flash and tungsten lighting …

June 26, 2008 @ 11:33 am · Filed under flash photography, technique

Flash, for me, is an essential tool in sweetening the available light and improving the quality of the existing light.

I often see comments on the photography forums to the effect that with cameras like the Nikon D3 or Canon 1D mk3, where you have exceptional high-iso noise performance, that you don’t need flash.  The crucial point that is missed though, is that flash is not merely there just to use when the light is so poor that you can’t stop any motion blur from your subject, or stop camera shake spoiling your photos.

In these two examples, I used flash (gelled with a ½ CTS filter) to more closely match the available light in colour. Instead of just accepting the uneven lighting on  my model, Jennifer, and accepting that there will be darker areas around her eyes … I used directional bounce flash to make the lighting on her more flattering.

I used my usual black foam half-snoot to block any direct light from my flash on her.  

[ settings: 1/125 @ f1.8 @ 800 ISO ]

.
In this illustrative sequence of images, I deliberately placed my model under a spotlight in the ceiling to show how to deal with this specific lighting problem.

  Normally we would try to position our subjects so that we don’t have to deal with this kind of harsh uneven light.

If you cannot move your subject, here is how to deal with this kind of lighting situation with an overhead Tungsten spotlight.
Bouncing flash off to the side of me, towards my left and slightly over my shoulder, I was able to lift the shadow areas completely, and even out the light.

BUT … the flash was not gelled for the Tungsten ambient light. You can immediately see that there are areas of skin tone that are blue, and other areas that are yellow. This isn’t as pleasant-looking skin tone than if the flash had been gelled.

  
  Here I did gel my flash. In this case, I used a piece of ½ CTS gel taped over my flash-head. This turns the blue-ish light from the speedlight into much warmer tones, similar to that of Tungsten lighting.½ CTS gel will filter the light from the flash to approximately 38oo K.

Incandescent light’s WB varies a lot around 2800 K. The WB from my flash will be different than 38ooK because I bounced the flash off a non-white surface, which also changes the colour. (Correcting for this to get to a pleasing skin tone is part of a raw workflow.)
In comparison, here is how I would normally have handled this straight-forward portrait – by placing my model away from the over-head light, and then using bounce flash to give soft and directional light on her.

In controlling where we bounce our flash we can get a simple portrait with nice modeling on the face – the shadows and well-lit areas balancing nicely.

  

22 Comments »

  1. Linda Wang Said,

    June 26, 2008 @ 1:38 pm

    Thank you for another informative post! Also, thank you for linking to the gel filters at BH so that we know how to get our hands on some as well!

    Linda

  2. Rachel Said,

    June 26, 2008 @ 8:56 pm

    Neil, Not too long ago you had a product here that was a set of gels for your flash that were sticky and just peeled on and off as required I have lost the link and can;t seem to find it. Would you mind posting it again

  3. Michael Chiara Said,

    June 27, 2008 @ 4:09 pm

    Hi Rachel

    I believe your talking about stickeyfilters.com

  4. Scott Jones Said,

    June 27, 2008 @ 4:45 pm

    Hi Neil,

    Great post as usual. On the last picture where you did the more controlled portrait, was this geled too? You don’t mention whether you continue this technique in this situation. Thanks for all you great flash blog entries with beautiul examples!

    Scott

  5. Neil Said,

    June 27, 2008 @ 11:13 pm

    Hi Scott ..

    Yes, that final image was gelled too.

    Neil vN

  6. arturo.fidelino@gmail.com Said,

    June 28, 2008 @ 10:24 am

    Hi Neil,

    I’m a newbie who’s so grateful about all the tips and insights you have been sharing with your readers. However, I couldn’t understand this: BOUNCING FLASS OFF TO THE SIDE OFF ME, TOWARDS MY LEFT AND SLIGHTLY OVER MY SHOULDER. Are you using a remote flash or slave, or on-cam flash? Could you please make an illustration of the above?

    Thanks, Turo from the Philippines

  7. Neil Said,

    June 28, 2008 @ 8:19 pm

    Hi there Turo …

    The techniques on these pages assume that you’re using an on-camera speedlight that can tilt and swivel. This is essential in improving flash photography. You simply can’t get these results with a flashgun that can’t tilt and swivel.

    With most of these examples shown on this website, I didn’t use a remote flash, although I often do for my work.

    Neil vN

  8. Nina Said,

    June 29, 2008 @ 10:33 am

    The part about using the snoot to keep direct flash from hitting her… was the black foam between her and the flash? I’m kinda confused and dying to know ;) Thanks for all your wonderful tips! I just love looking at all the photos and series shots explaining and hows and whys of how you do what you do.

