Photography question regarding skin "color temperature" appearance in photos

[randomname1]

Hi, I'm a very new photographer. I'm using a Canon Rebel T5 starting out and just trying to shoot it in full auto mode right now. I'm using the overhead light in my bedroom and then one studio light. The studio light has a diffuser over it - I don't know if I should be using that or not.

I have my doll setup in front of a mid-tone dull blue background. It's just a bedsheet and the color was called "denim." I know nothing about photography but I do have an art background. So I was just thinking "complementary colors" you know? Choose a cool mid-tone BG to make her pop out from.

My question is: Sometimes my doll's skin tone looks natural. But then other times her skin looks very saturated - tending toward orange. What causes this? I get a wide variance in skin tone in the same photo shoot. And really the only two things I'm changing are the position of the studio light and my position taking the photos.

If I had to guess, I think what's happening is that when I move the light closer to the doll, the skin looks more natural. But when it's moved farther away it starts to tend toward orange cause it's getting slightly darker / not enough light? I know I can just pull the photo into photoshop and adjust it that way, but I'd rather get what I want out of the camera itself. Is there any way to control this in the camera? Thanks.

[Socratus]

I'm no photographer, so ignore me if you want. But I found when I took a photo of my doll with my camera flash it was kind dull and grey, but when I let the outside light come in and took the pic without the flash, she had warmer more flesh-like colour to her. She looked more alive.

just my two bits.

[Arthur1960]

Hi there, I'm sure someone with more expertise will chime in soon but in the meantime I would just say the obvious thing that lighting is everything really, certainly my stuff improved immensely once I started paying more attention to the way I light my gals during a shoot. The other thing I did was force myself to stop using the auto on my Nikon and I've not looked back since I did that! Lighting and shooting tpe and silicone is a bit different to shooting a person, the light behaves differently and then you can get a wide variety of results with different skin tones. Generally speaking the lower the colour temperature the more saturated your image can be but then you often want a lower colour temp with a doll, especially with the darker skin tones. A diffuser is a good idea, especially if the light source is towards the higher temperature range but you might want to consider getting a pair of LED variable temperature light panels. I find I use mine more than anything else for indoor stuff, the attached pic of my Monique was taken with a very simple setup, actually with just one LED as I was in a hurry, the colour temp was low and I probably had the camera set with f/4.5 1/30 ISO200. Hope that's of some help, oh the background you used sounds ok, you should check out the work of Nanako on here, he's a master of combing different colours in his work.

[ariel_lover]

If I were to hazard a guess, it would be that your two light sources (studio light and overhead lamp) are a different colour temperature. Depending on the position and distance of the studio light from your subject, the overhead light may be more strongly influencing the overall color temperature of your photo and the skin tones.

"Soft white" LED or tungsten bulbs are typically in the 2700-3000K (Kelvin) range, which is a very warm light source (toward the red end of the spectrum). Daylight is 5500-6500K (the cool blue end of the visible light spectrum).

Being a Nikon guy I can't give specific guidance for your Rebel T5, but you should be able to manually set the colour temperature within the camera menus rather that relying on the auto colour balance setting. But given that you probably have mixed colour temperature lighting, it will probably be trial and error to find the appropriate colour temperature for each setup. Fortunately with a DSLR, test shots are free.

[Nanako]

As Arthur pointed out, photography is really all about controlling light. And that is something
we spend all our lives trying to understand and manipulate. I've had mixed results combining
warm with cool lighting, and you really just have to take the time to experiment with different
combinations. It's important to remember that diffused lighting will produce soft shadows,
whereas direct, or harsh lighting will produce very strong shadows. What you choose to use
will, of course, depend on the effect you are trying to achieve. You can adjust the temperature
in camera, but it does take a bit of tinkering and tweeking to get the desired results. You can
also adjust, or correct the temperature of a photo with most photo editing software.
If you shoot in RAW format, it will make the editing process considerably easier, but there is an
unfortunately steep learning curve to photo editing software that many will find frustrating.
Your best teacher will be the experience you gain by shooting often and regularly.

[Devit]

I would say: Switch to the manuelly camera mode and check again.
And I would say: Pictures are shown different on my gaming monitor, working monitor, smart phone, tv, ...
And ... where is your picture

[Nanako]

Hi there, I'm sure someone with more expertise will chime in soon but in the meantime ...

Honestly, I don't think many of us here could possibly match your own expertise

[setevoltas]

If I were to hazard a guess, it would be that your two light sources (studio light and overhead lamp) are a different colour temperature. Depending on the position and distance of the studio light from your subject, the overhead light may be more strongly influencing the overall color temperature of your photo and the skin tones.

Yep, and this explains why with the same settings you are seeing different effects from different angles. When you move, the percentage of one light source shifts, when you move again, etc.

Underexposing will also shift skin tones toward orange and red when shooting in warmer K ranges in natural light. None of these things are "bad" necessarily, but they are frustrating when you don't know why they are happening. Been there!

[Synthian]

I'm using the overhead light in my bedroom and then one studio light. The studio light has a diffuser over it - I don't know if I should be using that or not.

