EOS R8 recommended settings for consistent ID badge photos

[jameseyboy]

Hello! I do new employee badge portraits for the medical company I work with, and try for all the photos to be consistent, since it's a rather broad company.

The background we started using recently is a light grey, and since this change the background color of a lot of the photos has been inconsistent; sometimes it's starkly white, sometimes it's blue-grey, and sometimes it's accurate to the actual color. The company I work with is set and comfortable with the grey background, so it's up to be to ensure that the photos are consistent. 

For some environmental/settings context: We take new employee photos in a room with fluorescent lights and three floor-to-ceiling windows, which we keep shaded for orientation slideshows. I use a Canon T7 Rebel, and usually shoot on CA. I don't like to take photos with flash (that way glasses and jewelry aren't over-illuminated). The centering of the photos is great, and I'm not having any trouble with red eyes or with blurriness.

Does anyone have any suggestions for making sure that both the grey background and the people being photographed aren't washed out, underlit, or inconsistent each time? 

[Waddizzle]

You can use most any image editor to remove the background and replace it with anything you want.

[kvbarkley]

Are you getting a flicker warning?

I would get some real photo LED light panels for consistency.

[stevet1]

jameseyboy,

I would spot meter off their face too.

Steve Thomas

[Tronhard]

Hi and welcome to the forum:
I did a similar exercise with some university faculty members.  They wanted head and shoulders shots for their site and for their publications.  Like you, I favoured a grey background and found one with as close to the 18% reflectance that the camera sensor needs to have.   I chose to shoot in available light that came through large windows that faced south (in the southern hemisphere that offers indirect light), thus providing a soft light to reduce sharp shadows.  

You would suggest that you don't want to mix lighting types and I prefer the natural light as it will not be high above them and thus produce deeper shadows for eyes and neck.  In that case I will likely shoot in Auto lighting mode, but you could switch to natural or one of the others to lock that in - depends on your specific light.

R6, RF24-240@100mm, f/7.1, 1/160sec, ISO-500 R6, RF24-240@100mm, f/7.1, 1/160sec, ISO-500 R6 Mk2, EF70-200@126mm, f/5, 1/160sec, ISO-200

Camera setup.
Metering in spot mode, centred.   This allows you to specify a specific location for your metering.  Once you have a setting you can shoot in M mode and forget it, or shoot in Av mode and meter off the same spot on background - that should give you a consistent level of exposure as the background remains constant in its reflectance value.

You want the subject to be a couple of metres off the background to make sure there are no shadows cast on the wall behind, this also allows you to let the wall dissolve to out of focus.    You don't mention what lens you use, but I prefer to shoot with a mild to moderate telephoto lens - in a range around 80-150mm, and with a f/stop of around f/5.6 - 8.

Since getting focus on the eye is everything, I shoot with centre point spot focus and I use back-button focus to be able to separate focus from the shutter actuation.  To set up BBF see this video from Canon:  note you need to set up servo focus as part of this to allow you to track someone if they are moving - you TAP the AF-ON button for a static shot and HOLD the AF-On button to track.  
Master Back-Button Focus | How to Back-Button Focus on your Canon Camera - YouTube

By using centred spot focus I am able to zero precisely in on the closest eye (if they choose to be at an angle) and the camera is not confused by things like glasses etc.   If you are shooting people with glasses, consider a circular polarizing filter to remove reflections, but note you will lose a stop or so of light in doing so, so consider shooting in Av mode as an alternative to M.

The sequence of events is this:
1. Point the centre of the display at the grey background and get your exposure set.  Either set it in M mode, or M.
2. press the * button that should be set to exposure lock.
3. Point to the subject's eye and lock the focus on that
4. Recompose and press the shutter button to take the shot.

It takes more time to explain that to execute.  With practice you become extremely fast at the technique.   For these images, each person took me about 3 minutes to get them positioned, comfortable (some folks get really stressed at having a photo taken) and take several shots.  I usually take one each of face turned 30-45deg to each side, and one face directly on.   

I hope this is of some assistance to you.

[TomRamsey]

In my former company we took a lot of ID photos with over 1000 employees and hiring more, and new contractors continually.  We used a gray backgound, we actually had a couple made up that were on frames and portable so we could take them in different locations.  We did not use any locations where natural light came through windows, mostly indoor led lighting in all locations, and always used auto white balance.  We never had any problems with the background.  I'm guessing the windows are messing with your white balance since that light changes continually and is a different color temperature from your fluorescent lighting.  I think if you get into a room with no windows you will be fine.