Indoor flash-White Balance Help

[jjynwa]

Hi, I need help regarding white balance... I've been reading quite a lot however I'm still kinda lost..
lets sae... indoor tungsten... i wan to shoot portrait wif flash... wad wb do you normally set as? cos right... if i set my wb at tungsten... i will lose the "warm" of the ambient light...which i do not really wish to?... i tried flash wb... it makes my pic too warm?... Should I just leave it at AWB or shoot raw?
hope all e gurus can help
thanks

 

[zac08]

Have you heard of gelling the flash?

Get a tungsten gel, then set the WB to tungsten... now both the BG and subject is illuminated under the same lighting colour balance and you cna then correct it accordingly.

 

[jjynwa]

yea.. i heard of it... lets sae i gel it with 1/2 CTO... after that wad wb mode do I set in? tungsten wb mode will jus make my pic lose all the warm right?

 

[jjynwa]

mmm.. can you explain a bit more about "correct it accordingly"... hehe..

 

[Octarine]

Can you read up about the basics of White balance? My big spoon is in dishwasher...
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm

 

[zac08]

Correct in camera (set to Tungsten WB)
Correct in post processing (shoot in RAW AWB and correct to Tungsten)

 

[ortega]

alternatively if you use your flash as the main light. it will overpower the ambient light.
so that would mean that your WB will be for flash.

 

[dision]

Use white card and custom wb, shoot raw.

 

[ortega]

that will not solve the problem of different light sources with different colour temp.

 

[reachme2003]

unless one uses a colour meter to read colour temperatures. i think one need not go so far.

 

[ortega]

wait, i am wrong, maybe can....

shoot raw ... colour correct for one light source ... and then colour correct for the other light source

then spend alot of time DIing it together

 

[catchlights]

white balance of Tungsten and flash are totally different, you can't balance two color temperature into one.

you can only convert the color temperature of either one to be the same as another one, so you can do a white balance to make it neutral.

or eliminate one and make another one to be the dominant light source, so you can make the white balance of this dominant light source to be neutral.

 

[jjynwa]

How to make a light source as a dominant light source?

 

[catchlights]

How to make a light source as a dominant light source?

for you case, either do as what Mr Ortega suggest.

alternatively if you use your flash as the main light. it will overpower the ambient light.
so that would mean that your WB will be for flash.

or just shoot with available light, without using flash.

for these both ways, you only need to deal with one type of white balance.

 

[Andrew Ng]

Using Flash is very Tricky. Flash is more than just an illuminating tool.

I hope TS knows that when on flash... and presuming he sets his flash unit to ETTL (Canon I suppose) and that his camera is set to Manual Mode.. He has full control of the Camera. Flashes can over power the SUN and available light at times.

Presuming that it is already known that Shutter Controls Ambient Light and Aperture controls Subject Light. Small Aperture on ETTL will make your flash work harder.

As for WB... I think there is like... no set rule... but the end result must be pleasing to your eyes and that you need to take note of the colour of the ambient light. I hope TS has a sensitive eye for colors.

Taking that all flashes 'emulate' the suns colour/ temperature.... which is about 5500~5700~5900K

Varying situations I can Think of...

Strong warm Spotlight indoor.... I would set to WB to Tungsten. To Balance things up.

Turquoise wall and a Chinese Lady, Both look flat indoors, .. I would set the WB to Tungsten (preserve the cool of the turquoise wall) Put a Warm Orange/ Tungsten gel , use an offshoe flash cord and do a wide direct flash on my subject.

I set another Situation where I read of Joe Macnally.. when he was shooting with Film...
" To match the fluorescence lights (in the subway), I put on a green gel on the strobe, a 30 Magenta filter on the lens to clean up the fluorescence and give me a good skin tones... (Set at Daylight WB)..."

Really.. to get the desire skin tone, you will need to look at the colors that is bouncing off everywhere indoors and match it. Then you adjust accordingly... Of course... YOU MUST HAVE THE LUXURY OF TIME.. like a few seconds to adjust. Takes time to be perfect... but more importantly when you look at the LCD (another Luxury).. do you know why your colours turned out that way???

Take a Flash photography course maybe to understand your flash better...and keep practicing. I prefer to get it right in the camera. If all fails.. there is always.. P.Shop....:bsmilie:

Cheers!

 

[jjynwa]

Using Flash is very Tricky. Flash is more than just an illuminating tool.

I hope TS knows that when on flash... and presuming he sets his flash unit to ETTL (Canon I suppose) and that his camera is set to Manual Mode.. He has full control of the Camera. Flashes can over power the SUN and available light at times.

Presuming that it is already known that Shutter Controls Ambient Light and Aperture controls Subject Light. Small Aperture on ETTL will make your flash work harder.

As for WB... I think there is like... no set rule... but the end result must be pleasing to your eyes and that you need to take note of the colour of the ambient light. I hope TS has a sensitive eye for colors.

Taking that all flashes 'emulate' the suns colour/ temperature.... which is about 5500~5700~5900K

Varying situations I can Think of...

Strong warm Spotlight indoor.... I would set to WB to Tungsten. To Balance things up.

Turquoise wall and a Chinese Lady, Both look flat indoors, .. I would set the WB to Tungsten (preserve the cool of the turquoise wall) Put a Warm Orange/ Tungsten gel , use an offshoe flash cord and do a wide direct flash on my subject.

I set another Situation where I read of Joe Macnally.. when he was shooting with Film...
" To match the fluorescence lights (in the subway), I put on a green gel on the strobe, a 30 Magenta filter on the lens to clean up the fluorescence and give me a good skin tones... (Set at Daylight WB)..."

Really.. to get the desire skin tone, you will need to look at the colors that is bouncing off everywhere indoors and match it. Then you adjust accordingly... Of course... YOU MUST HAVE THE LUXURY OF TIME.. like a few seconds to adjust. Takes time to be perfect... but more importantly when you look at the LCD (another Luxury).. do you know why your colours turned out that way???

Take a Flash photography course maybe to understand your flash better...and keep practicing. I prefer to get it right in the camera. If all fails.. there is always.. P.Shop....:bsmilie:

Cheers!

wow... very detailed explaination... mmm... guess I just have to practise and practise =)!