Cassi, from today's shoot

Jan 29, 2011
10,675
6,121
One problem is the lighting changing every second as the sun sets. I get so flustered making adjustments I forget to pose the model properly.
The only thing you need to worry about as the light changes color is keep putting more CTO gel on the flash and shoot at a constant ºK. Just so long as the light sources are pretty close (the very last rays of a setting sun will be too orange to gel so just leave it at 2 - 2 1/2 stops of CTO) and you are shooting RAW you can sort out the best WB in post with a single click.

Best advice is to get a couple of sheets of 1/2 and or 1/4 CTO gel and keep adding more layers to keep track with the changing sunlight


Of course this is assuming you want a consistent and relatively uniform WB across the image, you can of course use different colored light to exaggerate different elements within the scene, personally I find flash way to blue in setting sun images.

So here is the same shot three times, I was actually testing gels and have a flash with gel as the main light and the setting sun as a rim light.
1: As shot with gelled flash and fixed ºK WB
2: Corrected via custom camera profile and regular WB etc
3: 'Graded' to the output look I was after

10.jpg

11.jpg

12.jpg

Edit: I found a better example of what I was trying to illustrate so changed the three images.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0

Ozarker

Love, joy, and peace to all of good will.
CR Pro
Jan 28, 2015
5,933
4,336
The Ozarks
The only thing you need to worry about as the light changes color is keep putting more CTO gel on the flash and shoot at a constant ºK. Just so long as the light sources are pretty close (the very last rays of a setting sun will be too orange to gel so just leave it at 2 - 2 1/2 stops of CTO) and you are shooting RAW you can sort out the best WB in post with a single click.

Best advice is to get a couple of sheets of 1/2 and or 1/4 CTO gel and keep adding more layers to keep track with the changing sunlight


Of course this is assuming you want a consistent and relatively uniform WB across the image, you can of course use different colored light to exaggerate different elements within the scene, personally I find flash way to blue in setting sun images.

So here is the same shot three times.
1: As shot with gelled flash and fixed ºK WB
2: Corrected via custom camera profile and regular WB etc
3: 'Graded' to the output look I was after

View attachment 186515


View attachment 186516

View attachment 186517
Thanks again PBD. :)
 
Upvote 0

Ozarker

Love, joy, and peace to all of good will.
CR Pro
Jan 28, 2015
5,933
4,336
The Ozarks
You mean at f1.2 with the lens pointed at the sun you need an ND filter? lol
I've had to order a 3 stop. The 6 stop had me getting the shutter speed too slow as the sun went down close to the horizon. My friend was shooting with me and he kept laughing at me using an ND filter. He's far more experienced than I, but kept telling me to take it off and stop down instead. I kept it on and like the effect.
 
Upvote 0

Ozarker

Love, joy, and peace to all of good will.
CR Pro
Jan 28, 2015
5,933
4,336
The Ozarks
The only thing you need to worry about as the light changes color is keep putting more CTO gel on the flash and shoot at a constant ºK. Just so long as the light sources are pretty close (the very last rays of a setting sun will be too orange to gel so just leave it at 2 - 2 1/2 stops of CTO) and you are shooting RAW you can sort out the best WB in post with a single click.

Best advice is to get a couple of sheets of 1/2 and or 1/4 CTO gel and keep adding more layers to keep track with the changing sunlight


Of course this is assuming you want a consistent and relatively uniform WB across the image, you can of course use different colored light to exaggerate different elements within the scene, personally I find flash way to blue in setting sun images.

So here is the same shot three times, I was actually testing gels and have a flash with gel as the main light and the setting sun as a rim light.
1: As shot with gelled flash and fixed ºK WB
2: Corrected via custom camera profile and regular WB etc
3: 'Graded' to the output look I was after

View attachment 186520

View attachment 186521

View attachment 186522

Edit: I found a better example of what I was trying to illustrate so changed the three images.
Nice! I have a question for you. When shooting in natural light have you ever gelled your lens and then adjusted kelvin? I do have a bunch of Rosco color correction gels, some for speedlights, strobes, and the big sheets so I can cut them. Just wondering whether you have tried gelling a lens. I have not, but might try to see what happens. Probably a hair brained idea, I guess.
 
Upvote 0

SecureGSM

2 x 5D IV
Feb 26, 2017
2,360
1,231
Nice! I have a question for you. When shooting in natural light have you ever gelled your lens and then adjusted kelvin? I do have a bunch of Rosco color correction gels, some for speedlights, strobes, and the big sheets so I can cut them. Just wondering whether you have tried gelling a lens. I have not, but might try to see what happens. Probably a hair brained idea, I guess.
you lose sharpness, contrast, introduce artifacts.. you can simply adjust your white point in camera settings instead. this will provide a great deal of flexibility.
there are glass colour filters and special effect filters that we used back in film days.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
Jan 29, 2011
10,675
6,121
Nice! I have a question for you. When shooting in natural light have you ever gelled your lens and then adjusted kelvin? I do have a bunch of Rosco color correction gels, some for speedlights, strobes, and the big sheets so I can cut them. Just wondering whether you have tried gelling a lens. I have not, but might try to see what happens. Probably a hair brained idea, I guess.
No never. Although there are optical quality color correction filters available as SecureGSM points out gels, the ones I and most people use, are not optical quality, but more importantly that doesn't actually help with your issue. The point of gelling is to change the color of the light sources independently so that they match each other closer. In our scenario the sun already had a gel on it and the flash didn't, if you gelled the lens you'd still have a much bluer temperature light from your flash.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0

Ozarker

Love, joy, and peace to all of good will.
CR Pro
Jan 28, 2015
5,933
4,336
The Ozarks
I actually like the lighting on these. It's warm and flattering and it doesn't bother me a bit that they vary a little. Not everything has to have the light perfectly balanced -- boring in my view.
I was very fortunate to shoot her. She turned 18 just a week before and that always makes it easy in post. A pimple here and there to heal, other than that, perfect skin. I'll be doing a formal wear shoot with her next Sunday.
 
Upvote 0