The Devil’s In The Details

“Your white balance is off.” The Tech Guy from the Home Office tells me. “We can’t spend all our time fixing your images.”

“I’ve been have problems since you sent me that new camera.” I said and huffed out a breath in exasperation. “Can’t you just return the old camera? The one that worked?”

“It’s not a problem with the camera.” He says. “You’re just not doing the white balance correctly.”

Taking a White Balance is fairly simple. You put a neutral density Grey Card in the spot where your Subject will be sitting and you take an exposure. Most modern cameras, like the one I use, has a sub-menu that walks you through the basics and tells you if the setting is good or bad. A bad setting doesn’t stop you from taking pictures. A good setting doesn’t guarantee that the exposure will be perfect. But it should make it so that all the images will be exposed at the same setting. That way if the Lab does need to do some work, they can setup the software and run all of your images at once.

My problem was with the connection between the lens and the camera body, which caused it to change the exposure every few shots. I could see this, some were dark, some were light, but I didn’t know how to fix it. Technical difficulties can be a bit of a problem. The Tech guys always want you to call them, but they aren’t always available. I’ve been doing this kind of thing for 25 years, so I tend to think that I can work it out myself, even though there are times that I can’t.

The equipment leads a hard life. I set it up and take it down at least once a day, sometime two or three times a day. When in use, it is in near constant use. When it is not in use, it is rolling around in the back of my van. The gear is designed for this abuse, but even the toughest equipment eventually breaks down. Wires break at connection points. Bulbs break when one of the kids knocks a light over. The backgrounds crack with age and develop creases and don’t look as professional as they did when they were new.

Replacing these things cost money. Even a low grade studio like mine cost a few thousand dollars to totally replace with new items. Of course, the replacement parts are seldom new. Used gear costs less and usually works just as well. I’ve known a handful of photographers over the years that use their own gear. They like the quality of high end lights and cameras and some Companies even give them a stipend for the use of their equipment. I’ve seen people using five thousand dollars cameras to take assembly line portraits. This is madness.

If the Company wants me to shoot with a Hasselblad, that’s what I’ll use. In all my years of shooting, one company used high end gear, everyone else used cameras that were available on the resale market for a few hundred dollars. The people I work for now use new cameras that cost a few hundred dollars. They are adequate to our needs, when they work.

The problem with the lens was easy enough to fix. I used a different lens. I have two with the camera, one long and one short. I often end up shooting in tiny rooms, so I have been using the shorter lens. That was the problem. Of course, like everyone else, I’ve been off work for months, so I may not remember everything I’m supposed to do once I return. I’m sure it will come back to me.

Sometimes the Lab guys will send you an email two weeks later to yell about some problem you fixed, you know, two weeks ago. They often have a lot of detailed advice about something that you corrected and already forgot about. Or they found something you missed and you have two weeks worth of work that is shot. It isn’t as bad now as it used to be. The images are uploaded nightly and someone should look at them the next day and notice something really off like one of your lights not firing or a sudden shift to a different camera setting due to an unfortunate hand position. It’s was too easy to change your exposure just enough to mess up the lab but not enough for it to jump out at you on the monitor.

There always seems to some kind of adversarial relationship with these companies. There’s always someone who thinks you’re going out of your way to make their job harder. We’re all doing what we can, though I will admit there are times when I get tired and I lose a bit of focus. Having issues with the gear never helps. Cords and computers and lights and cameras, so much that can go so wrong. It’s amazing that it works as well as it does.

The equipment is the least of my worries this year.