Author Archives: StudioBackdrops.com

Tutorial

Black Seamless Paper vs. Black Vinyl

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com

When I think of the color black, I think shadow, darkness and fear, which is similar to my mentality of shooting photography on a black background; I am absolutely terrified. When I started my photography journey, I thought shooting on black was just too cool. The shadows were dark, and the subject just seemed to sink into the background. I used a cheap black cloth background that seemed to attract more dog hair than my carpet, but I didn’t think anything of it. More recently, I’ve conditioned myself to shooting on canvas, Fashion Gray or Super White and my anxiety of shooting on black is at an all-time high. Over the past year, I learned to love subject separation and black never gave me the contrast I wanted in a photograph. After much debate, I decided to give black another shot and setup a test fashion shoot to compare black vinyl to black seamless paper as well as hopefully reduce the anxiety and revitalize that passion for shooting on a black background.

1. Material

-Vinyl

Upon initial inspection of the black vinyl, there was a nice dotted texture to the inside and a reflective slick surface to the backside. Obviously, I used the inside of the roll for shooting as the backside would offer far too much reflection. But, that’s not to say one could experiment with the reflective backside of the vinyl.

-Paper 

I’m used to shooting with paper, so when I opened up the roll of black seamless paper, it was no surprise. The inside is a flat matte black surface reminiscent of construction paper without the fabric texture. The outside of the roll furnishes the same type of surface.

Winner: Vinyl 

2. Light

-Vinyl 

Right out of the gate, I noticed that the vinyl seemed to absorb more light than the paper. Although, I liked the feeling and texture of the vinyl it really took a lot of light to bring out any form of gradient. No matter where I placed the background light it seemed to soak in the light like a sponge, no bounce, no reflection.

-Paper 

Compared to the light-sucking vinyl the matte paper seemed to appreciate my background light a lot more. It provided a bit more “room” to light and it didn’t require nearly the same power of light to become a dark gray. I liked how light spilled over the paper more, rather than the constricting feeling I got from the vinyl.

Winner: Paper 

3. Look

-Vinyl 

In camera, the vinyl appears jet black and is far more black than its challenger. Even with a light on the background the vinyl has the tendency to suck the subject into the shadows if you’re not careful. But, perhaps that is the type of photograph you’re after. If solid black with little to no flexibility with light is what you’re after, then vinyl is the answer.

-Paper

I like how versatile the paper was compared to the vinyl. It gave me the opportunity and ability to turn the background dark gray with light and at the same time jet black with no light. The look has a nice seamless look, with a slight texture that I really love. The fact the paper is also a lighter shade of black provides more value and usability when lighting.

Winner: Paper 

4. Endurance

-Vinyl 

I loved the fact that as soon as the model stepped off the vinyl I could take a rag and wipe off the dirt and clean the surface of the vinyl, something that I could never do with paper. Looking forward, I could see myself keeping vinyl around much longer than paper. It’s definitely a “green” option compared to paper.

-Paper 

If you’ve ever dealt with seamless paper, you know dirt will build up and at some point; you just have to cut off a top end of the paper for the next use. It seems like I’ve gone through enough paper to provide 10 notebooks per child at the local elementary school for years to come. I always feel wasteful cutting off 4’ x 10’ strips of paper, but it’s just something that has to be done, otherwise you could be spending hours in post-processing.

Winner: Vinyl

Obviously, there isn’t a clear winner here; the black vinyl has its advantages while the black paper has its clear advantages. At the end of the day, it really comes down to personal preference and the type of photograph you’re really after. Myself being a fan of gray and green, my final results showed a strong lean towards the black paper. I love the look of the paper, but the vinyl is a great lasting investment. Although the results turned out to be some of my favorite images I’ve captured this year, I was not surprised by what I was seeing on the back of my camera. I’m no longer terrified to shoot on black and that alone was worth the experiment.

Check out the BTS video of this shoot here!



