white balance. In the studio this is easy: you simply set your white balance and
make sure that your lighting is consistent in its color. This means your light
sources are all the same brand and power with flash tubes of the same approx-
imate age (as flash tubes age, the color of the light [their color temperature]
changes). Using a custom white balance will keep the coloration of your images
the same from one background to another and even from one camera area to
another. This is vitally important when it comes to producing final images that
don’t require a huge amount of color correction to match up. Also, if you are
using more than one camera, check your cameras to make sure that all the set-
tings dealing with contrast and color are the same.
Consistent Exposures.The second critical element when shooting JPEGs is
ensuring consistent exposures. While I have been doing this for years and can
judge how far to position my lights from the subject to get consistent expo-
sures, it wasn’t always that way. When I first started out, I would either focus
on the client and position my lights where I thought they should be (which
produced images that were all over the place in the terms of exposure) or I
would drive my client crazy by metering each light for each shot.
Then, I discovered that I could use a string to measure the distance between
each light and the subject or background (for the background light) to make
sure my lighting produced the exposure and quantity of light I was expecting.
I simply tied one end of the string to each movable light stand and cut the string
off at the distance I had metered for the client to be positioned. To take this idea
one step further, I metered my lighting to give me a 3:1 lighting ratio when theA string can provide the key to repeatable
exposure by ensuring that your lights are
placed at a consistent distance from each
subject.
Check your cameras
to make sure that all
the settings dealing
with contrast and color
are the same.