even turn the flash on or off yourself on mine! Lol. Do your photos look better on ISO 6400 rather than 400. I would have thought that would give you more noise?

 

[Jason Bourne]

Ok so Im bit of a photo-og and I can help but you need to understand the basics of a SLR how ISO, aperture, shutter and light all relate to a picture. Focus is another issue all together as it relates to depth of field, aperture and your lenses F-stop.

Here are some of my pictures with "white" things in them to show you that different shades of white can be attained in there natural shade while getting the colour and focus correct on thing in the frame... some examples :


Wedding 1-2 by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr



FINAL 2_WEB by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


This one is a good example of proper white balance with proper exposure for daylight while focussing on a specific thing and having the rest go out of focus.


5_MG_7474_E2_WEB by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


Basically what you need to is understand that white balance is something that you can properly attain with a grey card which 99% of people don't have or by shooting RAW and adjusting in post or really-really knowing your stuff when you shoot.

There is a balance in everything.

This article explains white balance in detail :

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm


For the purpose of what you are shooting which is essentially "product photography" what I recommend you do is set your camera's white balance to AUTO. Even with the experience I have I still use AUTO white balance a lot. Your camera is very good despite what people will say at metering the colour temperature in the environment.

Now if you don't know how to shoot in M mode and are only comfortable shooting in Av which is Aperture priority then here is what I will recommend.

If you are trying to just focus on his face and trying to make the rest gradually out of focus you need to get your camera to a F-stop that is small in number. So if your lens will go to F/2.8 or F/4 go to that and set your ISO to say 800. Again Im just playing a guessing game without actually being there and knowing your lens and lighting. Look at what your camera is setting your shutter speed at this point. Try and have a shutter speed above 1/100 at all time if possible. 1/80 is doable and 1/60 is pushing it without flash.

Unfortunately I am not the best teacher in the world or best at explaining things but I do know what Im talking about when it comes to this stuff.


Some basics that I can tell you without getting into technicall stuff is the following:

>>>>lower the F stop # more light comes into your camera and less things are in focus.

Here is what lower f stop # images look like:

You will notice the backgrounds are completely blown out and a specific thing is in focus in the frame...


E-Shoot3-4 by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


Flower Bokeh ! by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr



E-Shoot3-1 by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


>>>>higher the F stop # less light comes in and more things are in focus.

here are some example of higher f stop # images:

you will notice everything in the frame is in focus...


Mustang GT Power! by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


FINAL_WEB by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr




>>>Shutter speed controls the amount of light coming in and its duration. lower the shutter speed (1/100) more light coming in and higher the shutter speed (1/500) less light coming in. Lower the shutter speed more chance of blur in the shot caused by shaky hands.

here is an example of a slow shutter speed shot (lots of motion blur and a lot of light coming in):


FINAL KS_WEB by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


here is an example of a fast shutter speed shot (its so fast it "freezes" the action )


2006 Mustang GT 350 tribute by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr

>>>>lower the ISO cleaner the image but less light comes in. higher the ISO more light comes in but more noise in the image. basically look at ISO like there little light hunting bees in your frame. lower your ISO less of them there are and less light they can gather for you and less noise. More of them there are more light they can find for you but they will cause more noise



>>>>Stick to AUTO white balance.

>>>>Set your cameras metering mode to evaluative and leave it there.

>>>>If you can learn to shoot RAW and convert to JPG in post it will change everything for you.


Photography is all about light on the technical side of things and white balance is essentially the temperature control of the scene as it relates to 18% grey. This is a very simplified run down without making it technical although I'm sure your still confused after reading this, lol.

This is my best advice to a novice I can give. I just can't explain things well or Im sure I would be of more help.

 

[biscuitnoir]

Awesome pictures my friend

Believe it or not, I've understood everything you said, studies photography for one year and quit because I couldn't stand photoshop anymore.

 

[Sigill]

I think you did a good job explaining there. Its so technical and theres so many things to learn, i couldn't believe it when i first got into photography! I know what you mean biscuit, once i found out that 90% of photography seems to be tweaking shots on the computer i lost a lot of interest.

 

[Jason Bourne]

Awesome pictures my friend

Believe it or not, I've understood everything you said, studies photography for one year and quit because I couldn't stand photoshop anymore.

^^^ thanks, biscuit. It all depends though with photoshop. You don't have to be the photographer that uses too much photoshop. I know I barely use it as Im not the biggest fan of post work. But some is required these days. Im a minimalist when it comes to post work and do mostly in camera and use light room when I can instead of CS5.

I think you did a good job explaining there. Its so technical and theres so many things to learn, i couldn't believe it when i first got into photography! I know what you mean biscuit, once i found out that 90% of photography seems to be tweaking shots on the computer i lost a lot of interest.

