Comments on: flash and tungsten lighting …

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:46:02 +0000

Hi there Mike ..

It is always a possibility to gel your larger flash units.
I do it for my formal photos in the church for example, where I specifically gel my Q-flashes with CTS (or sometimes 1/2 CTS) to counter the effect incandescent spotlights.

Neil vN

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:17:33 +0000

Neil, excellent advice and I have found solutions to my problems here. I bought my flash a year ago and after using a few times put it away to use tungsten lights. After trying out some of your ideas here I’m going to practice, practice and practice as you have shown that flash can be natural.

In many of my situations I’m working with harsh overhead spot lights (you’ve covered that one here) but the rooms tend to be cloth covered and quite often very dark so bouncing will not be that good? As I have stands and brollies for my video lighting I’m going to try and get a hot shoe cable and flash mount.

Many thanks for your excellent site, please keep it up!

Mike

By: Neil

Neil — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:10:54 +0000

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

By: David

David — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:47:51 +0000

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?

By: Serge

Serge — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:12:48 +0000

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

By: Tom K.

Tom K. — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:28:10 +0000

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

Tom K.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:18:41 +0000

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

By: Tom K.

Tom K. — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:35:17 +0000

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.

By: alex

alex — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:48:40 +0000

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.

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:14:32 +0000

Melvin ..

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

Neil vN