Newb Needs Help.....

[Brain_box]

Hi,

I wander if anyone can help me?

My Fiance has a wedding cake shop and she has to have photos of all her creations when they are finished. The problem is where she takes the photos is in the back room which is fairly dark with a fluorescent light. Everytime we take a photo it is either way too dark or the colours have changed. The over all effect she would like is for the colours to be realistic (obviously) and for the icing to have a nice sheen on it (her words...).

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated....

PS Also I am upgrading my camera and want to get either a Sony DSC-HX1 or a Pentax X70. If anyone has any opinions on either of these to help in my decision then please let me know.

Thanks

Andy....

[kencaleno]

You need to use an accessory flash with a window green gel attached, for fluorescents, so i hope the camera you upgrade to has a hot shoe,or you won't get the shots you want.

[SteadyFromOz]

Yeah. White Balance is your issue. You need to become familiar with your camera functions with regard to White Balance or WB. The cameras manual should give you the basics. If your camera has a WB Auto and Manual function try putting it in manual and setting the WB to fluorescent light. Alternatively use a flash and some reflectors to help fill the shadows.

[morts]

Originally Posted by SteadyFromOz

Yeah. White Balance is your issue. You need to become familiar with your camera functions with regard to White Balance or WB. The cameras manual should give you the basics. If your camera has a WB Auto and Manual function try putting it in manual and setting the WB to fluorescent light. Alternatively use a flash and some reflectors to help fill the shadows.

Or the 3rd option:

If your camera has a "Custom WB" setting do the following:

1. Get a piece of white paper/card
2. Take it into the room where you're shooting
3. (you may need to set your lens to manual focus) Take a photo of the card under the light. Avoid the shadow of your camera
4. Make sure the whole frame is taken up by the white
5. Choose "Custom WB" on your camera and select your "white" photo.

That will adjust the WB specifically for that light.

[Japaslavian]

Or for a 4th option...

You can pick up a gray card and put it in the scene somewhere off to the side and using the levels adjustment in PS, use the middle gray eye dropper and select the gray card to neutralize the scene.
I believe there is a way either in Bridge or Lightroom where you can batch this edit to everything, so you could just use the card in the first shot as a reference, and just use it for everything, but I don't remember how.

[Brain_box]

Thankyou for all your suggestions...

I am currently in the process of giving them all a go to see which gives me the best results.

Thanks again and hopefully I will have some shots to show at the end...

Andy