Indoor lighting with Flash on hotshoe

[john_aceti]

I am going to do some indoor social event shooting. I have not

measured indoor lighting temps but am sure they will be your typical

incandescent lighting levels.

 

Am I correct to assume that I should use my yellow 81B gel over my

bounce flash mounted to the hotshoe and run the camera for

Incandescent lighting as to not have a color shift from the subject

to the background?

 

Thanks for any advice as I am not too familiar with using gels on my

flash.

[bruce_rubenstein]

What you propose will give a neutral color balance to the subject and background. (You might want to set a custom white balance to make sure that the flash illuminated subject is properly balanced.) However, a neutral backgrond balance may not always produce the best looking pictures. Some people prefer the background going warm; is seperates the neutral subject from the backgound and gives a nice warm feeling to the picture. Literal isn't always the most expressive.

[john_aceti]

Thanks for the prompt response Bruce, I have never used the Gels for my strobe, I know that the green is for when they have the "Cool" florescent lighting (learned that the hard way). Thought trying to balance the flash to the ambient would be best but I can understand what you are speaking of.

Thanks!

[EricM]

"Am I correct to assume that I should use my yellow 81B gel over my bounce flash mounted to the hotshoe and run the camera for Incandescent lighting as to not have a color shift from the subject to the background?"

 

Yes. And Sto-Fen now makes a dedicated orange and a green diffuser too for these situations.

[wedding-photography-denver]

Already answered.

 

However, I would add to the idea that use of gels to balance light only brings more of the backgound (warmer light) into the primary view.

 

What I mean by what I am trying to describe can be seen in this shot in which i use the flash to give a whiter light in the foreground and warmer behind the primary subject.<div></div>

[wedding-photography-denver]

This is proably a better example...<div></div>

[john_aceti]

Well I did what you said and they came out quite well but was seeing that there was too much difference between the subject and the background so I bumped up my ISO a bit more (yes inducing some grain). Later in the evening they dimmed the lights even more so I put my 50mm 1.8 lens on and the yellow gel that came with my SB800 flash. The photos came out much better, partially because I was using a much faster lens but less color correction was required in photoshop. I will have to remember this in the future, if lighting goes very dim to use the gel along with my fastest lens.

[john_seymour]

If the 81b gel is used to give flash a tugsten-like output, what's used for flourescent? Ie flouresent ambient, flourescent wb on camera - what over the flash?

[john_seymour]

... meant to add that I'm looking at Lee 100mm polyester filter range, which would be LEP81B for tungsten ambient light...