Clay Cook began his creative career in the music industry, and after 10 years, his passion had leaned towards photography, cinematography and graphic design. Constantly collaborating with designers, national models, filmmakers and other photographers, Clay has built a reputable name as an award-winning internationally published photographer and filmmaker, specializing in fashion editorial and advertising photography. Clay’s work is featured frequently on world-wide photography blogs including Fstoppers, B&H Photo & Video, PetaPixel, SLRLounge, ISO1200 and BorrowLenses among others. Clay has been published in USA Today, First For Women, ProSales Magazine, Modern Salon, American Salon Magazine, Louisville Magazine, The Voice of Louisville, NFocus Magazine, STORY Magazine and Dark Beauty Magazine. Check out his website here.

Tutorial

Backdrop Colour Selection for Photographers simplified with the Datacolor ColorReader EZ Tool

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com

Datacolor, a provider of colour management solutions, debuted the Datacolor ColorReader EZ portable tool as the latest addition to the company’s ColorReader family of products, which includes ColorReader and ColorReader Pro.

Now included in the tool’s colour inventory is Savage Universal’s full line of 55 seamless paper backdrop colours for users to match and coordinate background selection easier than ever before. This addition benefits photographers, set designers and stylists when planning photo shoots and creative sets. Colour theory is a significant consideration for these users, and the ability to quickly and easily find matching accessories, wardrobe or props to a backdrop colour (or vice versa) is an important step in their workflow. Photographers will also find it specifically useful for matching client brand colours to backgrounds for company headshots, interviews or commercials.

As Savage seamless paper is recognized as the photo industry standard for professional backgrounds, its integration into this colour planning tool will serve photographers, videographers and set stylists well.

Not only does the ColorReader device and phone application match colour values, it also provides an abundance of coordinating colour recommendations like complementary, triad, analogous and monochromatic schemes.



Tutorial

Why does Color look different on Screen and in Real Life?

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com

Consider the following scenario. You see a wonderful product online, shot in perfect lighting in a photography studio. You happily place the order and wait for it. When the product arrives, you open it up in your room and the color looks different. You start wondering, why does this product look different?

The answer to your question is both complicated and simple. There are a few main reasons color looks the way it does, let us break them down for easy understanding.

1. Light Source Color Temperature

As time has passed and technology has advanced more and more different types and sources of lights have become available for use. Color temperature (expressed in degrees Kelvin, e.g. 6500K) is a convenient way to group lighting into similar color families. The lower the color temperature of the light source, the warmer or redder the source will be. The higher the color temperature, the cooler or bluer it will be.

Light sources can be broadly categorized into the following types based on their color temperatures:

a. Incandescent or Tungsten Filament

This used to be the most popular kind of light source available. A filament would grow brightly to produce light when electricity would be passed through it. These emit a yellowish-red hue and have a color temperature of about 2700K. Incandescent light sources add a yellow tone to colors when viewed in this type of light.

b. Fluorescent

Fluorescent light sources produce light when electrical energy is applied to a glass tube containing mercury together with fluorescent compounds called “phosphors”. These can be found in varying color temperatures due to a lack of standards in the manufacturing process. Even two lights from the same manufacturer can have different color temperatures.

c. LED

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been used in electronics for over 50 years, but it wasn’t until the relatively recent introduction of white LEDs that they have become increasingly important in retail and consumer lighting. However, there are not a lot of standards in LED manufacturing processes either and this leads to varying color temperatures. The need for cheap LED lighting has further reduced the need for color accuracy.

Hence unless the original lighting conditions are exactly reproduced or your room lighting is carefully calibrated with a spectrophotometer to match the original color temperature, the color of the product will look different. Let’s not even delve into the more complex topics like metamerism, Light Reflectance Value of the Product, Luminosity and Chroma.

We at StudioBackdrops.com use 5600K lights with a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 95 to photograph all our products. It is then further calibrated to the sRGB color space with the Datacolor Colorimeter and Spectrophotometer Systems.

2. Color of Screens

We usually assume that all electronics exhibit the same colors, especially devices of the same make and model. This is often not the case. Chances are when you put the same image on two monitors or screens side-by-side, you have at least a 95% of chance that the images will not look the same. There are two main reasons why colors reproduced on different devices look very different. The first reason is that the color mixing theory behind each kind of device is different, and the second is mainly due to mass production variation. Let’s look at each of these reasons a little more deeply.

a. Color Mixing Theory

Color is mixed mainly in one of two ways. One is using colored light, and the other one is using colorants. Colored light uses an Additive Color System, based on RGB or Red Blue Green. This is used for lights and monitors. In the Additive Color System Red, Blue, and Green light combine to form white light. The intensity of the light controls the luminance or darkness of the color.

