Great! Don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions when you get going.
..and one last ( I promise) couple of questions. My flash attachment has a couple of snap-on plastic diffusers (one for close, one for tele). Does it matter if the filter stickies go under the diffuser or on top of it? Do the diffusers themselves have any affect on the color temperature, and therefore the filters? Thanks.
It seems to me that the most logical orientation for aiming the camera with the strap-filter affixed over the lens would be at the light reflected off the subject...the empty (no people) room of tables in this case... rather than at the light source (fluorescents up in the ceiling).
I didn't really understand the technical stuff relating to "off-axis" angles...which seemed to suggest that setting the WB by directly aiming the camera at the light source is the correct procedure. That just doesn't seem practical in the typical multi-source environment. Why would I want to point the camera at the ceiling to get the WB when my subjects are on or near the floor, and seen by the camera as reflected, rather than direct, light?
Papajay, I'll try to answer your questions here:
Where to place flash filters? It probably won't matter whether you use the Phoxle Flash Match Filters over or under wide-angle or telephoto attachments. The only time I could see it being an issue is with a really long telephoto flash attachment. In that case, it would be better to put the filter over the attachment to avoid the telephoto attachment acting like a projector, and making some of the label information show up as lighting variation in your pictures.
Where to point the camera & filter when making custom white balance reference images? This confuses a lot of people. The thing to remember is that we're trying to take a picture of the light that the camera will make neutral in the final image. If we point it at the subject, and the subject is wearing a blue dress, the camera is going to "see" blue reflected light, and crank up the red and green channels to compensate. Using that image for custom white balance would produce images with a yellowish cast. In the banquet example shown on my website, the dominant light source is from the ceiling lights. The Christmas lights are just decoration around the edge of the room. The way I got an overall neutral color balance was to point the camera and filter at the ceiling, so the camera would "know" the color of the ceiling lights and adjust accordingly. That's why the white table tops appear a nice neutral white. If I'd balanced for the Christmas tree lights, I think the overall picture would have been too blue. Ideally, you take make the reference exposure from the position of your subject, and you point the white balance filter at the light source.
What about multiple light sources? If there are multiple light sources, you have a choice. You can pick the one you care about balancing the most, and point at it, even blocking the other one with your hand if you like, OR, you can choose to average them by pointing between them. If you choose to average, the wide off-axis response of the Phoxle SpectraSnap will help you get a good white balance reference image even for sources that are more than 90 degrees apart. Outdoors in shade, the wide off-axis response becomes even more valuable. What is the light source when you're in shade? It's often a wide swath of blue sky, sometimes with clouds, and perhaps dappled sunlight coming through the trees. In this situation, being able to point in the general direction of the light, and capture a reference image, is extremely handy, and will bring back a natural warmth to these images that cameras often leave too blue.
I hope that helps. Just remember, when we take a white-balance reference image, we're trying to give the camera a picture of the light we want the camera to neutralize. I hope that helps.
Where to place flash filters? It probably won't matter whether you use the Phoxle Flash Match Filters over or under wide-angle or telephoto attachments. The only time I could see it being an issue is with a really long telephoto flash attachment. In that case, it would be better to put the filter over the attachment to avoid the telephoto attachment acting like a projector, and making some of the label information show up as lighting variation in your pictures.
Where to point the camera & filter when making custom white balance reference images? This confuses a lot of people. The thing to remember is that we're trying to take a picture of the light that the camera will make neutral in the final image. If we point it at the subject, and the subject is wearing a blue dress, the camera is going to "see" blue reflected light, and crank up the red and green channels to compensate. Using that image for custom white balance would produce images with a yellowish cast. In the banquet example shown on my website, the dominant light source is from the ceiling lights. The Christmas lights are just decoration around the edge of the room. The way I got an overall neutral color balance was to point the camera and filter at the ceiling, so the camera would "know" the color of the ceiling lights and adjust accordingly. That's why the white table tops appear a nice neutral white. If I'd balanced for the Christmas tree lights, I think the overall picture would have been too blue. Ideally, you take make the reference exposure from the position of your subject, and you point the white balance filter at the light source.
What about multiple light sources? If there are multiple light sources, you have a choice. You can pick the one you care about balancing the most, and point at it, even blocking the other one with your hand if you like, OR, you can choose to average them by pointing between them. If you choose to average, the wide off-axis response of the Phoxle SpectraSnap will help you get a good white balance reference image even for sources that are more than 90 degrees apart. Outdoors in shade, the wide off-axis response becomes even more valuable. What is the light source when you're in shade? It's often a wide swath of blue sky, sometimes with clouds, and perhaps dappled sunlight coming through the trees. In this situation, being able to point in the general direction of the light, and capture a reference image, is extremely handy, and will bring back a natural warmth to these images that cameras often leave too blue.
I hope that helps. Just remember, when we take a white-balance reference image, we're trying to give the camera a picture of the light we want the camera to neutralize. I hope that helps.
