Rosco Tough White

<p>Last time I took this picture I used Rosco Tough Frost filters. This time I decided to use Rosco Tough White filters after they came in the mail, which is a heavy grade of diffuser. According to Rosco Tough Frost is a medium to mild diffuser. I kind of like this Tough White better, because there are no hot-spots and the light spreads evenly. <br />I had to add a little contrast in PS, but I only had to use 2 panels this time, whereas with Tough Frost I had to use 4 panels 2 on each side. I'm using the same 2 Norman LH2 lamp heads on each side with softbox and 1 Norman LH2 light head with sofbox in the back, plus the 2 Rosco panels on each side of the product. Let me know what you think. It still looks a little Blueish/Mangenta to me...</p><div></div>

<p>On this one I used the Clarity function in LR which just hits the colors. </p><div></div>

<p>Harry, I like the first version better. The can stands out a little more against the background. Both the can and ball head look a smidge dark from the front. Have you tried bringing one head around at more of an angle (like a key light)?</p>

<p>You are right Mark I tried a little front lighting with the pop-up flash on my camera set at -3 EV but that did not work out so good. Maybe a change of the lighting angle might work.</p>

<p>These Rosco sheets work as well on speed-light flash units. I had some left-over pieces of Rosco Tough White from when I was building my panels so I taped some to my Canon 580 EX and they diffused the light somewhat. I did not tape the sheet directly on the flashhead but sort of in a loop with masking tape, so that there was a little space between the flash head and the sheet. Shadows were diminished considerably and the light was not as harsh. If you double up the sheets you get even more diffusion.</p>

<p>A cheap replacement for the Gary Fong but it works nevertheless !</p>

<p>What is it with these Rosco filter/gels and how they render neutrals? This is the first I've ever heard of them or any filter manufacturer since I never needed to use filters or gels.</p>

<p>I saw the YouTube link demostrating their use in filtering regular spiky fluorescent tubes for video and noticed the same pinky magenta appearance on the actual filter gel and on the subject. It did make skin tones look better but not the overall video appearance. </p>

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<p>My camera's Fluorescent WB setting does a better job.</p>

<p>Harry, why did you use these filters? Is the violet pinky blue background the desired result?</p>

<p>"Harry, why did you use these filters? Is the violet pinky blue background the desired result?"</p>

<p>I used them to eliminate or town-down the hot-spots coming from the lamps. Actually the mangenta pinky/violet tint got accentuated when I downloaded the image to PN. In PS and LR the image looks ok.</p>

<p>What are the RGB readouts in PS/LR sampling this violet tint? What happens when you use the WB eyedropper tool in LR to neutralized this area?</p>

<p>Answer to the colour shift is to set a custom white balance from a double thickness of copier paper. Cheap, easy and accurate. Of course if you're shooting something white, then the WB setting can be taken direct from the subject or background rather than from a sheet of white paper. A custom WB is the <em>only</em> way to get accurate colour and should be done as a matter of course for critical work - at least when when shooting JPEGs. Shooting RAW allows the WB to be fixed afterwards, but even this is usually done quicker if you've set a custom WB.</p>

<p>BTW Harry, I still think your lights are set too high up. There's more light on the top of the can and a specular blob on the shoulder of the ball-head. The usual idea with this style of double side-lighting is to get two rectangles of completely even lighting coming from each side of the subject, and that's obviously not happening here. The top of the air can is overexposed while the bottom of it is more correctly exposed. Lowering the lights and maybe pulling them back from the scrim panels should sort it.</p>

<p>Try a more demanding subject like a dark glass wine bottle. You should be able to get an even strip of light reflected down each side of the bottle. This won't work particularly well against a white background, but it's a good exercise in light placement.</p>

 

<p>Tim I didn't get a chance to use the eye-droppr tool actually I did but I forgot how to use it. So what I did was to use the Grey scale eye dropper in Levels then I clicked on something that was close to 18% grey like the SLIK letterings, but that turned the entire piclure sort of greenish.<br>

Rodeo you are probably right I need to do a custom white balance. What I was going to try next is the old Chrismast Ball ornaments on Black background. </p>

<p>"What I was going to try next is the old Chrismast Ball ornaments on Black background." - Ouch! That's going to be a tough one to get perfect.</p>

<p>"A cheap replacement for the Gary Fong..." - An even cheaper replacement is a bit of bubble-wrap material or an old plastic milk container. Doesn't take much to equal or better those stupid overpriced gimmicks.</p>

<p>Harry looks like you are having some fun trying something new. I like the quote, "it's called trial and error, not trial and success." Looks like you are stretching and learning. I like placing a grey card in the shot once I have it dialed in then just click on it with the eyedropper, instant color balance. If you dont have a grey card in the shot, look for something that produces nearly even rgb values and click on it. Have you picked up Steve Sints new book yet? His other books were fantastic. Some of his concepts really opened some areas up for me. Things I have seen no where, I mean no where else. If you have some soft boxes,I'd use them here. Then if you want more diffusion I'd consider the diffusion material in front of them. On tall slender items like bottles or the can or ball head, I like long slim spec highlights from a strip box or a box with a flag or cover.</p>

<p>Harry, I think your materials aren't exactly white, and you may also be picking up color casts from extraneous light bouncing off the room's other-colored surfaces, and from any reflected surfaces in the material. I would suggest you construct a sweep table out of a single material: 1/8" white Plexiglas, white laminate, or similar. I have a gloss-white shower surround that I bought for about $70 from Lowe's that I think I'm going to turn into a sweep table (we decided to tile instead). It's pure white, thin, and flexible--it should be perfect!</p>