Color filters on flash

I was wondering if using color correction filters would be pointless if you bounced it against a ceiling or wall? Shot through an umbrella?

ilzephyrli wrote in post #11459628
I was wondering if using color correction filters would be pointless if you bounced it against a ceiling or wall? Shot through an umbrella?

The answer to your question depends on a lot of variables. What's the color of the ceiling and/or wall? How much flash power do you have relative to the ambient lighting, especially with a light-absorbing gel over the flash? Etc.

What's your intended purpose - making the color characteristics of the flash approximately match the ambient light or are you wanting to overpower the ambient light?

Thanks for the reply. I wanted to know if bouncing on a colored ceiling like beige for example would change the light of a filtered flash. I'm trying to even the ambient light with the flash. Thanks!

Of course it will. Anything that the flash hits or shoots through that has a color cast will change the temp of the flash.

Sometimes this can work for you, but be careful with brown walls and ceilings. They'll certainly throw a much yellower light on your subject.

-Charles

So the only way to make use of gels to use direct flash?

ilzephyrli wrote in post #11466829
So the only way to make use of gels to use direct flash?

Not quite. You can use a white umbrella, a white bounce card, or white walls and ceiling as modifiers without changing the color of the light.

Thanks! That's what I needed to know.