Retirement Lunch - gels?

[kayak203]

I'm unpaid and for good reason, but I'm hoping you can help before I do any

more damage. The banquet indoor lighting was a lot worse than I was

expecting. I was using a D70s at f5.6 and ISO 640, with an SB-600 speedlight

pointed almost straight up for bounce, but with an index card rubber banded to

the SB-600 to give some direct lighting. I have colored gels for the SB-600,

but I have never used them and didn't have time to fool with it. Also, I had

the speedlight zoomed, so unfortunately, it just put a spotlight on the close

subject and shadowed the bags of their eyes. How do you handle this type of

informal gathering?<div></div>

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

I like your photo.

 

Hope you don't mind but how does this look when cropped?

 

Happy Holidays!<div></div>

[ellis_vener_photography]

shoot raw and white balance in your wraw process using his shirt collar as the white balance target. Otherwise:

 

You see that the light in the background is fluorescent so put a Rosco Plus Green filter on the Speedlight (to make it imitate the fluorescent color balance) and choose fluorescent as white balance in the camera but even then I'd still shoot raw and WB as described in my first paragraph.

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

Hi Ellis,

 

I find that wb to something like the gents shirt will result in skin tones that make it seem

like the subject got sunburnt! And then I would receive complaints as most of my clients

are people looking at people. I balance to lean toward warm skin tones, hence I receive no

complaints.

 

I see many photographs where it is properly w/balanced but the people have this ruddy

red look.

 

Your thoughts? Thanks.

[clay_ransom]

Those ceiling look a little high for a bounce flash. Try a Sto-fen I think it will even out you light. I agree with Bill on the crop the candle looks like the focal point in your picture and not the gentleman.

[beepy]

I tried a white balance - masked foreground and main subject and white balanced on shirt.

White balanced bkgd with an inverted mask - but had a hard time finding anything neutral to

balance on - ended layering a masked 10% Blue (80) Photo Filter on top of background to

cool down my neutralization attempt.<div></div>

[beepy]

So, I guess what I'm trying to say - you're shooting/processing digital - a white balance

card shot in the environment (and various depths in image) will allow you to accurately

white balance the scene? Gels seem somewhat more complicated than necessary for what

you are doing? I guess the gels (as stated) should balance the strobe temperature with

ambient light - but I'm sitting in a hotel conference room with fluorescent bounce up light

against an off white sound reducing tile ceiling and unbelievably a mix of halogen and

incandescent floodlights point down illuminating most of the room.

<p>

What gel combo would white balance that? Eeeek!

I'd rather sample the room with a white balance card.

<p>

Maybe I am nuts.

[picturesque]

If there were no windows or other types of lighting in the room, you could have used green gels and done OK. Usually, though, you do have other kinds of lighting, and then green gels can cause problems. There are three things you can do that don't involve gels. First is cropping in the camera to not show light fixtures. Second is manually widening the flash beam when bouncing. Third is letting the flash dominate and not dragging the shutter so much. You want to achieve that fine balance between showing some background but not showing so much that the ambient light colors everything.

[twmeyer]

What Nadine said, and get an SB800 which is more powerful and can be used off camera, wireless with your D70s. Or, use a tripod and shoot at 2.8 with no flash. You have to time your exposures for <i>relatively</i> still moments. DOF is not as big an issue as you might think, since these images probably will never be enlarged past 6x9 inches, despite Bill's crop of your already cropped image. If they want close ups, you'll need a longer, faster lens to work this way... t

[kayak203]

I will need to practice some of these before the next one. I guess I was showing how bad the conditions were instead of framing and putting forth a composition. I don't have an art background but I am signed up for a series of classes starting soon. Thanks for all the thoughtful suggestions.