Ten Foot Gator asks about Tonal Control

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 18:56:08 GMT

Rich, I haven't pestered you in a while but I have an urgent request. I have somewhat backed into the senior picture market at my kids school. I've started using your gray card tutorial and have started metering with a gray card. I am getting great skin and hair detail but blowing out my colors on shirts, etc. if I'm shooting in fairly bright conditions. I get out of the sun when I can but that's not always possible. My question....how to resolve that...maintain some balance between skin tones and lighter colored clothing so you don't sacrifice one for the other. Would you bracket exposures toward under exposing once your meter readings have been set? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, Jeff

Red Lion asks about Westcott Spiderlites

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:05:09 GMT

Hey buddy - question for you - have you ever had any occasion to use anything like these Westcott Spidelights? I am looking to upgrade my old lights (not my strobes) and these cool flourescents seem like a good option for continous lighting.

Photoshop, Editing, Retouch, and Post Production Questions

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:19:37 GMT

Please post topic questions here

Questions from Arti (voodooeyez)

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:08:23 GMT

Referencing http://public.fotki.com/RichBruton/welcome_center/tools-of-the-trade/greycardii.html

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Arti asks:

1)What is "Fill Flash" ??

2) "OR well lit subjects but you want to use FAST shutter speed"
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When do I want to use that?

3) "OR you want minimal aperture values for deep DOF. This is the DEFAULT value that I set my camera to when I was learning.
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~It is true only if I am in M or A mode? Otherwise aperture changes automatically.. And would not ISO depend on light even in this case? Is 400 really so universal for this purpose??

4) "ISO 400 is typically good for Outdoor situations in overcast/cloudy light or less-than-well-lit situations. It is also good indoors with "reading light" levels or brighter"
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Means when the only light in the room is "reading light" ??
Can it be just a torch (big one :-) ?

5) "OR when using slow lenses (example min aperature f/4.5) in non-bright situations."
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Did not understand.. not a bit..
Explain me later what is that about..

6) "Finally, you should strive to get used to reading your histograms when shooting. While this is yet another HUGE topic for another discussion, the bottom line is that your histogram can reveal a multitude of problems ... including incorrect ISO setting. Learn how to read your histogram ... it's like the dashboard of a car and can tell you many things in one glance."
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I asked you the other day about it and you said just to look at it every time. I do. All I have come to is that I like the shots where the most "ink" in in the middle of the diagram. ( Sorry - I have no idea how to name that thing and how to explain but I am sure you know what I mean..) Sorry.
So how do I read the histogram? It is the same in photoshop.

7) "Your camera lens focuses by finding contrast in "lines". A grey card has no lines ... it's just grey. So if you leave your lens in auto Focus mode, this tells the camera not to proceed until it sets focus. But if there are no lines to determine when it has accomplished focus, then it may "hunt" back and forth and back and forth .... trying to focus, but it cannot."
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Hmmm.. So basically I can just not to worry about it as my grey card has that white cross (target mark) in the middle and the camera focuses perfectly on it.. Right?

8) "If you want to avoid having to compensate for this problem, you should meter for the slowest minimum aperature value your lens has. In your case, this is f/5.6.

Even tho you WANT to use f/3.5, you cannot get f/3.5 when you zoom. So just meter for the slower f/5.6 and you can zoom in/out all you want without having to worry about the aperture changing.

The alternative is to buy a faster lens (like an f/2.8) ... but they aren't cheap :-)"
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Thank you. I will re-view the alternative possibilities later on in case I give up on my f/5.6 :-)
So how do I do it again?..
I put the card where I want it to be, then I go to A mode, then I set f/5.6, then I zoom in... and here we go..
The aperture is changing. Now to "reach" the card my aperture must be f/6.3.. Should I keep zooming in unless I come to f/5.6 no matter that the viewer is already "lit" with grey??

9) "If you want to avoid having to compensate for this problem, you should meter for the slowest minimum aperature value your lens has. In your case, this is f/5.6. "
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In case I have no choice and I can not avoid it but have to compensate for this problem - how do I do that??

Technical_Qs_For_Rich

Ten Foot Gator asks about Tonal Control

Red Lion asks about Westcott Spiderlites

Photoshop, Editing, Retouch, and Post Production Questions

Questions from Arti (voodooeyez)