Colorants on the other hand use the Subtractive Color System based on Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow as primary shades. This is used in pigments and dyes, which are used to dye fabrics and print images. In the Subtractive Color System, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow combine to form Black. The amount of pigment used controls the luminance of the color.

Representing a Subtractive Color System based color on an Additive Color System based sevice usually causes variations in the colors.

b. Mass Production Variation

A screen or panel usually consists of 10 layers of components. The variation in mass production is usually at around 5% per component in order for it to be produced quickly and priced reasonably. Even if the variation is tightened to 2%, with 10 layers of components, the variation of the screen or panel could easily go up to 15% ~ 20%. Therefore, when the factory uses the panels right away without any adjustment or calibration, the colors will definitely be very different from unit to unit. This is the typical case for phones, monitors, projectors, TV, and even printers.

3. Personal Influences on Color

Have you ever wondered why you think a tennis ball is yellow and your friend thinks it is green? When it comes to the color of a product, it is often hard to get a consensus. We all remember the heated debates we had on that white and gold or blue and black dress. Here are some factors that can influence the color that you see.

a. Background

Apart from the brightness and light source of the viewing area, context also plays an important part in establishing color for the human eye. The relationship between the foreground or background and the product changes how our eye perceives the color. Optical illusion uses this exact relationship.

b. Geography

Even the color temperature of Sunlight changes depending on the time of day and our location on the earth along with factors like environmental pollution.

c. Age

Color perception in human beings definitely varies with age. Cells in the retinas of older people also lose sensitivity, which affects color contrast. Blues are especially likely to appear more faded in older adults, possibly because the lens of the eye yellows with age and cataract formation.

d. Subjective Color Vision

Color blindness (color vision deficiency, or CVD) affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women.

4. Metamerism

Metamerism in textiles is a phenomenon where a fabric can look vastly different under different sources of light. This occurs because the colors of the fabric are created from different combinations of dyes or pigments, causing them to reflect and absorb the different frequencies of light differently.

Image : Colour Spectrum of Different Light Sources

In the above image you can see that Daylight emits all the frequencies of visible light, however Incandescent bulbs emit very low amounts of the low frequencies and very high amounts of the high frequencies of light. Fluorescent and Halogen light sources are equally varied in their light frequency emissions. LEDs are the biggest offenders when it comes to recreating the colour spectrum of natural light as there is no industrial standard and manufacturers seldom care about the Color Rendering Index (CRI) of these bulbs to keep the costs low. The colour spectrum of LED bulbs varies greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Image : Colour Spectrum of Professional Studio Flash

You can see from the colour frequency spectrum of the studio flash, it mimics the colour spectrum of sunlight but still has limitations in certain frequencies. Due to this capability, all our products are shot with professional studio flashes that can maintain color accuracy with every flash.

Hence in order to reproduce the exact colour of the website image, you will have to recreate the exact lighting conditions (as shown in the image below) and color correct the image with a tool like the Datacolor Sypder or x-rite calibrate.

What does this mean for you?

It means, that visual color assessment or using human eyes exclusively for color evaluation will have some significant limitations. Visual color evaluation is subjective. Observers have differing color vision and, therefore, color opinions. Color differences are difficult to quantify and communicate. Many variables need to be controlled including light intensity, angle of view, surrounding color, and light source quality.

It is almost impossible to state or declare differences in colors based on our eyesight alone. So the next time you buy a product and it looks a little different than it did in the product image, know that it is natural. And you can always change your lights or color correct your photos to achieve the color you desire.

News

Wrinkle Resistant Backdrops – A New Addition

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com

For the first time ever, we bring you wrinkle resistant backdrops, a brand new product that makes the process of setting up much easier than before. We have created these backdrops after months of research, going back and forth with our manufacturers to ensure that we are making a backdrop that is better than before. This ended with us creating a completely new fabric that is perfectly suited to use as a backdrop. We have also used a new dyeing technique to ensure that the fabric stays as wrinkle resistant as possible. It is a backdrop that has never been seen before.

