fill flash

joshhuntnm

this looks close to right to me--enough flash to see the subject, enough back ground that he doesnt' look like he is in a cave. What do you think?

bendruckerphoto

It's exposed correctly and flash was used well. Just do a little color correction to remove the reddish cast from the face. Also, there is the inevitable issue of a strong color cast in the background. The flash fires with essentially neutral light at about 5000K. A tungsten light illuminates the background at a totally different temperature. Your camera's white balance will choose the neutral flash to balance off of. The subject, which is lit by the flash, will be white-balanced correctly. The background, which is lit by the ambient light in the room, will not. Most of the time I don't correct the background color, but it's up to you.

pathfinder

The easiest way to avoid this color issue, is to use a CTO ( light orange ) gel over the flash, and set the camera white balance to Tungsten.

Then both the flashlit subject, and the tungsten colored ambient light in the background will match.

joshhuntnm

pathfinder wrote:

The easiest way to avoid this color issue, is to use a CTO ( light orange ) gel over the flash, and set the camera white balance to Tungsten.

Then both the flashlit subject, and the tungsten colored ambient light in the background will match.

but, don't you want the room red? I mean, it was lit with red gaming lights, not 5000k lighting. I would have thougtht the goal was to get Eli about right (a little wrong here, I know, but close) and let the rest do what it will. No?

bendruckerphoto

Like I said, I generally don't correct for reddish lights such as tungsten. I'd leave the background as it is. Fluorescent makes an ugly greenish/yellowish cast, which I tend to remove more often. Tungsten tends to give a warm feeling, which I generally like.

Scott_Quier

Josh, a thought occurs to me. If you were to use something like 1/4 or 1/2 CTO or CTS gel, you would warm up the flash a bit, but it would never get close to that of the ambient. The result is that you would be able retain the flavor of the ambient while, at the same time, being able to bring Eli and the room closer together in terms of light temperature.

joshhuntnm

Scott_Quier wrote:

Josh, a thought occurs to me. If you were to use something like 1/4 or 1/2 CTO or CTS gel, you would warm up the flash a bit, but it would never get close to that of the ambient. The result is that you would be able retain the flavor of the ambient while, at the same time, being able to bring Eli and the room closer together in terms of light temperature.

good idea. Mr. The Moment It Clicks seems to use gels constantly at variou proportions--half or two or whatever is needed for the moment.

pathfinder

joshhuntnm wrote:

but, don't you want the room red? I mean, it was lit with red gaming lights, not 5000k lighting. I would have thougtht the goal was to get Eli about right (a little wrong here, I know, but close) and let the rest do what it will. No?

Like Scott said, you will not lose all the color of the ambient lighting,but you will have a subject that is color balanced well also.