Cool -- I'll look forward to your feedback when you've had a chance to try the filters.
Thanks again for all of the background above. It's given me more to think about.
Well, I finally had a chance to do a quick comparison with the Flash Match filters and some Rosco CTS and CTO filters.
The photos below were shot with a Canon Rebel XTi at ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/200s with a 430EX on board at 1/16th power.
The first three are shown with the Canon Tungsten White balance preset, exported from Lightroom with no other modifications other than cropping and resizing.
Flash Match 3100K
Rosco CTS
Rosco CTO
The second three are the same shots as above. The only difference is that I set the white balance in Lightroom using the eye dropper tool on the WhiBal card.
Flash Match 3100K
Rosco CTS
Rosco CTO
I performed this test to confirm for myself that the Flash Match filters would have a red/magenta tint similar to CTO filters and different from the less magenta tint of CTS filters, which I've thought I preferred for my Canon speedlights, particularly with skin tones. This test definitely confirms that the Color Match 3100K filter performs very much the same as a CTO filter. It also confirms that, with a Canon Tungsten WB, I still think a CTO filter (and now also, the Flash Match filters) produces too much of a red/magenta tint. But, I'm at a bit of a loss now as to which I prefer after setting a proper white balance. I'll have to give this some more thought now.
Comments
..and one last ( I promise) couple of questions. My flash attachment has a couple of snap-on plastic diffusers (one for close, one for tele). Does it matter if the filter stickies go under the diffuser or on top of it? Do the diffusers themselves have any affect on the color temperature, and therefore the filters? Thanks.
Where to place flash filters? It probably won't matter whether you use the Phoxle Flash Match Filters over or under wide-angle or telephoto attachments. The only time I could see it being an issue is with a really long telephoto flash attachment. In that case, it would be better to put the filter over the attachment to avoid the telephoto attachment acting like a projector, and making some of the label information show up as lighting variation in your pictures.
Where to point the camera & filter when making custom white balance reference images? This confuses a lot of people. The thing to remember is that we're trying to take a picture of the light that the camera will make neutral in the final image. If we point it at the subject, and the subject is wearing a blue dress, the camera is going to "see" blue reflected light, and crank up the red and green channels to compensate. Using that image for custom white balance would produce images with a yellowish cast. In the banquet example shown on my website, the dominant light source is from the ceiling lights. The Christmas lights are just decoration around the edge of the room. The way I got an overall neutral color balance was to point the camera and filter at the ceiling, so the camera would "know" the color of the ceiling lights and adjust accordingly. That's why the white table tops appear a nice neutral white. If I'd balanced for the Christmas tree lights, I think the overall picture would have been too blue. Ideally, you take make the reference exposure from the position of your subject, and you point the white balance filter at the light source.
What about multiple light sources? If there are multiple light sources, you have a choice. You can pick the one you care about balancing the most, and point at it, even blocking the other one with your hand if you like, OR, you can choose to average them by pointing between them. If you choose to average, the wide off-axis response of the Phoxle SpectraSnap will help you get a good white balance reference image even for sources that are more than 90 degrees apart. Outdoors in shade, the wide off-axis response becomes even more valuable. What is the light source when you're in shade? It's often a wide swath of blue sky, sometimes with clouds, and perhaps dappled sunlight coming through the trees. In this situation, being able to point in the general direction of the light, and capture a reference image, is extremely handy, and will bring back a natural warmth to these images that cameras often leave too blue.
I hope that helps. Just remember, when we take a white-balance reference image, we're trying to give the camera a picture of the light we want the camera to neutralize. I hope that helps.
Chris
The photos below were shot with a Canon Rebel XTi at ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/200s with a 430EX on board at 1/16th power.
The first three are shown with the Canon Tungsten White balance preset, exported from Lightroom with no other modifications other than cropping and resizing.
Flash Match 3100K
Rosco CTS
Rosco CTO
The second three are the same shots as above. The only difference is that I set the white balance in Lightroom using the eye dropper tool on the WhiBal card.
Flash Match 3100K
Rosco CTS
Rosco CTO
I performed this test to confirm for myself that the Flash Match filters would have a red/magenta tint similar to CTO filters and different from the less magenta tint of CTS filters, which I've thought I preferred for my Canon speedlights, particularly with skin tones. This test definitely confirms that the Color Match 3100K filter performs very much the same as a CTO filter. It also confirms that, with a Canon Tungsten WB, I still think a CTO filter (and now also, the Flash Match filters) produces too much of a red/magenta tint. But, I'm at a bit of a loss now as to which I prefer after setting a proper white balance. I'll have to give this some more thought now.
www.ackersphotography.com
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=90882
Jeff
-Need help with Dgrin?; Wedding Photography Resources
-My Website - Blog - Tips for Senior Portraiture
Do you have a link to get in touch with Chris?
Jeff
-Need help with Dgrin?; Wedding Photography Resources
-My Website - Blog - Tips for Senior Portraiture
Thanks to you and Baldy for the nice comments!