Lekera Backdrops (made from a polyester and elastane blend) have been gaining popularity in the market over the last few years thanks to their cheap price and ability to resist wrinkles. This claim attracts a lot of photographers who are looking for an affordable fabric backdrop that doesn’t need special handling. However, these backdrops are often stitched together, absolutely transparent and come apart after a few uses. The massive amount of negative comments on these products on Amazon suggests that people are looking for something better. That’s where we come in as we have taken all of that into account and created our new backdrops which solve all of the above problems.

A Superior Quality Wrinkle Resistant Backdrop

Our wrinkle resistant backdrops are made of heavy-duty polyester. The fabric is 185gsm, ensuring that you get a backdrop with enough thickness. Unlike most cheap lekera(lycra) backdrops, it is not see-through and provides a perfect backdrop to create all kinds of content. The fabric is very light absorbent, making it great for shooting with all kinds of studio lights. It is also extremely non-reflective, aiding in shooting both images and videos.

The wrinkle resistant backdrops are completely seamless and you can use them to create all kinds of sets. They are available in 8 different sizes and you can pick whichever suits your needs the best. The sizes are 5ft by 7ft, 6ft by 8ft, 8ft by 10ft, 10ft by 10ft, 10ft by 12ft, 10ft by 16ft, 10ft by 20ft and 10ft by 24ft.

They are currently present in six different colours but we are already working on some new colours. You can find the basic colours of White, Black, and Chroma Green. Along with Dark Grey, Light Grey, and Blue too.

The Benefits of Using Wrinkle Resistant Backdrops

There are several benefits of using our new wrinkle resistant backdrops. The very first benefit is in their name, of course. Their wrinkle resistant nature makes them the perfect candidate for shooting all kinds of content. But these fabric backdrops are especially beneficial to photographers and content creators working out of a small studio space. As they are very lightweight compared to bulky rolls, they are very easy to handle and set up.

If you are a part-time or an amateur photographer, then you must invest in a wrinkle resistant backdrop. It is a very easy to use the backdrop and it is worth the money you invest in it as it can last you for a very long time. They are also very lightweight and can be easily carried to any location.

The polyester material of the backdrop is what makes them wrinkle resistant and very easy to use. Most professional photographers prefer these backdrops as they do not require steaming to be used or special handling and storage to prevent wrinkles. In fact, you can store the backdrops any way you want and they will still remain perfectly wrinkle free.

If you are working alone and don’t have a team to assist you, it is perfect for you. It is a backdrop that is made to be handled without any assistance.

Wrinkle Resistant Backdrops are perfect for Shooting Video Content

The unique quality of our polyester backdrops is what makes them perfect for creating video content. They are seamless and smooth, giving you a great background to work with. It is not only easy to set up, but also very easy to shoot with. You can easily set them up in your studio, your home, or in any location by hanging them on the backdrop stand. We provide a 4” rod pocket so you can easily hang the backdrop anywhere you need.

Since the backdrop absorbs light rather than reflects it, it ensures glare-free shots. And it is this quality that makes it an awesome backdrop to shoot video content with. The fabric backdrop can be set up anywhere, even in the most confined spaces to give you a great, seamless background. Whether you need to shoot content while sitting at your desk or shoot full-length content in your studio – this is a backdrop that comes in handy in all situations.

Its highly wrinkle resistant nature ensures that the background is always smooth. It gives you the same effect as a paper backdrop, at a fraction of its cost. It is also great for using as a green screen for chroma-keying. The polyester fabric can be fitted into whatever shape you need for the green screen. And you can easily edit this backdrop as it provides much less of a challenge than other green screens. It is very easily replaced in post-processing due to its smooth and seamless nature.

How-to

How to create the ideal Home Studio?

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com

How to create the ideal home studio

At Studiobackdrops.com, we are constantly taking feedback from you to improve our products. We work with a wide array of professional and amateur photographers and try to solve their issues and everyday challenges. One question that is frequently asked is – how to create the perfect home studio?

