Using Gels and Snoots

[dancook]

Lately I've started to experiment more with gels, the flashes I have came with two scf-e10r1 and scf-e10r2

I used the lighter one at an event, and was happy with the warmer cast it produced - but I hadn't given much thought to balancing it with ambient lighting.

I had been afraid to use the scf-e10r2 because of the strong orange cast; but tonight, against the energy saving bulb in the lounge I found that it balanced well (imo). A white balanced test shot, with flash bounced off a wall to the right.


With Snoot White Balanced by dancook1982, on Flickr

So now that I have barely introduced myself to gels..

I've see mention of CTS, CTO, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and full - can anyone confirm the two I have?
Are these gels I have sufficient for the various environments throughout a wedding?

(forgot to edit title, my question about snoots will be answered when I get my bit of black foam in the post to test...)

 

[HoppyUK]

Never heard of them, so had to google that. Those filters are the orangey ones that come with a Canon 600EX-RT. I'd guess similar to CTO and Half-CTO - that could be wrong, but it doesn't really matter because getting an exact match with artificial light these days is a nightmare. The good news is though, you don't really need to.

Tungsten/incandescent light bulbs are relatively easy. They vary a bit, but a CTO (Colour To Orange) or half-CTO (lighter shade) will be very close, or possibly a CTS (Colour To Straw). But low-energy fluorescents come in all kind of colours, usually on the warm side of neutral, and LEDs are different again, sometimes a bit blue. Fluorescents can also miss out bits of the colour spectrum and getting good skin tones is pot luck.

With events work, trying to balance two or more different hues of ambient light is impossible, so don't bother too much. Luckily it's only in the background, so balance that up as best you can by gelling the flash (trial and error) and err on the side of a warmer background - that looks better than too blue. Then adjust accurate colour balance for your main flash light.

Watch your shutter speed. If it runs too high, fluorsecents can cause colour banding and exposure changes down the frame as they flicker. Should be okay with 1/100sec or longer.

 

[Phil V]

It's too much like hard work balancing artificial light, particularly as Richard says, we have so many potential sources now that tungsten is being replaced.

The bigger issue is the high ISO's required, if you're getting your flash out, it's easier to overpower and to leave a little of the ambient just adding 'atmosphere' in the background. Rather than using your flash as fill as you would with sunlight.

 

[dancook]

Thanks, I probably should get to the locations and try some stuff out to ease my mind then. It's about 100 miles, so need to plan it.