Why does bounced flash look tungsten?

[glenn_s]

I've been trying to do more bounced flash to avoid shadows - especially when I

shoot vertical pictures.

 

Many of these pictures appear to have a yellow tungsten cast to them. My

ceilings are white. Any idea why the pictures would come out yellow?

 

Is there any solution other than custom setting the white balance each time?

 

Thanks,

Glenn

 

p.s. - I'm using a Rebel XT, 420EX, and occaisionaly a Sto-Fen diffuser.

[todd peach seattle, washi]

Without knowing the ins and outs of the canon system (nikon guy here), I see two probable possibilities: your flash is not dominating the lighting, or your ceiling isn't as 'white' as you think it is.

 

Having spent a little time with interior decorators, many of them choose a 'white' for the ceiling that is in fact 'one hue lighter' than the colored walls. It's not white at all.

[gaius1]

Here's the thing - you only need to worry about colour temperature when using a camera because your brain sorts it out for itself without you even thinking about it. I bet your ceiling is actually off-white and you've never noticed because you're expecting it to be white.

[mark u]

You could try using a gel on the flash to try to offset the cast from the ceiling or walls. The Cinegel Swatchbook offers a wide range of gels in a size suitable for cutting down and taping onto the flash for about $25.

 

It's also possible that you are shooting in a mode that provides "slow sync" with the flash only acting as fill, rather than main light (Av and Tv modes, and even P mode if you are using a high ISO setting). In those circumstances, the ambient tungsten light will dominate, and Canon's auto white balance tends to produce what many regard as an overly warm result. To force the flash to be the main light, make sure that the ambient light is a good couple of stops underexposed, and shoot in M mode.

[m3rdpwr]

Not knowing your shutter speed:

 

In situations that I want to make sure flash dominates, I try using 1/160 or higher depending on distance, etc.

 

If you are 1/80 or slower, you will be pulling in more ambient light.

 

If I'm in a church, I tend to try 1/60 or so to get some ambient light in the background being dark and all.

 

when I make portraits, I like to use 1/160 if I have enough flash power.

 

Just my thoughts...

 

-Mario

[w.smith]

If you shoot RAW you can forget about it during the shoot and batch adjust the White

Balance in PP.

[glenn_s]

thank you all for the responses. I'm using the XT's custom function to force the shutter to 1/200 and make the flash the dominant light. The color is fine when it's direct flash, just not bounce flash. I think Guy is right - maybe the walls aren't as white as they look.

 

I'll try the custom white balance and see if it makes a difference. I've never used it before, but clearly it's time to learn a new trick. I just checked my manual and it doesn't seem too difficult.

 

Thanks,

Glenn

[eric v]

I would bet that the color cast mainly appears when using the stofen omni-bounce. The stofen creates a "Bare-bulb" effect, spreading light in all directions. This means that whether you want to or not, you are bouncing off the ceiling, the walls, the floor and everything else. My guess is that colored walls were responsible. If the ceiling is white, but the walls are colored, remove the omni-bounce. Hope that helps,

Eric

[craig_shearman1]

You're not supposed to be using the Sto-Fen and bouncing at the same time -- the purpose of the Sto-Fen is to soften the light so you don't have to bounce. In addition, it's robbing a stop or more of light, and bouncing it doing the same, so you're down two stops or more compared to bare flash. That could mean that the flash exposure basically isn't registering and you're just getting exposure from existing tungsten room lights resulting in the orangeish color. Also, are you using the orange Sto-Fen that's intended to convert daylight flash to tungsten balance? I presume you're using the white one but this would be an obvious result with the orange one. Also, you should have your white balance set on 5500-6000 daylight, never auto white balance. I'm surprised at the number of people running around with white balance set on auto. Auto white balance may get lucky but it has not way of knowing the color of your subject matter and therefore has no way of being accurate other than pure luck.