Photography equipment is a long-term investment that might not explain itself when you are trying to make a purchase. We have consulted several professional photographers who have been working with our products to answer this question.

We want to go step by step and guide you with products that will make sure your home studio fits your needs.

1. Backdrops

Let’s start building our home studio with the most important product – the backdrop. Self-portraits, video, product shoots, food blogs – every kind of creative shoot needs a backdrop that enhances the subject.

At Studiobackdrops.com, there are 3 main categories of backdrops you can choose from. Paper backdrops, Muslin backdrops, and Hand-painted Canvas backdrops. To know which backdrop will suit your personal and professional needs better read here.

Any backdrop you pick can be easily stored and put away for later use. The muslin can be folded and stored in a dust-free area. The paper and canvas backdrops can be rolled up tightly and kept upright if needed.

Tip: To remove wrinkles before or after usage you can use a simple steam iron.

2. Backdrop Stand

A backdrop stand might not be a justified purchase at first glance. But it is good for preserving your backdrops. It also makes the process of shooting photos/videos much easier. In a home studio, you would need a backdrop stand that can be broken down and put away for later use.

The AriesX backdrop stand is made of two tripods and an extension rod. It comes in an easy-to-carry bag that also doubles up as a storage bag. The tripod can be folded to reduce the amount of space it takes. The extension rod can be separated into 3 or 4 parts.

This stand reduces the time and pressure that builds up when you are creating a setup. Once the stand is in place, you can put the backdrop up and create the rest of your set around it.

3. Light Setup

While natural sunlight may seem the best option for clicking images, it is not easy to control. It also requires a lot of modifying and editing later. One of the main benefits of a home studio setup is that you can easily modify the light while you are creating your setup.

To make sure your product is evenly lit you usually need two sources of light – a main and fill (or background and a foreground light). We would recommend the AriesX Quark 400 3 Light Kit or the Muon 600 2 Light Kit.

The AriesX Quark is meant for beginners as it is easy to use, has intuitive programming, and is smaller in size. It is the better option if you are learning about lighting on the go.

The AriesX Muon 600 Light is best suited if you want a workhorse. It delivers the precise power output every single time you click the flash and delivers it for long periods of time.

The difference between the two kits is very small. They come in easy-to-carry travel cases. Both can be stored away very easily in almirahs or lofts.

4. Tripod

One of the biggest problems of creating professional-level photos/videos is the stability of your image. You might need to create a time-lapse or change things around in your set frequently to get the desired result on camera.

However, if you don’t have someone to assist you or to hold the camera in the right place, then a tripod is necessary for a home studio setup. When your frame is stable you can easily make the minor improvements you need to your subject.

Our AriesX Heavy Duty Tripod and AriesX Professional Tripod work with a wide array of cameras and mobiles. (Mobile holder sold separately) It ensures that the quality and consistency of your image are constant.

These are some of the very basic products that will help you achieve the ideal home studio. Each of these products come with their own added benefits. They are easy to work with and will last you for a long time if you do some regular upkeep.

We hope this comprehensive guide will help you make a better choice when it comes to picking the right product. For any more queries, please contact us.

Review

What Backdrops to choose? Paper or Muslin?

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com
Great Backdrops Make your Images Shine

Photographers always tend to see beyond the model when studying images that they like. One thing that always catches their interest is the background of the image. A good backdrop choice must always compliment both the model and the garments. However, the intent of the photographer is always to pick backdrops that don’t stand out to a layman noticing the image.

Depending on the type of photography, whether it is a portrait session, product shoot, or a reel video, different types of backdrops are suited to each. There are two main types of backdrops normally used by photographers, Muslin Backdrops and Seamless Paper Backdrops. Both these types of backdrops have existed for decades and are immensely popular.

Muslin vs. Seamless Paper Backdrops

We stock 3 different brands of Seamless Paper Backdrops, Superior Seamless, Savage, and Trulite. All 3 of them are Made in the USA and are made to be really easy to use and give you consistently good results.

