Explain the "$6 change the background/sky color technique that RG wrote about?

[destrianlives]

I may have missed something. I set an orange filter over the flash. Set white balance to the same level of orange. Sunny 16'd and still got orange people and orange bg. Any thing I missed?

[rolandogomez]

Make sure you custom white-balance, so if you use a 3/4 CTO on your flash, which converts 5500K light to 3200K (flash to tungsten) you can just use the 3200 (I like 3700 myself for warmer tones) to setting in your camera under "Kelvin" numbers. Sometimes "incadecent" setting works too--sometimes, as the 3200 setting is an accurate result.

This technique we did with film, except since there was no white-balance, we use an 80A blue filter. For the record, I have from Chimera their 3/4 CTO front cover for their Super Pro Plus medium box, it velcros in, works like a charm.

On other colors, since your camera can't dial in specific Kelvins like 12617K for a color, you must do a custom white balance according to your specific camera and manufacturer and use that while shooting. You have to do it each time you move or change the light source.

So, on a Canon 5D, if I place a cyan gel over my flash, the flash is now tainted cyan. So I tell the model to hold a white-card, white-towel, white-T-shirt or something similar, and I take my photo with the camera set at AWB (automatic white-balance, which does nothing as the AWB is not fast enoug to read the color of the flash, this just works this way with Canon). Then I go through the menu, to "custom white-balance" then I "select" the image, then I have to go to the top of the camera and select he "custom" setting, NOT the "K" setting. The "K" setting is for dialed-in Kelvin, such as 3200 in our first part of this post. The "custom" white-balance icon looks like a flower, fyi.

Once you've done that, then you shoot away. Every camera is different, my little Olympus E-500, for the money what a camera, you can dial in white-balance so easy, it's not funny. Every camera has a custom white-balance function, but how it's done varies, and if you don't do it right, like on the Canon, if you skip the last step, which many people do, and don't select the custom white-balance icon (flower) from the custom "K" setting, it will not work.

I will post my latest nude done this way in our last Virgin Islands workshop shortly to show you, it's not done in Photoshop, it's done in the camera. Now many will argue you can do it in RAW, but not totally true, it's not the same when you can do it either exactly or close to it at the shoot--always better. Try adjusting the white-balance in RAW in post-production when an image is shot with a cyan gel, very difficult.

Again, here are some examples, it works, because we're using white-balance like a "filter" to make a known white, white, thus no filter required on the front of the lens like we did in the old film days. In the old film days, you shot with cyan gel over the light source and a red gel or filter, of the exact opposite, over the lens, thus you lost light and everything looked red through the camera. With digital, you lose no light and nothing is red while shooting.

Now for those that want to learn this first-hand, with six nude models outdoors, check out this link: http://www.rolandogomez.com/event_detail.asp?id=112 and if you mention this post, I'll let you come out a day early to watch me do my book shooting with these techniques.

Thanks, rg sends!

(Image shot while teaching the class at the Julia Dean Photo School in Venice Beach using a green gel over flash and custom white-balance)


(Image shot while teaching at the last Virgin Islands workshop using a 3/4 CTO over flash and white-balance set at Kelvin 3200)


(Image shot while teaching the class at the June Virgin Islands workshop using a green gel over flash and custom white-balance)


(Image shot while teaching the class at the June Virgin Islands workshop using a cyan gel over flash and custom white-balance, five minutes after we shot the green gel above.)


(Image shot while teaching at the April 2007 Virgin Islands workshop using a 3/4 CTO over flash and white-balance set at Kelvin 3200)


(Image shot while teaching in Portland using a 3/4 CTO over flash and white-balance set at Kelvin 3200, indoors this works too when outdoor ambient light passes through)


(Image shot while teaching at the June Virgin Islands workshop using a 3/4 CTO over flash and white-balance set at Kelvin 3200)

[destrianlives]

Rolando thank you! I just figured out what you meant. Something you said in your text that made it make perfect sense. I have done this once before because my AWB on my Sony Alpha got was still on something else. I happened to have a gel filter on my flash still and the image was just the way yours are! Perfectly colored subject... ORANGE BG!

Now I get it. Your gelling your flash to counter balance (Polar opposite) the color shift that your white balance is creating. Since the light from the flash only travels a few good feet (even less with color altering gels) it (because its the opposite color) cancels out the color shift for what it hits!

Cool. Blue VS Red! Whichever is the whitebalance color is like the filter and whatever color is the flashs' color is the equalizer (but only for a few feet - enough to cover your subject and thats it!).

[RonC]

Hmmm,..Velly interresting!

[destrianlives]

Yeah... the object of the flash is to neutralize the color cast intentionally put on the subject! This is hot stuff!

[destrianlives]

coolest thing is that i didnt know that i was accidentally doing this at weddings but now I know how to control it.

[drichards]

After putting gel on flash head, is there a soft box then mounted to light

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

Originally Posted by drichards

After putting gel on flash head, is there a soft box then mounted to light

You could have a softbox, or just the head. You would still get the effect of the gel (though it might be muted a bit by the softbox baffle (if being used)).
Cheers,
rfs

[drichards]

Thanks for the reply. I am looking forward to trying this out.

[digidawg87]

Rolando Many thanks for posting this.