Photographing Kids: Color Temperatures

Video Transcript

"Now, when you are selecting the types of materials that you want to use as a reflector, you have to consider the quality of light that is coming off of that item. In photographic terms it is called color temperature. And, one of the ways that you can control color temperature is by choosing different things to reflect the light off of. Now you have to be careful that you are actually selecting something that is giving you the result that you want. So, if I had this blue sheet, I mean it does reflect light, not quiet as much something white would but it is giving off a quality light and you can kind of see it on my reflector, it tends to give it sort of a blue or cool cast. Now, if you were trying to do something artistic with that, that might be really desirable, but if you are trying to get a great picture of a kid, I wouldn't recommend using something this blue. I would suggest if they had blue eyes, I might put it behind their head and that way it sort of picks up the blue that is in their eyes. So whatever your back drop tends to amplify qualities of colors that are already in the subject. Now another option you might think oh well I will use something warmer orangy, so this also gives a unique effect and you can see it really does sort of contaminate the nice clean white light that I've got coming off of this. But it does give it sort of a nice warm glow. So another thing to consider is the person's skin tone that you are shooting. If you are shooting a Caucasian, usually the white or something whiter gives a more even quality of light for their skin tone, but if you are shooting someone with a darker skin tone like an Asian or African American, you have to be careful because something too silvery or white will actually make their skin look kind of ashy. So you might want to use something with a little bit of a yellow or golden tone to help keep their skin looking great in any circumstance. "