I have my doll setup in front of a mid-tone dull blue background. It's just a bedsheet and the color was called "denim." I know nothing about photography but I do have an art background. So I was just thinking "complementary colors" you know? Choose a cool mid-tone BG to make her pop out from.

My question is: Sometimes my doll's skin tone looks natural. But then other times her skin looks very saturated - tending toward orange. What causes this? And really the only two things I'm changing are the position of the studio light and my position taking the photos.

If I had to guess, I think what's happening is that when I move the light closer to the doll, the skin looks more natural. But when it's moved farther away it starts to tend toward orange cause it's getting slightly darker / not enough light? I know I can just pull the photo into photoshop and adjust it that way, but I'd rather get what I want out of the camera itself. Is there any way to control this in the camera? Thanks.

The other thing I did was force myself to stop using the auto on my Nikon and I've not looked back since I did that!

If I were to hazard a guess, it would be that your two light sources (studio light and overhead lamp) are a different colour temperature. Depending on the position and distance of the studio light from your subject, the overhead light may be more strongly influencing the overall color temperature of your photo and the skin tones.

As Arthur pointed out, photography is really all about controlling light.
If you shoot in RAW format, it will make the editing process considerably easier.
Your best teacher will be the experience you gain by shooting often and regularly.

Good question! I think we are all interested in taking better photos of our beloved partners. I am a cinematographer using a Canon 5d Mark 2, which also takes photos but I'm not really a photographer so others should correct me if these techniques don't apply to still photography.

Seems to me that you are running into the inverse square rule of lighting. If you move a light half way to the subject, you have 4x more light, the same when you double the distance away from your subject, you will have 1/4 of the start position.

I concur with Arthur to go all manual so you can gain an understanding of how f-stop, shutter speed, iso, and white balance/color temp all work together with the lighting and production design setup. This is the fun part where you just fiddle with the different variables and sandbox around to find what looks good.

For composition: you can start isolating variables. Your diffused studio light should have a color temperature listed or has a variable knob. You can get color temp light from Home Depot for your overhead also. For a complimentary color to your denim background, which sounds like cerulean blue (I also have an fine art background), you might set the studio light's color temp to 3200K which will give your gal a warmer orange glow. Then, on the camera, match the actual color temp from a hand held light meter at your subject because as ariel_lover suggested, the overhead may be skewing your color temp. Or you could just set it to match the light at 3200k which won't be far off. Higher temps like 5600K will appear more ultramarine blue and give you a more tertiary color.

How I composed Evie and me. Off screen left slightly above our heads, a variable temp diffused LED Key Light set at 3200K 100%, then lower right 25% further away with a Green gel to complement the Red roses, a 3200K 100% diffused LED Fill Light. My Blue shirt and her Blue scarf complement the Orange 3200K Key Light and natural Orange candle light. Outside on the patio off screen left is a diffused 3200k 100% Background Light with a Purple Gel to compliment the Red Roses.

You and your beautiful model will have a lot of fun exploring photography together !

Evie smile2.gif (4.59 MiB) Viewed 572 times

[randomname1]

Thank you all so much for the info. All your responses together with watching a few intro photography youtube videos last night brought me to the conclusion that I need to stop treating my camera like a magic black box, and actually learn photography technique. So yes I'll start to learn about how to shoot in manual mode ASAP, thanks. The full auto mode is just too unpredictable, and the videos showed me different conditions under which it can make bad decisions. I think that's what's been causing my subpar results.

[Devit]

Yes, you have to go through ... a lot of reading.

I always recommend shooting in RAW format.

Here's something that might tell you what kind of photographer you are/want to become.

Another step would be to set the lens to manual after approaching the subject and opening the aperture wide. Take a few shots with the camera in "M" mode and keep turning the focus ring on the lens slightly. A couple of 18 megapixel images then quickly become 100 megapixels ... of course then - in e.g. Photoshop - they have to be added together. Personally, I only do it very rarely -maybe in thw future. I'm a lazy dog and it wouldn't be a hobby for me anymore. In addition, stacking is not always desirable.

[NoTimeForDolls]

Thank you all so much for the info. All your responses together with watching a few intro photography youtube videos last night brought me to the conclusion that I need to stop treating my camera like a magic black box, and actually learn photography technique. So yes I'll start to learn about how to shoot in manual mode ASAP, thanks. The full auto mode is just too unpredictable, and the videos showed me different conditions under which it can make bad decisions. I think that's what's been causing my subpar results.

One thing to note, and I'm sure the videos have pointed that out, is that a camera is not quite like a human eye. Close but not quite. What I mean by that is if you don't touch the scene (you move neither the subject nor the light) but the camera moves around it will take a different picture as the lens reads the light differently. For a human eye, it will read the scene pretty much the same but a camera lens is much more "rigid" from this point of view. All the light that bounces around (that the human eye doesn't really see until you are trained to know how to look for) is read different depending on the angle of the lens (and assuming every other setting is kept the same).

Photography will look very daunting at first because the pictures will just suck but once you get a decent grasp on how lights affects a camera sensor, you can take good pictures in no time.

And yes, as others have said switch to manual. Taking terrible pictures at the start using manual is an important step into understanding how the light/lens relationship works. You can learn just as much from a bad photo as you do from a good photo.