Both Superior Seamless and Savage Seamless Paper Backdrops have a thickness of 145 gsm and are available in 3 different sizes:- 4.5ft x 36ft, 7ft x 36ft, and 9ft x 36.

Trulite Seamless Paper Backdrops have a thickness of 125 gsm but most people can’t even tell the difference between 145gsm and 125gsm. Trulite Seamless Paper Backdrops are available in 4 different sizes:- 4.5ft x 18ft, 7ft x 18ft, 9ft x 18ft & 9ft x 32ft.

We stock over 120 different colors in Seamless Paper Rolls so that you can choose the color that you like and best fits your images. Seamless Paper Rolls are a product all studio photographers swear by, 4.5ft rolls are perfect for on-location portraits, and 7ft rolls are perfect car-sized backdrops.

Muslin Backdrops are made from premium 100% cotton and are dyed to make single color backdrops or textured muslin backdrops. Single Color Muslin backdrops are available in 3 different thicknesses of cotton and 1 wrinkle-resistant variety made from a cotton-poly blend. The 3 thicknesses are 165gsm(Solid), 190gsm(Deluxe), and 210gsm(Canvas). The Textured Muslin Backdrops are created by dyeing and processing them by different techniques. The main types of textured muslin backdrops are Handpainted Mottled, Crush Dyed Mottled, 3D Mottled, Washed Mottled, Solid Mottled, and Reversible Mottled.

Advantages of Muslin Backdrops

Both types of backdrops have a variety of advantages over each other. The primary advantage with muslin backdrops is that they are extremely portable and are hence perfect for on-location shoots and carrying around for those spur-of-the-moment portrait ideas. Muslin backdrops are also very rugged and take a whole lot of abuse before becoming unfit for use. While we don’t recommend washing these backdrops, you can easily spot clean dirt with a sponge and neutral non-abrasive detergent.

Due to the nature of the cotton fabric, it develops natural wrinkles. While a lot of photographers prefer shooting muslin backdrops with these wrinkles as it adds depth to the image, you can easily get rid of them with a steam iron. Alternatively, you can hang them overnight and spray some water on the wrinkles and gravity does the rest. All of our backdrops are made to strict international quality standards and with some tender love and care, they can almost last a lifetime.

Advantages of Paper Backdrops

Seamless paper isn’t as portable as muslin backdrops due to the size of the rolls and the need for a stand, but seamless is the backdrop most photographers use when shooting high-key lighting. The clean, smooth look that seamless paper provides makes it easy to white out a background for that immaculate appearance that is currently all the rage in advertising imagery.

Some clients want a crisp photo background in their commercial portraiture; for this look, seamless paper is the way to go. There’s no need to iron wrinkles as with muslin. When seamless paper gets dirty or creased, you simply tear off the soiled portion and unroll more for a perfectly clean background. If a particular color is needed beyond the basics, Savage’s Widetone paper comes in dozens of shades from Tulip pink to Sky Blue, making seamless a great choice for achieving an exact color. It really just depends on what you’re shooting. Both muslin and seamless paper have their strengths and weaknesses, but either will give great results when used properly. I enjoy using both in order to have the utmost versatility.

How-to

How the Surface affects Lighting when shooting Glass Bottles

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com

Here’s a 7-minute video in which photographer Dustin Dolby of Workphlo demonstrates how your choice of shooting table influences the resulting lighting when shooting bottles.

Dolby starts by showing the resulting highlight you get when placing the bottle on a “normal” rectangular table and lighting it with a speedlight and stripbox adapter.

The table’s edge presents a barrier for placing the light. Adjusting the position of the light will alter the resulting highlight on the bottle, but they all have the flaw of not having a clean highlight where it meets the bottom of the bottle and table.

Next, Dolby uses a custom-welded rectangular shooting table that’s about the size of a textbook. For a similar solution, you can buy a baby wall plate.

While the issue at the bottom of the highlight has been suppressed a little bit, it’s still not “clean as a whistle.”

Finally, Dolby uses an even smaller circular custom-welded shooting table that fits just a single wine bottle. For a similar solution, you can also use an upside-down cup.

This table allows the highlight to extend all the way down to the bottom of the bottle. To finish the lighting with the one-light setup, you can add a reflector card on the opposite side.

