Greening a flash?

What does it mean to "green a flash"?

I've been searching for an hour but I haven't found the answer. I've seen this phrase used a few times but I haven't seen the explanation.

I'm new to the strobe/flash gig and I'm sure this is a novice question. A good explanation would certainly be appreciated!

I'm just guessing since I've never heard that expression before but maybe it has to do firing the flash to verify the exposure. When a flash is in auto-mode or auto-TTL mode, some flashes will acknowledge a good exposure by lighting up a green lamp on the flash.

When you see a green flash it means that someone has come from Davey Jones's Locker back to the land of the living....

Sorry mate, other than that, I have never heard of it.

Just another guess, almost as wild as Leo's...

It's common to put a green gel over the flash head to make it resemble fluorescent light.

Yeah, I'm gonna go with using a green gel to balance the light with fluorescents.

I would speculate that it is a phrase that pertains to waiting not until the Red flash fully ready light of the Canon flash goes on before firing, but to wait until the first Green flash ready is lit (not topped up).

I've seen this phrase a couple of times recently. Here it is in context. It is from the Strobist under On Assignment: Prep Basketball. It states;

"The flashes are going to be set on manual at about half power. If the lights are typical sodium vapors or florescent (it'll almost certainly be one of the two) set your camera on florescent and green your flashes. It'll get you pretty close in either case. And besides, the ambient is only acting as fill."


I think the guess of applying green gels to compensate for florescent light is probably the right answer.

jharms1 wrote in post #5023441
I've seen this phrase a couple of times recently. Here it is in context. It is from the Strobist under On Assignment: Prep Basketball. It states;

"The flashes are going to be set on manual at about half power. If the lights are typical sodium vapors or florescent (it'll almost certainly be one of the two) set your camera on florescent and green your flashes. It'll get you pretty close in either case. And besides, the ambient is only acting as fill."


I think the guess of applying green gels to compensate for florescent light is probably the right answer.

Looks like Curtis wins the prize.

PacAce wrote in post #5023466
Looks like Curtis wins the prize.

Yep! Thanks, Curtis, for the idea.

So does this concept seem sound? I'm trying to improve my indoor sports photos by going from available light to using a couple of 580 EX's as strobes. Pointed direct the shadows are too harsh. bouncing off the ceiling is better but I'm still not happy with the results.

Anytime you're mixing flash and ambient light, it's a good idea to try to match the ambient color temperature. Then you can use a custom white balance or set the white balance later with your RAW converter. Yes, the concept is sound.

Of course, it's easier said than done. There's so much variation between different kinds of lights. If you're shooting in a certain gym regularly, you might want to shoot a WhiBal card under the gym lights and then experiment with gels at home to try to approximate it.

Here's a shot taken with a Rosco #3304 Tough Plusgreen gel on my flash, under ugly green stadium lights. The goal is to make both the subject and the background look natural. It ain't perfect, but it's better than if I had not used a gel.

jharms, That second shot shows signs of magenta tint on the white tape of the net and the jersey numbers, for example. If you 'green' the flash the tape would be more neutral.

Thanks, all! I've got a lot to learn!!!