sticky filters …
One of the important factors when we try to seamlessly blend flash with available light, is to be aware of the colour of the available light.
A speedlight’s colour temperature is around 5400 Kelvin, but the scenarios we photograph usually have a much different colour temperature than that. It then becomes important to try and match the (usually) cold light of the speedlight, with that of the existing light. For example, the blue-ish tones from a flashgun are often difficult to mix successfully with the much warmer tones of tungsten light.
To compensate for this, I quite often gel my flash to tungsten - and bring the colour temperature of the light from the flashgun closer to that of the tungsten light.
I recently discovered a neat little product - Sticky Filters.
Each fold-out pack contains two sets of 5 different filters designed to be used in specific lighting situations. This includes three different filters to compensate for fluorescent lighting.
The filters have a mild adhesive on one side. This makes it easy to just slap a filter onto the front of a flashgun, where the filter then stays in place. They can easily be peeled off again, and stored on the holder card.
So simple and so elegant a solution, that I wanted to be able to provide these to my workshop attendees. Thanks to the kind sponsorship by Kent Watkins of MPS, every person who attends one of my lighting workshops in 2008, will receive a set of these filters.
Anyone who wants to purchase a set of Sticky Filters, can order them directly from Midsouth Photographic Specialties for $49.95 a set.
Jenny Arnez Said,
January 24, 2008 @ 9:09 am
These look great! I am attending your San Francisco workshop and look forward to checking these out.
Rod Pascoe Said,
January 24, 2008 @ 9:13 am
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best aren’t they?!
Rod
Dan Said,
January 24, 2008 @ 10:10 am
So in your experience, what’s the longevity like on a set of these? Have you seen any break-down when exposed to a flash-intensive job?
Whatever your answer is, I was delighted to see they do LIFETIME REPLACEMENT of the filters. That makes the $50 seem like a more viable investment. For someone like me who is still developing that ‘natural eye’ for lighting, these would be a BIG help. I can’t tell you how many times I have taken my raw images to Aperture, and find that even with specific color tools and channel mixing, I can’t isolate the different white balances between the flash and available lighting in what otherwise are great photographs. Now, it’ll just be a matter of adjusting that white-balance slider.
Hats off to you Neil for point this one out. I’m still smiling.
Neil Said,
January 24, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Dan .. that’s where the beauty of filtering your flash comes in. You simply can’t change that disparate WB settings in post-production. Because if you change the overall WB, everything shifts in tandem.
So you do need the WB from the flash, and the WB of the available light, to be fairly close.
albert Said,
January 24, 2008 @ 11:55 am
Hi Neil, great advise! thanks. BUT Im curious of how you would then place your Omni bounce over this filter. or even your 1/2 snoot, as they would collide. Would you cut down your Sticky filter? The website says thats s no-no.
If the Sticky Filter is too large for your flash you can cut it down to size with scissors (although this highly discouraged!). Even the large Sticky filter set will usually fit over the flash of a small camera if positioned a certain way. A Junior size filter set is available for purchase.
Neil Said,
January 25, 2008 @ 5:56 am
Albert .. more often than not, I don’t use diffuser type flash modifier. But instead the bare flash which I bounce of specific surfaces.
Personally, I’d cut the filter if I think it needed adjustment.
Bennet Said,
January 25, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
Hi Neil, thanks again for your wonderful workshop…looks like I missed the sticky filters by one week
Neil Said,
January 25, 2008 @ 10:14 pm
Bennet … I will provide these to anyone who comes in for an individual tutoring session. So I will send you the packet of filters.
Neil.
Joel Said,
January 26, 2008 @ 9:54 pm
Do you find the color temperatures on these filters as good or better than using CTO, 1/2 CTO, and other more typically-used gels for balancing flash color to different lighting conditions? I had just begun to get comfortable with those, and these sticky filters’ colors don’t appear to be “the usual”, nor is what they are particularly well discussed on the web site. I appreciate your expertise!
Bennet Said,
January 28, 2008 @ 8:00 am
Thank you Neil… You are the best!!!
Stephen Said,
January 28, 2008 @ 10:51 am
This is an ingenious product. Does the adhesive leave any residue? I presume the adhesive is non-destructive to the mounting surface, or one would not be able to place additional gels over time.
Too bad I just bought a sheet of gel.
Bennet Said,
February 4, 2008 @ 8:37 pm
Thank you Neil. I got the sticky filters and it works wonderful !!!
Leigh Yu Said,
February 6, 2008 @ 6:31 am
Pure genius! I like that they are nicely labelled too…
Elliot Said,
March 1, 2008 @ 9:44 pm
Bought a set of sticky filters after seeing featured here and enjoy having better quality light / color / white balance. Thanks for sharing all of your technique and experience!
mahalo (thanks) from a hawaii reader,
e
planet neil - tangents » workshop view: Portland, OR Said,
March 10, 2008 @ 8:42 pm
[...] Square. We used the same technique, but gelled the flash for Tungsten light using one of the Sticky Filters. This reduced the usual strong orange murky background that you get due to the disparate WB [...]