# Studio photography --- achieving a consistent background



## jidoe (Oct 3, 2012)

Hello all,

This is my first post. Glad be a part of the community.

Question: I have a little studio set up in my home. I'm shooting graphic design work (print brochures etc) with a background material is a solid grey colour. I'm using 2 Canon Speedlites and shoot through umbrellas, and a Canon 60D.

So far my lighting seems decent. However, when viewing my shots in Lightroom, I'm noticing that the background grey colour is shifting slightly in certain shots. Is there a trick to keeping the background grey consistent in all shots (either while shooting or in Lightroom)? If so I'd love to know! 

Thanks

J.


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## cgipson1 (Oct 3, 2012)

If you have light hitting it unevenly, you will get gradient effects. If you are lighting your subject, and any of the subject lighting hits part of the background, you will have this problem. The trick is to either ensure no light at all is hitting the background (except ambient) or light the background separately and evenly on it's own, separately from the subject.

Usually easy to correct in photoshop.... Don't know if Lightroom will do it or not.


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## jidoe (Oct 3, 2012)

I'm laying flat print pieces down on the background paper, and am trying to light everything evenly. I guess I'm ok with a bit of gradation, just want to make sure the "temperature" or hue of the grey is always consistent. I should probably be doing manual white balance right?


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## MLeeK (Oct 3, 2012)

Wait long enough between shots to be sure your flashes have fully cycled. Shoot in full manual so your never running the risk of the camera metering one differently than another; a custom white balance so your camera doesn't change it a slight bit depending upon the brochure laying on the background.


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## jidoe (Oct 4, 2012)

Thanks for the tips guys. 

One major thing I forgot to mention is that there is a lot of ambient daylight in the room, coming from a skylight. I'm thinking of blocking it off completely or modifying it with fabric, but maybe would also like to take advantage of it as it seems to help reduce shadows. 

Over the coarse of a day that ambient light will change a lot, would white balance be the best way to keep the colours consistent? 

I'm somewhat new to studio photography... thanks in advance for any tips/suggestions!


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## MLeeK (Oct 4, 2012)

Your flashes should be completely canceling out the skylight.
If you take your first shot of the gray/white background with the flashes firing and set your custom white balance based on that shot it should remain the same no matter what.


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## amolitor (Oct 4, 2012)

Are you using automatic white balance?


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