looking for help : white balance / flash stuff

Hey guys,
I'm looking to gel my on camera flash / off camera flashes to match the temperature of the room at some of these reception halls. I really don't like that YELLOW look of most reception halls have, and it makes things difficult when editing. first off, yes i shoot in raw and 90% of the time I adjust in post. If i have time to setup the wb I will, but if i dont, well that's what raw is for .

I've seen yellow diffusers such as this one, would this counteract the yellow in the room, so I could make everything true white?

I usually try to kill the ambient lighting, particularly when it's the typical ugly tungsten lighting.

I've got an Einstein and AB800 in each corner of the room, usually pointed directly at the dance floor. I usually set my lights up so that I get a reading of 1/200 f2.8 ISO800 at the center of the dance floor. I will adjust those settings based on distance to the lights, lens/aperture used, etc.

So you are killing the ambient, what about the bokeh way behind them?

btmlinedan wrote in post #14168462
So you are killing the ambient, what about the bokeh way behind them?

That's taken care of via the strobes. I have a 580EXII on-camera with the Demb Flip-it to light up the subjects.

Like these I suppose...

You're trying to balance the light, which is fine. You can use velcro and gels (sheets of colored plastic) and attach them to your flash head.

Personally I find the quantity and quality of light in receptions to be pretty awful, so I replace the light in the room, like this.

Nick do you find the guests get annoyed with the strobes going off all the time?

Personally for me I keep the ambient light and use it. Its the reception venue they have chosen so why not show it? Just my 2 cents.

the flash goes off so fast they get used to it quickly. Usually the DJ has lights going and you cant even really tell after a while

Buy a sheet of 1/2 CTS material (about $6.00). You can use one layer (or more) depending upon how warm your background is. That way you will get more neutral backgrounds in relation to your subject.
If the Tungsten WB setting is not enough, you can try a custom color temp. setting for your WB.
As always, I shoot in RAW for maximum control after the fact to be able to really fine-tune things.

Gels would be better than the colored stofen. Less expensive, and some venues have fluorescent tubes so you will want green rather than CTO/CTS which are orangish...

siddr20 wrote in post #14174005
Nick do you find the guests get annoyed with the strobes going off all the time?

Personally for me I keep the ambient light and use it. Its the reception venue they have chosen so why not show it? Just my 2 cents.

Not at all. Guests are more annoyed at video lights!
Most of the reception venues I've been too have UGLY tungsten lighting. What bother showing that? Unless the venue has very interesting lighting or I want to take a shot or two with ambient, I light the place up and control the lighting.

You can gel your flashes and use some of the available light. Or, as others have mentioned, replace the bad light (ambient) with good light (speedlite & strobe).

Here is my gelled speedlite with diffuser:

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