Again like I said above photography is what you make it. There are people who's shot is 99% photoshop and others like me where 90% of the shot is all camera and art and then 10% photoshop.

All my above images I posted have seen maybe 1-2 minutes each in photoshop. Mostly just routine things like white balance, quick crop and conversion to jpeg. A couple of the more "beauty" shots obviously have seen more time spent in post processing as its what the industry requires.


Hopefully I helped someone with my post above, lol.

 

[MayFlower]

steelbook86, amazing picture.

I appreciate you taking the time to write that up and I will read it 10x to understand them and learn this stuff. I'll be updating my progress and get your opinion.

again, thank you! It's getting late for me so I'll have to start on this tomorrow.

 

[Jason Bourne]

steelbook86, amazing picture.

I appreciate you taking the time to write that up and I will read it 10x to understand them and learn this stuff. I'll be updating my progress and get your opinion.

again, thank you! It's getting late for me so I'll have to start on this tomorrow.

No problem, May. Once you understand it you will know it forever. These variables haven't changed for camera's in over a 100 years since its advent despite the technological advances we have made. The basic rules will always apply.

 

[MayFlower]

steelbook86,

Here is my setup that I use to take pictures.

Settings 1:

AV mode
white balance set to AUTO
F/4
ISO 800

Settings 2:

M mode
shutter speed 1/100
white balance set to AUTO
F/5 (couldn't lower it down)
ISO 800

The M mode (setting 2) shows more of the true color of the steelbook. However, as both of them are still displaying pinkish white. When I turn the two lamps at the side, it does a pinkish white tone.

Here is a picture that took with AUTO mode and the flash came on. Even with this picture, the white is pinkish in the background with the 2 lamps on. I didn't want to use the AUTO mode because I'm not able to focus on the face.

Settings 3:

AUTO mode with lamp ON
flash came on

Settings 4:

AUTO mode with lamp OFF
flash came on

Settings 5:

AUTO mode outside in the sun
flash came on

 

[Jason Bourne]

Ok so I don't know if you still care, May, but I must have complete missed your thread after your last post.

Basically what is happening here is that lamp you have isn't colour balanced and is creating a colour cast on your pictures by my best guess. When you turn it off your white balance appears to correct itself.

Photography is better suited with flash for light and Video is better suited with constant on lights. I would leave those lamps out of the equation if you can and just use flash instead to do product photography like this or no flash at all.


Try this on that steel book in that same setup like you showed me... set your lens to 50mm and go to Tv mode at ISO400, AUTO White Balance, Flash to AUTO, and set your shutter to 1/100. The camera will automatically pick your aperture, flash compensation and white balance in this situation. Try to do this at a time with fair amount of ambient light pouring into the room. Remember NO LAMPS.

And just for reference take one shot with NO LAMPS at all AUTO mode at 50mm on your lens.

I think your problem is the lamps when it comes to your white balance. Again its so hard to help like this without being there.

For some encouragement>>>>

I have almost the same setup for that steelbook shot as you have here:


_MG_8864 by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr

that produced these as the final shots:


FINAL_WEB by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


FINAL 2_WEB by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


Guitar by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


Gear-Amp 1 (1 of 1) by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


Gear 1 - Lenses by Jay Gill Photography, on Flickr


^^^ So it can be done! You just gotta keep at it May! I setup those above shots almost exactly like your steel book shot believe it or not.. just at a larger scale.

 

[CyberAthlete]

Steelbook86, I'm jealous! Spectacular work!!!

Mayflower, I can chime in sometime this weekend as well. Here look at some of my eBay auctions. This is small studio I've setup for auctions. Cost was $2 + camera equipment (SLR + SB-600 flash). If you notice didn't mention what SLR make or model. That does not matter Flash does. Need to use an external flash for this.

Ray-Ban pics

Audio-Technica's m50s pics

Assassin's Creed III Steelbook Pics

Game of thrones BBuy exclusive cover pics


And here is my hobby (note the website needs a massive make over and I need to upload pics with better resolution/quality) Don't know why these got heavily compressed/degraded after uploading them:

www.saadkhan.me

 

[bigfub]

Having read through this I think I can see where I'm going wrong. I use a DSLR but hadn't swapped lenses to one that's probably better suited to the job at hand and I also hadn't bothered getting my flash out so was relying on ambient light.

 

[earthscope]

Jay your Photographs are beautiful !!!

Extremely Talented Buddy.

Wish I could take photographs like that. Always admired the art of photography, but being a music producer that is where all my talent lies.

Had some photographs taken of myself by Herb Ritts when I was living in NY in the 90's. He was one of my favourite photographers along with Mario Testino.

 

[Horhay]

How about making this the photography thread? Jay those photos are absolutely phenomenal!