Flash Color Balance

Why White Balance Matters in Flash Photography When shooting with flash, you have more control over your light than in ambient-only situations - but you still have to tell your camera what color that flash light actually is. If you: Bounce your flash off a wall or ceiling, the surface color will tint your light. Learn how to balance ambient light with flash in photography.

Fotober's expert tips help you achieve natural, professional lighting in any setting. The whole idea of using the filter on the flash is to change the color of the flash to match the room lights, and then to set the camera white balance to match the room lights. From my years of documentary and travel photography, I've found that three elements are key to successful flash photography in the field: proper balance with ambient light, proper color balance, and position of the artificial light source.

These techniques work across most scenarios. Adding a full CTO gel to the second flash brings back the color balance on Sanne. I created a variation at the same location by rotating the backlight 180 degrees to face the back of Sanne.

By setting the camera white balance to the same as the gelled flash (3800K, remember?) anything illuminated only by the flash (i.e. our side of the bird) should be natural colour, while anything that the spotlight illuminates should be a bit orangish (how orange depends on the mix of flash and spotlight hitting the area in question). By using a CTB gel, we can balance the flash color with the ambient color.

By adjusting the color temperature, we will eliminate all the unwanted blue colors on the subject, and also have a more. Step by step article on how to adjust your camera settings to balance and control both the natural light and flash exposure. As handy as the digital revolution has been for color balancing, it still can't make much of an impact when a flash is used in conjunction another temperature of light, like incandescent indoor lights.

We've all seen the photos with a slight blue.