Flashing off colored walls?

[breakdown]

The stairwell I want to do a shoot in has one side of the wall painted an orange-yellow. I'm assuming that bouncing the flash off a colored wall will cast a strange color on someones face. Can this be corrected in Photoshop or do I need a filter of somekind?

[davidfig]

I would not try to correct in photoshop. But you should consider a gel over the flash to compensate. Think.....whats the opposite of that wall color. Be sure to flash on the part that is out of the picture.

Or you could just do it and make the picture black and white.;)

[breakdown]

Will it look normal in black and white? I will definately do that if it works. I prefer black and white portraits anyways.

[forkball]

Use a white balance reference or do a custom white balance and you should be fine.

[René Damkot]

If you change the WB, you could get the foreground (person) correctly, but then the BG (availiable light) would be off. If you use a color gel over the flash, you can *prevent* a color cast.

[sjafari]

i would try using the custom white balance instead of trying to balance the color cast with filters (im lazy though)

[woffles]

If you change the WB, you could get the foreground (person) correctly, but then the BG (availiable light) would be off. If you use a color gel over the flash, you can *prevent* a color cast.


So I'm assuming here that you would be gelling for the background ambient light? Then do a custom WB to eliminate the color cast from the offcolor wall?

Just curious.

[René Damkot]

Yes. For instance I use a CTO (orange; approx brings down the flash to 3200K IIRC) gel when using flash with tungsten.

[forkball]

If you change the WB, you could get the foreground (person) correctly, but then the BG (availiable light) would be off. If you use a color gel over the flash, you can *prevent* a color cast.

This is a VERY good suggestion... This will allow you to better blend ambient light with the flash. Up the ISO, for better ambient exposure, and bounce the flash even for even more natural results.

[Rumrunner]

If you change the WB, you could get the foreground (person) correctly, but then the BG (availiable light) would be off. If you use a color gel over the flash, you can *prevent* a color cast.


But if he gels his flash for say ambient tungsten, and bounces it of a red wall, I would think you would still have two different color balances in the photo right? A reddish-yellow subject and a just a yellowish ambient light. Now what if he wanted to use tungsten gel and cyan colored gel on the flash together would that theoretically be possible?

[René Damkot]

But if he gels his flash for say ambient tungsten, and bounces it of a red wall, I would think you would still have two different color balances in the photo right? A reddish-yellow subject and a just a yellowish ambient light. Now what if he wanted to use tungsten gel and cyan colored gel on the flash together would that theoretically be possible?

Sure. Most difficult would be to get the color right, but when bouncing of a yellow wall, a blueish filter will help. If you really want to get it right (if at all possible), I'd think you'd need a color temperature meter...