'Studio' Setup and Shots.

[George.]

Hey Guys -

I have been shooting stills on mannequin and have been getting strong color differences between shots..

At the moment i am shooting with my Canon Digital 400 and am using a white sheet as a back drop, i am shooting with flash with a slave flash behind the mannequin to try and lighten up the image better...

The room is mostly dark...

Just wondering from yours guys experience what would be a better set up, or a way to use my current set up better to decrease the color differnces between shots.

http://www.reef.net.au/IMG_6137.jpg
http://www.reef.net.au/IMG_6136.jpg



Cheers.


Lincoln

[gregneil]

Hi Lincoln... in my limited knowledge and experience, I'd guess that you're not going completely manual with your settings? My guess is the camera is getting different readings from different colored shirts / outfits on your mannequin, and then making slightly different exposures based on those readings.

The easiest way to get consistent exposures would be to get your settings dialed in manually (aperture, shutter, and flash exposure, maybe even white balance) - that way the exposure will always be the same. You can take a picture, check the LCD to see how close you are, and then make minor adjustments until you have it dialed in. Once you're set, you're good to go!

[pathfinder]

For studio work, you really need to turn off all automatic functions ( except for autofocus ) and shoot in manual mode with manual flash.

This will stabilize the exposure between frames, since with manual flash the light should be consistent from frame to frame.

If the aperture and shutter speed are not changed, and the strobe is not changed in power or position, then the white backdrop should have the same tonality in each frame, no matter how the camera is moved toward or away from the subject.