agree. best option. one of my long time business's is shooting artwork. I use 2 hot lights and 2 hanging sheets at 45 degrees.for diffusion.Old school stuff.

I am using a gray card, but you have to have all the light sources the same or you get mixed light which is impossible to correct for. But you knew that.

You can't have one light 5000K another light 5500K and another 5800K and color correct for three different temperatures, at the same time. There are bulbs sold as "Daylight" with those temperature and I believe there's one that was 8500K.

I have twist bulbs all over the office, as soon as a light bulbs burns out, a fluorescent goes into service, I'm saving energy. :-D I didn't buy every one of those bulbs, I did research reading packages, checking which stores had which brands, and on the web. I have about 9 assorted "Daylight" bulbs. Never did find the temperatures on CVS bulbs, so I left them out. Never bought any either.

The eventual goal was balancing fluorescent with my flashes. They run cool, last a long time and can be used by them self. They do have problems with flickering. They need warm up time to get to their color. (whatever that may actually be). The CRI for twist lamps is slightly better than tubes, I don't know why, but still below critical color standards for consistency.

This is a small desktop project, 24" x 12". Three lights below, three lights overhead.

I agree, flash would be better if I had more space.

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Ummmm...no actually, how exactly are you using your grey card !! Grey cards (or Gray depending which side of the wtaer you are) have been around since long before digital, the technique for correcting casts may have changed slightly but the fundamentals are the same, except instead of using an enlarger/filters/chemicals now you do it on a computer.

The other use is for exposure readings using a light meter, different thing altogether.

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Richard

What I was getting at, is if I have incandescent light bulbs under the translucent sheet, and daylight coming in the windows, plus overhead lighting of a different color temperature, maybe a flash at 5500K, I don't think you can ever balance it properly. This was the first step towards mixing fluorescent with flash, although I will eventually go all flash for the portable setup.

For now I don't have color balance problems, because all the lights are the same color temperature, same Mfg. I starting experimenting with a controlled relatively inexpensive light source. I may not have made that clear? Still fluorescent isn't accurate and it's not precise, or consistent. If anyone says, flash is better, I'd have to agree.

18% gray card by the way. (and I kept writing it grey card, but my spell checker keeps correcting me, I just gave up and added it.)

Off subject but on color balance. Has anyone ever tried one of those lens caps that come with video cameras, for setting the white balance on a DSLR? Is that a dumb idea, or might it work? I'm talking about shooting natural light outdoors, not anything studio.

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Spring forward, I changed the sig image again.

A work in progress, not the final version.

This will explain things better. Twist bulb in fixture with globe diffuser. There are three of these with 100w daylight twist fluorescent bulbs in them. Fixtures from Home Depot, with glass globes, about $6.95 each.


Here's how they look ready to be the bottom/back lights. Overhead lamps, from Goodwill $4.95 and down, milk cartons from a local dumpster.


Lights on!


Diffusor plate in place. It works better, and loses the hot spots if I raise it about two inches off the globes. For now, it's just resting on the top of them. Still works fine.


{four image limit on a photo forum?} Continued in the next few messages...

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This shows the size of my spare space at the office. The idea was a very compact light table. This one is 24" wide and 12" deep. The top lights do make it slightly larger, but the desk also has a book case, vcr and TV on it. So I find it pretty space efficient. Camera with 100mm macro on tripod. Normally I'd use self timer mode, and I have a cable release on order... looks like this one has the jiggles.


Finished photo. Opened and set color to Daylight. I removed a hair, cropped to a square and did levels, white on background. Nothing else! Oh did I mention this is also because I wanted to do isolations without spending hours with the pen tools, going around the edges.


One shot deal, it's not as crisp as it could be. Guessed at the exposure, 1 1/2 stops over exposed. f/11, I could have easily gone to f/16. 1/15th of a second. Darker subjects need more time, translucent subjects less contrast.

Maybe that explains better why I was hunting for the "perfect bulb". :-D

{that's four again, because smilies count too} Continued...

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I already started on the flashes. (love the 640x480 camera I dug out for this?) Trial #1 Quantaray MS-1. Comes with a neat little folding stand that has a 1/4x20 threaded base and a funky strap, should you want to mount the flash on a post? Nice part is it has a built in slave sensor. Does not work with digital cameras that have a pre-flash.

Globe from Home Depot, it's plastic, not glass.

Slide the globe over the flash and bingo, you has a diffused slave.


Guide number is a guess, because they don't say! With the diffuser it's probably down to 30 or less. Even if you use it bare or for back lighting, $19.95 is a good deal. Now I have two kicking around the office because I went to a slave that's compatable with my newer cameras.

You can make these work with any digital camera, but getting an old manual flash, that doesn't do pre-flash, but has something like the Vivitar thyristor and light sensor. It will only flash once, and will sync the camera with the slaves. Just won't work if you have a camera with a built in flash and no hot shoe.

{MORE - because that's four}

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I ended up buying two of these Vivitar DF-120s for $29 each. Rubber tilt stand, camera mounting bracket if you want the flash as a enhancer for any digital camera, cross support threaded for standard tripod threads. Another nice design.

What makes this one a winner for anyone and worth the extra $10 is the flash isn't just a dumb slave flash, like the MS-1, it also has an exposure sensor. Better than that, it has a switch for different flash modes.

Test/Off, for some reason, they decided it was a feature to have the thing flash, every time you turn it off? Drives people nuts and wastes batteries.
1 = straight slave flash
2=one pre-flash delay (my Canon cameras, all of them)
3=two pre-flashes delay

Real guide number listed as 40.

I have a couple of Wein units that will make any hot shoe or cabled flash into a slave. The old one from film days, a HS, is just like the rest of the flashes, won't sync with some digital cameras. Then I picked up a new HSD last month and I can sync anything.

Phase two is almost complete. I have to get the flashes and twist lamps working together. Mostly just to prove I can do it. Then I can move on to the Big One. Stay tuned, you don't want to miss the next installment of "as the bulb turns."

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