 

How-to

How to Remove Light Stands via Compositing in Less Than 2 Minutes

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com

In this video, I’ll show you a simple Photoshop compositing technique to remove light stands from your images in less than two minutes. Then, we’ll do a complete rundown of how the image was shot, lit, and processed.

Why is Compositing Useful?

Here are some reasons why you’ll want to spend a minute and learn this technique:

1. Not enough flash power: We’re often working with lights that don’t pack enough power to be placed out of frame. Although medium-large strobes (like the Profoto B10 or Godox AD200) have become quite popular, they aren’t in everyone’s toolkit.

2. Shooting wide: maybe you are looking to achieve a wider composition but still need to add light to your subject.

3. Creative purposes: maybe you are intending on using your lights to really spotlight your subjects and getting your light stand close to your subject is the easiest way to do this.

Regardless of the reason, this is a useful and simple technique to master, here are the steps. To make this quick, we’ll jump straight to the editing portion of this tutorial, assuming you’ve already shot a “plate image.” If you don’t know what a “plate” shot is, watch the video in full, or start with the section below on “How the Image was Lit and Photographed.”

Posted in PetaPixel by Pye Jirsa
How-to

How to Balance Strobe Light with Ambient Light

Posted on by StudioBackdrops.com

My name is Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens, and in this 6.5-minute video and article, I’ll illustrate the balance of strobes with ambient light. Whether it’s inside or outside, you’re going to have to learn the formula to balance strobes with ambient light. It’s not that hard, so let’s go back to 1930 and learn the formula!

For this shoot, we are using a Ford 1929 Model A with our two talents, Devyn Howard and Michael Nelson. We’re going to play around with different situations and eventually get to a night shot here. The idea is to balance the strobes with that direct sun and then into an ambient dark setup later on.

So this is the formula you need to understand.

#1: Choose aperture setting

What aperture do you want in the setting? How much depth of field do you want in the shot? f/2.8 is going to be wide open, f/11 is going to be everything in focus.

#2: Match strobe power to aperture setting

#3: Match shutter speed to ambient light

When you balance these two, you get exactly what you want.

Setup #1

Here’s our first setup and we’ll use our formula.

I’ve got our softbox off to camera left here. I chose f/5.6 so there is a little bit of depth of field and I see some detail in the background.

The power of the strobe is perfect on her face.

Setup #2

Here’s a more subtle application of the formula. First off I’m just going to take a shot of the ambient light. I’m going to keep it fairly dark.

As this is a little dark, I just want to brighten it up just a little bit. I’ve gone to f/3.5 because I don’t want as much depth of field because I want the background to fall more out of focus because they are at the car and I can hold them and the car mostly in focus here at f/3.5.

So there we have it; just a kiss of light on their faces.

Setup #3

I love shooting at nighttime because you have complete control of the light. First off, we’re going to combine our strobe with the ambient light we have it the shot from the car lights and the LED in the lantern.

Starting with our aperture, we’re going to do f/4.5. I don’t want to open all the way to f/2.8 because I want enough depth of field to see the front of the car, so f/4.5 becomes what I have to balance my strobe with.

Now that I have my aperture, I’m going to lengthen my shutter until the lights from the car give me a nice ring light on my couple and now I can see the lantern in the foreground really nice.

I’m putting a little LED inside the car back there so I can open up the car just a little bit.

Next, I’m going to add a blue light. This is a Dynalite Baja B4 to camera left and camera right. This opens up the car, the grass, and the whole scene really nicely.

Now the last thing to do is, when I put this into Photoshop, I’m going to open up the shadows a bit and that gives us a nice open scene, even though it’s nighttime.

Conclusion

So that’s how to balance strobes with ambient light. You’ll do it every time you shoot regardless of where you’re at because it’s seldom that you’ll be setting up strobes and you don’t also have an ambient light source you’re balancing to.

Keep those cameras rolling, and keep on clicking.

About the author: Jay P. Morgan is a commercial photographer with over two decades of experience in the industry. He teaches photography through his company, The Slanted Lens, which runs a popular YouTube channel. This article was also published here.