Gels, Lighting, Specular Highlights, & Questions...

68lbs

68lbs

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April 2008
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Right, been having a bit of a play to hopefully try and learn how to use gels to create interesting backgrounds from nothing. The obvious one seems to be the bokeh specular highlights background.

Now I only have one flash at the minute (ahem, FiTP, give royal mail a kick, I want to order!), so the foreground subject (my tripod head) isn't lit, but I am wondering how I control the background. See sample pic below...

testing.jpg


The setup was basically a table in the living room with some glasses on it, fired the flash with a red gel at them to create the highlights. My questions...

1. Why do I have yellow highlights?
2. Why is it wishy washy pink in one bit and really nice deep red elsewhere?

I am guessing the second is down to my background. Which begs the question, what sort of background should I have. The wishy washy bit is (I think) a white radiator... so I don't want a white backdrop if it somes out like that!
 
Ok... answered question 2 myself now... the flash was too strong and bringing the power down a couple of stops made the red much deeper. :)
 
The yellow areas look like flare to me
 
68lbs said:
Like lens flare? Hmmm, don't think so.

Can you explain?
Click to expand...
Well, there's a large element of guesswork in that, based purely on the shape of the highlights and the possibility that your lens coating is yellow.
Another possibility is that the overexposure of these specular highlights has caused a colour shift, and that the yellow colour is coming from the lens coating. In other words, if that happens to be the right answer they would have been white if it wasn't for the lens coating.
Not knowing the f/stop you used, the colour of the lens coating, the type of lens, the angle of lens to subject or the colour of the subject makes for interesting guesswork but difficult analysis.
 
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