White balance with D2h and SB-800 outdoors

[Rick Waller]

Need some advice using D2h and Sb-800 for outdoor portraits in good

natural light with fill flash. Using WB set on auto with the flash

set at -1 comp for fill, the results are on the blue side. Same

result using 28-70/2.8, 70-200/2.8 and 17-35/2.8. Shooting with

auto WB and NO flash, the colors are perfect - no problem with auto

white balance until I turn on the flash.

 

Any ideas? I will try setting WB for flash tomorrow, but I thought I

would check to see what you folks do in such situations.

[david_h._hartman]

If the WB is correct for the ambient light and that ambient

light is warm then the fill flash will look blue. You might try

using a gel over the flash to warm the flash and balance it to

the ambient light. <br>

<br>

Regards,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.

[Rick Waller]

Thanks for the response David. I have no available gels to warm the flash output. Would setting the WB to "flash" improve the shot?

 

I will actually experiment with it tomorrow a bit, but I thought others might have a ready solution. I never had such a problem using film and I am a bit of a novice with digital imaging.

[Rick Waller]

Thinking about this further, I presume slapping a piece of yellow cellophane or such over the flash head will achieve a similar result to using a true gel for the head?

[grant_.]

my sb800 came with gels, yours should have too...if anything try the flash setting, from 0 to -1....dont forget its digital, so dont be afraid to test all the settings..

[loreneidahl]

I shoot the D2h. Setting the WB to flash makes an improvement over Auto.

 

Also if you can shoot in RAW mode. If the WB seting that are pre-defined are not to your taste the D2h has the ability for you to dial in your your own WB setting. I do this often as I deal with wierd color temps at my events.

 

Setting Exp comp on the Flash will not give you a "warm look", to do this you will need to gel the flash. There are I have to do this to compensate for wied lights that make the performers look sick for the after concert shots.

 

 

Use the bounce mode on the flash and use a big reflector. Also changing the color of the bounce reflector (gold) will create subtle color casts in your images based on your WB setting. This can be used to your advantage Ie. warmer skin tones.

[david_h._hartman]

What I was thinking about is the old trick for using fill

flash with fluorescent office light. The fluorescent lamps are

greenish so you add a pale green gel to the flash so they are

roughly equal in color. The value would be the same as the

magenta filter used to correct the fluorescent light for daylight

film. If the filter on the lens is CC 0.25 M then the filter on

the flash would be CC or CP 0.25 G.<br>

<br>

In your case its simply a matter of warming the flash to

equal the ambient light. It might look more natural if you

slightly under correct the flash then warm up the color of the

whole photograph in Photoshop. Open sky is blue compared to

sunlight especially late afternoon and winter sunlight. If there

is a persons face in the photo Id correct for the

face and let the background go a bit warm.<br>

<br>

If you set the WB for flash the background might get quite yellow

in the winter sun (this assumes you are somewhere in the northern

hemisphere). Experiment and see what you like.<br>

<br>

Regards,<br>

<br>

Dave Hartman.

[beno_t_marchal]

<p>If you have an SB-800, it should come with two gels for tungsten and fluorescent

lights.

<p>--ben<br><a href="http://www.marchal.com">marchal.com</a>

[Rick Waller]

Thanks guys. Emabarrassed to admit that I have never looked in the SB-800 box since I bought the thing 6 last year. Didn't realize gels were in there......