Last Tuesday, we had another afternoon of pure football fun. Even though i haven't played, it would still be counted as one of those awesome afternoons that is best shared with grass, mud, sweat and a new set of Mizuno balls that were just bought recently..
While all of the other players are having a great time playing in the field, I decided to have a test run my new set of Flash Correction Gels bought here by a good friend of mine, Yale who is in the other end of the globe (thank you so much! I owe you big time!). Saddam (our college's newest striker which is a the stopper last year) along with our other friends were hanging out on the steps of the grandstand made a good team in helping me out to produce a good photo using Correction Gels..
I metered first the exposure of the ambient light which read 1/200, f/5.6 on ISO 400. Then, to get a good exposure for the sky, I dialed down the scene by a stop which yielded on an exposure of 1/200, f/8 on ISO 400 (we will all be working on ISO 400 on this shoot :) ). Now with a working aperture (f/8) for flash, we are set to dial down the flash to the right flash output.
2 strobes were used in this set-up, an SB-25 (which is used as the key/main light) dialed down to 1/4th power, with an 85mm throw (to restrict the throw of the light a bit to lit only the head down to the torso of the model) and GELLED with a FULL CUT OF CTO. The second light was an SB-26 with a 1/4th power and GELLED with a HALF CUT of CTO. (Note: in using Flash Gels, the exposure or power of the flash will dial down a bit. So, adjust your distance or output of the flash a bit)
And because I gelled the flashes to correct for Incandescent, I used the Incandescent White Balance to compensate with the gelled strobes. To hold the strobes in the right distance, I used 2 V.A.L.S (Voice Activated Light Stands - Josh and Rob.. Thanks for the help!).
Here is the shot of Saddam with this set-up.
Noticed that everything in the photo had a blue cast except for the flashed area? It is because that we used an Incandescent White Balance and our strobes were GELLED to compensate with the Incandescent White Balance which yielded in a correct or near correct color of daylight in all the flashed areas.I am not pretty much contented with it's result because some of the color was sacrificed on this shot. For example, the grass was meant to be green and "I think" must be colored green in this shot in order to portray that it is grass and not that of a swamp in a murky place somewhere.
On doing stuff like these, it is not mandatory to always go for the 'true' or correct color of the subject, but rather interpret the concept or output that you have in mind in a photo. In my case, I really want to make the grass green.
Some of you would say, "then why the hell did you exposed or tuned your white balance to Incandescent? It would definitely yield a blue cast on the photo if it is not lit with Incandescent lights!". I have an answer for that people. Because, on what I have mentioned above, I underexposed the ambient a bit to get a good exposure of the sky that was a bit gloomy (greyish and looks 'sad') and I want to introduce some color on it so I used a White Balance that would add some color on the grey sky on that afternoon. And that is the reason why used an Incandescent White Balance to get that "bluish cast" on the sky.
The next question of you people would then ask, "Ok, you have colored the sky blue but the grass still have the bluish cast. What would you do with it? Photoshop?". Naaaahhhhhhhhhhhh...
I am really trying not depend on Photoshop these days to correct my photos but rather use Photoshop only to adjust some Levels, Exposure, Watermark my photos, and resize them to the right size I want.
"Then what would you do with it without Photoshop?" some of you would ask again. Well, Nikon (a loyal Nikonian ever since I started photography) have an Editing menu on their newest models which is the Color Balance Filter. With this, I can add introduce Balance on colors on my Photos. With this nasty feature of Nikon, I added a green balance on my photo "in-camera" (without Photoshop) which ended up on this photo.
Better? I think so. The Color Balance Feature also added warmth to the skintone of Saddam which is great.
Using different systems other than Nikon? I think Canon also have this feature in their DSLRs. But you have to tune it first before shooting. Correct me if I am wrong 'Jedis'. Hahahaha.
I will try to post other blogs about Using Flash Correction Gels.
But at the moment, I'm about to go to school, and try to shoot other portraits of my friends. I am planning on trying out the use of gold reflectors as bounce to enhance skintone or add a good 'golden' touch on it.
I still have to pack my stuff (which is always painstaking because I don't have a good Photo Bag and I pack them in my rucksack which is also good in luring people with bad intentions on my precious gear).
Off to school boys and girls. Bye for now
(PS: Violent reactions or queries? give me a PM or post something below. Thanks!)
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