Exposing for candlelight or golden hour

[maturner525]

I've been reading about the effects of different lighting sources and looked at various photos showing the effects. I have a few questions that I havent found answers for yet:

• What do you do with white balance to get the effects seen for golden hour or candle light?
• Is it mostly post processing with RAW data?
• Is there some guideline for in camera color temperature settings to use to get certain effects for different lighting sources with minimal post processing?

I typically set my white balance to the proper settings for the light I'm working in and also have used the custom white balance when the pre-set selections dont seem to work.

Thanks
Mark

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by maturner525

• What do you do with white balance to get the effects seen for golden hour or candle light?
• Is it mostly post processing with RAW data?
• Is there some guideline for in camera color temperature settings to use to get certain effects for different lighting sources with minimal post processing?

Mark

* Lowering the color temp will increase the yellow reds adding warmth,
* you can do it in camera or in post...but the cool effect of balancing flash to one temp and the scene to another temp is pretty much done at the time of the exposure
* Probably not a guideline...but the "typical" color shifts one saw using film would be mismatches between 3200, 3400 & 5500 degrees kelvin.

Here is a color temp chart. Ignore the right margin arrows as this chart came from a different discussion...

[maturner525]

Thanks!

Now you have me thinking.. How do you balance the flash to one temp and the exposure to another? I'm not sure I've even seen an example of that.

Mark

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by maturner525

Thanks!

Now you have me thinking.. How do you balance the flash to one temp and the exposure to another? I'm not sure I've even seen an example of that.

Mark

By gelling the flash... For example, you gel the flash with a CTO filter and set the camera white balance to 3200 degrees kelvin (or the incandescent setting). Anything in an ambient daylight scene lit by the flash will appear with the correct white balance, the background and objects outside of the flash coverage will have a color shift towards blue. or you can do other variations where 2 of the 3 (camera WB, flash, ambient) are balanced and the 3rd is not...

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by maturner525

Thanks!

Now you have me thinking.. How do you balance the flash to one temp and the exposure to another? I'm not sure I've even seen an example of that.

Mark

Gels. Clear coloured plastic attachments you put on the flash to balance the light from the flash to ambient.

[maturner525]

Ahh... ok. I got it now.
Sounds like something im going to have to try out..

Thanks for the info!
Mark

[zona5101]

a decent explanation:
Digital Photography & Lighting Tips, Techniques and Tutorials from Ian Pack: Using CTO to Create a Blue Background

[maturner525]

excellent!

Thanks for the link.

Mark