Rangefinder Magazine
December 2006

Problems & Solutions  
 

Please accompany your questions with a self-addressed stamped envelope if you wish an immediate reply. Alternatively, you can email me at: bhurter@rfpublishing.com.

From: Lori at LC Photography Studio
lori@lcphotographystudio.com

I just recently opened my studio after shooting events for about two years. I am having a huge problem with white balance in studio. I shoot with the Nikon D200 and use Britek studio strobes with softboxes. Most info I have found so far suggests a white balance setting of Cloudy +1–3. This setting works well for other conditions but is very warm in the studio. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Two things might be at work: First, strobes often do not recycle when the ready light comes on. This means when you fire, thinking the strobes are fully recharged, they aren’t, and thus they fire at a different and totally unpredictable color temperature. Second, assuming the units are fully recharged, there might not be a preset for the exact color temperature of these lights. One temporary solution might be to shoot in RAW-capture mode, allowing you to color-correct in your RAW file processor.

The D200 has extensive white-balance controls, including Auto (TTL white balance with a 1005-pixel RGB sensor), six manual modes with fine-tuning, a color temperature setting, preset white balance, and white-balance bracketing. This last option, which allows you to bracket from two to nine frames in increments of 1, 2 or 3 steps, should provide the information you need for a precise white balance setting for your strobes.

 

From: ed-mar@charter.net

I’d be surprised if no one else caught it, but Rolando Gomez’s beautiful image, next to “Mysteries of Lighting Revealed” (on the cover of the September 2006 issue) is interestingly flawed: The warm, “sunset- like” light is directed from the south, while the sunset is behind the model, in the west. That must be a “mystery of light.” Love your magazine!

You’re right—if the setting sun behind model Laura Foley is due west, then the light from gelled softbox is coming from the south.

 

From: Ronald Jones, ronaldjonesphotos@hotmail.com

I recall a process from years ago of removing the emulsion of a color print and transferring it to different substrates like canvas or wood or just about anything with some very striking results.

The only emulsion-lift process I know of is done with Polaroid materials in hot or boiling water. There is also Liquid Light (www.rockaloid.com), a brush-on liquid photographic emulsion that lets you print on any surface. Maybe a wise reader has other options I don’t know of. Stay tuned!