  9. Neil Said,

    June 29, 2008 @ 1:12 pm

    Hi there Nina …

    Yes, the piece of black foam that I have on my flash blocks (flags) the light from my flash so that none hits her directly.

    There is a longer description of it on this page.
    My choice of flash modifiers.

    Neil vN

  10. Mike Said,

    June 30, 2008 @ 3:34 pm

    Hi Neil,

    I’ve attempted this technique of geling the flash to match the tungsten light on my last wedding but I don’t think that it came out as intended. What settings should I be making to the camera? Should I change the temperature to 3800 Kelvin and change the white balance to tungsten? I took a couple of shots this way but the pictures still came out very orange. Any help?

  11. Nina Said,

    July 2, 2008 @ 7:29 am

    Thanks for the answer! I’m also wondering the same thing. Is your WB set on tungsen when you’re working with your gelled flash? I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that that is your usual approach, but I can’t remember. Thanks!!!

  12. Brian Said,

    July 2, 2008 @ 8:01 am

    Nina and Mike,

    Neil describes his WB settings here:
    http://planetneil.com/tangents/2007/12/13/my-choice-of-flash-modifiers/

  13. Neil Said,

    July 3, 2008 @ 3:19 am

    Hi there Mike and Nina ..

    You need to change the WB on your camera to the WB of your flashgun’s gel. (Of course assuming you are using your flash as a main source of light.)

    So it would either be 3800K or Tungsten .. or thereabouts.

    But I would still very strongly recommend that you shoot in RAW for how much leeway you have in adjusting the WB settings after the fact.

    Since you’re most likely bouncing your flash, it will still pick up a colour cast from the off-white walls and ceilings. Ideally you should correct for this to some extent at least. This implies that your actual WB might not be 3800K .. but somewhere in that vicinity. Which is why shooting in RAW is ideal.

    Neil vN

  14. Melvin Said,

    July 3, 2008 @ 9:04 pm

    Neil, great article but would it be possible to include a photo of you in action so that we can see how the black foam is positioned? It would be a great help. Thanks

  15. Neil Said,

    July 4, 2008 @ 10:14 am

    Melvin ..

    Check the link supplied in the article about my choice of light modifiers.

    Neil vN

  16. alex Said,

    July 5, 2008 @ 7:48 am

    Thank you,

    Just found your blog.

    This blog post help me argue my case with a friend who swears off using flash and then started to frown upon my us of flash, so i tried to explain it to him, but you offer a more clear cut visual explaination that made him have a priceless facial expression. You have been bookmarked for future reference. Take care.

  17. Tom K. Said,

    July 9, 2008 @ 9:35 pm

    Thank you Neil for another informative and extremely helpful article. I have a question about gels….sort of. Could a person get away without using gels and instead use a Whibal as a reference when editing in RAW? (Whibal is agrey card for those who don’t know what I’m talking about here).

    Regards,
    Tom K.

  18. Neil Said,

    July 9, 2008 @ 11:18 pm

    Hi there Tom …

    No, you can’t achieve what you want to achieve here, with a Whibal or any kind of WB correction tool.

    What the gel does is bring the flash’s WB much closer to Tungsen so you don’t get that disparate WB as seen in the 3rd image.

    See, the problem isn’t one of not getting a pleasing WB, but that the colour temperature of Tungsten lighting, and that of Flash, is so far apart, that you get ugly colour casts. No amount of playing around with the RAW file will fix that. Neither will playing with custom white balance settings.

    Your only option is to filter the flash one way or another.

    Neil vN

  19. Tom K. Said,

    July 10, 2008 @ 1:28 am

    Many thanks for the info Neil. I’m off to buy some gels.

    Tom K.

  20. Serge Said,

    July 22, 2008 @ 8:12 am

    Many thanks for your explanation! I urgently have to test my flash using gels because that technique it’s not quite clear to me.

  21. David Said,

    August 15, 2008 @ 1:47 am

    Neil, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. I’m just getting into DSLR photography, and what I’ve already learned from browsing your site is priceless!

    If I wanted to have a full set of useful gels on hand, which ones would you recommend?

    Also, I haven’t seen this mentioned here yet, but do you recommend using a GretagMacbeth ColorChecker chart to assist with white balancing the RAW files?

  22. Neil Said,

    August 16, 2008 @ 4:10 am

    Hi there David ..

    The gels that I use are mentioned in this post, but the link is also available from this page:
    http://planetneil.com/tangents/my-gear/flashes/

    I have the GretagMacbeth ColorChecker chart, but don’t use it for White Balance correction.

    Most times, I am after a pleasing WB, more than specifically a correct WB. (Although, it is much easier getting to a pleasing WB if the original WB is correct.)

    Neil vN

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