"Strobism" Attempt

GrittyShaker

GrittyShaker

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Scott
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My first proper go at off-camera flash, and I would love any help or advice for the future, if possible.

I manually exposed for the sunset, and my friend is lit with a single diffused flash, with a half CTO gel to correct the white balance. Not sure if I've made her a bit too orange, but I was trying to simulate a sunset temperature.

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Comments and crit welcomed with open arms. Cheers. :)
 
It's certainly not a bad effort - yes, I'd say the CTO was definitely not required, as she does look a tad spray-tanned. I also think you could have done with around another half a stop of flash exposure, but chimping the LCD means it's not always the easiest thing to get right. The flashlight looks a little harsh, but that's only due to not using a brolly or softbox.
 
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A good first attempt that's for sure. Perhaps a 1/4 or 1/2 CTO would have sufficed. Even if you'd got that right it might still have looked a bit odd because the sun is learly behind her so her face wouldn't have been bathed in that golden glow.
 
Thanks for the comments folks. All points taken on board. (y)

It was a 1/2 CTO that I used, so perhaps a 1/4 would have been better. Cheers. :)

Actually, I'm just looking at the original in Lightroom. I think my oversaturation of the shot is the cause of the spraytan effect. Whoops.
 
JasonRS said:
Had you set the WB to tungsten before shooting?
Click to expand...

I left it on auto, which came out at 4500k - "Sunlight at 30 degree altitude", apparently. Altering the WB from "as shot" to auto in LR makes as near as dammit no difference, but tungsten makes it all very blue indeed.
 
That's where the gel comes in ;)

You push it to tungsten to get really blue skies, then use the CTO to bring the subject back into the "correct" temp range. Just whacking a CTO on turns your subject orange.

If you're shooting with off camera flash, set the WB to either sunny or flash (they're pretty close), it'll help when gauging the shot on the LCD.
 
But tungsten turns the sunset blue. :thinking: What I was aiming for was getting the sky exactly as it is in the shot, and the subject lit as if they were bathed in the sunset light. A bit orangey, but not quite as orangey as what my saturation has done to it. :D I suppose a reflector would have done a similar job.

If I hadn't used the gel, then the sunset would have looked correct, but due to the flash more or less simulating daylight, the model would have had a cold blue tint, I would have thought. Is that not correct?
 
I can see what you were trying to achieve Scott, but I think you've just overdone it with the gel and probably a bit too much saturation too. All is not lost though you should be able to get just the effect you want with this in editing. I'm not sure exactly what you were after but this would be my take..

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You should be easily able to manipulate it to just how you want it though.
 
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Yeah, that's better. (y) I did have a little try myself earlier, and managed a similar result, by lassoing and desaturating a bit.

Blimey, the more I look at the original, the more orange it seems to get. :puke:
 
JasonRS said:
I get ya now!

Just a 1/4 CTO at most. Maybe even a straw coloured gel to warm up the light, instead of a CTO.
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(y) Splendid. I'll try a 1/4 next time, since that's something I already have.

I was trying to follow a tutorial in one of David Hobby's Strobist DVDs. It's a learning curve. I'll know for next time now. You can't really tell if you've got it right just by looking at the back of the camera. God bless Photoshop.
 
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