bouncing flash in dark multicolored-wall/ceiling restaurant

hey all, i'll be shooting a reception in a pretty dark small mexican restaurant where each wall is a different color, and some walls are multi-colored. now typically, i've got CTO gels, but i'm pretty sure i'll be bouncing all over the place, and with the walls each with their own colors (and the ceiling is yellow and green checkered in some areas), how would you guys approach this?

In situations like this, you punt.

A Lumiquest softbox or big bounce card to soften your flash a little bit.

What Curtis said. You need to go with direct light otherwise you'll end up with skin tone issues. Off camera light in this situation is your best bet.

Bounce a few for fun and convert those to B&W.

thanks for the tips, all

Not a problem at all - just bounce the normal way

All you have to do is just photograph in RAW and press one button (ok, two) in DPP to colour correct

This venue had red, blue and yellow walls, and ceiling was black

Yep. Raw then fix. No sense shooting ugly direct or nearly direct (ie pocket bounce scoop do-dads) flash images for the sake of white balance. You'll just want to refrain from showing people how awesome you are via the rear LCD.

smorter wrote in post #13649431
Not a problem at all - just bounce the normal way

All you have to do is just photograph in RAW and press one button (ok, two) in DPP to colour correct

This venue had red, blue and yellow walls, and ceiling was black

Cool. What did you do here? First button the eyedropper on something white or did you just adjust the colour temp? What was the second adjustment?

The reason I ask is in this presentation Neil Van Niekerk said to avoid blue and green walls. If you had to bounce off them covert to B&W and call it art.

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …/just-give-me-f-stop.html

First click to select the eye dropper, second click on something white hehe

Nah in all seriousness, sometimes yes it is necessary to adjust the colour temp or use the "tune" button.

cdifoto wrote in post #13649455
You'll just want to refrain from showing people how awesome you are via the rear LCD.

hahaha wise words!

Thanks.

smorter wrote in post #13649931
First click to select the eye dropper, second click on something white hehe

Nah in all seriousness, sometimes yes it is necessary to adjust the colour temp or use the "tune" button.


hahaha wise words!

Yup. Lightroom for me is simply wonderful for this, especially with batch process. Gotta love it. I do agree a ton with what Curtis said..A Lumiquest softbox works wonders for this type of lighting. We found these really cheap chincy looking slip on soft boxes for our 580's at a camera shop. They are from RPS anf they are universal mini soft boxes. I know a couple of American companies make them but these things were $9.00 each. Gonna get a couple more. They work really well and will take direct flash and give it a nice soft box look

Here is a link for them. They work pretty good. I use them when Bouncing wont get the best results


http://mpex.com …for-shoe-mount-flash.html

Best setup when the ceiling is dark is to have one flash on the camera and one triggered wirelessly off camera. Off camera flash can be almost anywhere in the room and not limited to left or right of the photographer. You don't need to use an umbrella or soft box either. Bounce flash off the ceiling will simply not work to light bothe the subject and the location. You end up with lit subjects with dark surroundings which do not look professional.

It all depends on the situation........

I usually use an on camera flash with a bounce card and an off camera flash in a corner to provide some direction and background separation in a situation like that.

davisphotos wrote in post #13707762
I usually use an on camera flash with a bounce card and an off camera flash in a corner to provide some direction and background separation in a situation like that.

With a white card , don't you have to much light in the face?