Top 10 Mistakes: Studio Light Exposure and Color

I have been taking a break from the forums, because I’ve had way way way too much going on with my own studio and life to get sucked into the online world.  But now that things are slowing down I’ve had a chance to browse at a few of the sites where I hold memberships, and I’ve found that very little has changed.  People are having many of the same problems now that they were six months ago — its just that the individual posters are new, so the problems are new to them.  And when I look through my photographer email box, and then browse the forum threads, I can see that many of the same questions are being asked over and over again.  So in the interest of time (because there’s no way I can catch up on the volume of un-replied-to email I have in my “From Photographers” folder — sorry, folks!) I thought it might be best to just address some of these questions and problems, in general, on the blog.

I mentioned to some other photographers that I was planning an article about the most common problems that new photographers run into, and I got much more input than I expected… and many of these established photographers had the same “I wish I’d known then what I know now” comments.  So here is the first installement in a series called The Top 10 Mistakes New Photographers Make, as suggested by photographers across the country and as compiled from the forums and my own Photographer Email inbox.

10) “My color/exposure/lighting pattern is all over the place when I use studio lights, and I’m not sure why.” I hear from many, MANY photographers who are coming from an “available light only” background and are just beginning to learn to use studio lights.  There are some things you need to know before you get started.  First, starting with one light and a reflector is going to help you a lot more than starting with a main, a fill, and a background light.  Start simple, and once you master the simple, then start adding lights.  It is very difficult to figure out what is going wrong at first if you have too many lights in your setup.  Also, don’t turn off the modeling lights on your strobes… you need to see where the light is falling when you’re just getting started, because it will save you time and help you learn WHY things look better with the light in one position than they do in another.

Exposure problems are almost always caused by one of two things: either the photographer hasn’t invested in a light meter (and yes, I do believe that its a must-have item for studio work) or they’re shooting on one of the program modes, instead of Manual. I hear people say all the time “well I metered with my camera and it overexposed” or “well the first shot was too bright, and then the second shot was a little bit better and I don’t know what changed.”  With strobes, you HAVE to shoot manual.  Your camera is a smart little gadget, but it isn’t that smart.  When you’re using strobes and trying to shoot on Aperture or Shutter Priority or Program mode, OR if you’re trying to use it to meter, what happens is that the camera reads the ambient light in the room and gives you settings that are appropriate for the room light.  Your modeling lights on a strobe are often just regular light bulbs, and they don’t put out as much power as the flash from the strobe will.  Learn to use a flash meter, and set your camera accordingly.  Also know that unless your shutter speed is slow, the ambient light in your room is not likely to have much, if any, effect on your exposure.  With studio strobes, your exposure from the flash is tied to your aperture, and the amount of ambient light (room light) you let into the camera is tied to your shutter speed.  I don’t want to get into a big technical lesson here on the blog, but you can read more about those connections in most basic photography books.

The other big problem I see, sometimes even with people who have experience with studio light work, is in trying to use Auto White Balance. Your room light and your modeling lamp are usually “tungsten balanced,” meaning they produce very warm light in comparison to daylight.  Remember back in the film days, if you’d take a photo indoors without using a flash, how orangey that photo would come out?  That’s because back then, we were using “daylight” color film and the light from regular light bulbs is much warmer, as far as color temperature is concerned.  The same holds true for digital.  The light from your strobes is daylight balanced, so even if you are shooting with studio lights in a dark room, with only the modeling lamp on, and you use AWB on your camera, your camera will “read” the light from that good ol’ tungsten light bulb in your modeling lamp.  When you actually shoot, the cooler light from the flash will record too blue, and your color results in your studio shots will be inconsistent.  I am a big fan of Custom White Balance, but if you are in a pinch, using Daylight or Flash on your camera will give you much more consistent results with studio light than AWB will.

Two gadgets to try: an Expodisc and a Sekonic Light Meter.  Every time I recommend the Sekonic I get an email saying “isn’t there anything cheaper?”  Yes, sure there is.  You can get an analog meter for next to nothing… but it is much harder to learn to use and is likely to take you more time to read.  The Sekonic will last you a long time and is also great for outdoor work.  And no, I do not get paid by Sekonic to say that.    A good light meter is just a must-have piece of equipment for all professionals, in my opinion, and they have a few different models, depending on your budget.  Studio lights I’d recommend for beginners: Alien Bees, and one of their softboxes.  You will need a modifier for any strobe, and yes, you can use shoot through umbrellas as well, but because softboxes provide a more controlled light, I like to use them for teaching so that we can see as easily as possible where the problems might be.  Also, if you’re looking to use studio strobes to get more of a windowlight effect, you are more likely to get that with a softbox.  The largest Alien Bees box is not really very big, and they are portable for all you location shooters.

Check back in next week for the next installment… I’m hoping to do one of these a week.  And feel free to drop me a comment here — I am still sending photographer email to a holding tank, because I really just don’t have time right now to answer individual emails.