indoor flash photography

johnb

johnb

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Hi all, i am having a mental moment & would appreciate advice. I have a D50 & will be taking some indoor people shots with a jessops flashgun attached. My plan is to use the existing light through windows + room lights + fill in flash bouncing the light off a white surface- probably a ceiling. What setting do i use for the white balance? My initial reaction would be to set it to tungsten as the lights in the room may be the strongest light source however i would appreciate your comments

John:thinking: :shrug:
 
Well if you set the WB for tungsten John, then it's going to be wrong for daylight and for flash which in both cases need a WB setting for daylight or sunlight.

My approach would be to try first without the tungsten lights, using just daylight and bounced flash, setting the WB to sunlight.

Mixing tungsten and flash can produce some strange results and isn't always a good idea, but if you have to do it, the result depends on the strength of the tungsten lights and how well the flash overcomes it. It is possible to get acceptable results but it very much depends on the particular circumstances.

Shoot RAW to give yourself maximum control over the final WB. :)
 
You could also do a custom WB setting off a 50% (?) grey card John ... I assume you will have this facility on the D50 but I am not sure ... :thinking:

Otherwise ... as CT has said you will be able to change the WB if you use RAW when you do the final processing ... ;)

Good luck ... looking forward to seeing the results ... :D






:p
 
It's an 18% grey card Rog. :)
 
Thanks for the advice- i have only just got Capture One to use with RAW so will use the opportunity to shoot in RAW. Not having looked at the program- how do you set the white balance in RAW. Is it normally using a slider, having preset keys or what?

Thanks in anticipation

JohnB
 
Well I use Raw Shooter Premium John and you can either use an eye dropper tool to pick a suitable point on the picture to set WB from, or there's a colour temp slider which will do the same job.

I haven't used Capture One but I'd imagine you'll have both or at least one of the same options.
 
You can in RSP. I dunno about Capture One - I'd think so but someone who uses it will tell you I'm sure. :)
 
Have just started playing with Capture One. I now realise that i will have to read the instructions!

Anyone else got any comments about my dilemma. The shoot is on Wednesday & the weather looks to be poor & overcast reducing the available light.

Still wondering how to deal with this

John
 
You could always try a tungsten balancing coloured gel over the flashgun.... then the only blue light will be through the window.

[Nikon's SB800 comes with a set of gels specifically for this purpose ;)] And, just for darksaber - they're free!
 
I know you were talking about using flash combined with natural light but there is a good article/tutorial in this months DP mag on portraits, using the natural light available along with reflectors.

It also takes you through a step by step process of setting up your camera for the shoot.

Hope it helps.
 
How did you get on with the shoot John?
 
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